Financial literacy and success are tightly interrelated—not because success is equated with having a big pile of money (which for some people it is)—but because financial literacy is an enabler for living the life you want to lead. A life in which you can live your purpose and pursue a vision for your future that aligns with a one-size-fits-you definition of success.

To recap, you’ve determined that you want to be successful, you’ve done the work on yourself to create an authentic definition of success that aligns with your personal purpose and values, you’ve identified your personal blockers to success and have developed the courage to challenge your internal itty-bitty-$hitty-committee and the expectations of society and your network. So what’s the next ingredient to achieving success?

Grit, Determination, Persistence, Perseverance, Drive, and Resilience

I believe strongly that being grounded in one’s personal purpose leads to a higher probability that intermediate-term vision statements and definitions of success will be more aligned and authentic to who you are at your core—minimizing the likelihood that you’ll adopt other people’s definitions of success. What’s better? Authenticity or superficiality?

So what’s step one on the road to writing your own, authentic success story? Step one is to work on you. To understand your own needs and desires. To build a one-size-fits-you roadmap for your future. To create a customized vision statement that’s based on the definition of your desired future state.

We know that humans are resistant to change. We’re hard wired that way. We also know that change is all around us. If we keep doing the same thing through time, it’s only logical that someone else has figured out a better way to do whatever thing it is we’re doing, and our calcified, habitual way of working is now out of date. What was efficient is now inefficient. This is entropy—with enough time, everything falls apart. What was once good for us is now bad because there is a new best-practice that has overtaken ‘the way things have always been done.’

So yes, habits can be powerful and beneficial. They can also become an anchor to progress and detrimental to career growth. Habits can become the fast pass to a fixed mindset.

If I’m living my personal purpose in both life and work and striving toward my long-term personal vision, then the likelihood that I feel unworthy of my successes is reduced because my success is more genuine to me and, no pun intended, purposeful. So if natural feelings of unworthiness and self-doubt creep in, I can remind myself that my success didn’t come out of nowhere, but was instead the result of planning, skill, and hard work.

To add value and deliver results, one must be appropriately educated and skilled in one’s chosen field. Continuing to add value throughout one’s career requires the adoption of a lifelong learning and continuous improvement mindset. Resting on one’s laurels and previous accomplishments is never a good idea. While it’s easy to grouse and complain that we live in a “what have you done for me lately world,” the better path is to adopt the mindset that success comes from continuous learning and improvement in outcomes and results. If failure occurs, learn and move forward.

You see, developing a robust professional network takes time, energy, and skill. Contrary to the common perceptions noted above, everyone can build an impactful professional network. Doing so requires a host of human skills (a.k.a., soft skills) such as communication, influence, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, active listening, persistence, drive, courage, intention, and many others.

Your personal self evaluation should take precedence over the self evaluation that is required as part of your annual performance review at work. In doing so, you’re making it clear to yourself that your personal performance and well-being takes priority to what is happening at work. All too often, work takes precedence, we get stuck on the hamster wheel, and we’re left personally unfulfilled.

The second is that sixty is a time in one’s life when you can look back and see with relative clarity things that you’ve done and will never do again. Some things you don’t want to do again and others you can’t because entropy has begun to take the upper hand. At exactly the same time, sixty is a time when you can look forward to a canvas of opportunity to make a difference and experience life with vigor and purpose. There’s a certain sense of urgency to live life to the fullest since the end is assuredly closer than the beginning.

Put plainly, there’s no better time than the present to invest time developing and/or refining your personal plan. You’re already sifting through financial records and creating a semblance of order from the chaos of a year’s worth of economic activity—why not take the opportunity to build your plan when your financial position is top of mind?

When purpose and vision are not clear, the status quo becomes a warm, comfortable blanket to snuggle up in. It takes discipline to get to where you want to go. When you take a look around at the “successful” people in your life, I’d put all the money in my pocket on the bet that they all share the skill of discipline.