IF you had been raised to believe in karma, or the compassionate Buddha, or Jesus -- or any other religious system or figure, THEN your belief might be a helpful organizing principle which would lead to "success" -- whatever you mean by that. Belief in karma, the kingdom of God, or any number of religious / magical (superstitious) beliefs isn't something that one can simply take on board as a strategy for success.

There are two reasons for this:

1. What leads to "success" is thinking organized around the goal of achieving "success" (whatever that is for you). The kind of thinking that leads to success establishes clear goals, sets priorities, lays out strategies, tests the results, revises, and moves on to an improved plan.

2. Belief in karma, the compassionate Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed (or any number of religious ideas) isn't like shopping for a new and better pair of running shoes, or a new suit, or some other object. Belief requires a conversion experience, and conversion experiences can't be forced, demanded, scheduled, or planned on.

Karma is part of a larger belief system -- it isn't like yoga or meditation that can be adopted by all sorts of people as a practice to stay limber or calm their minds. It's a piece of one of the world's major religions. It's not really a "removable component" -- at least I don't think it is.

Are you saying that realism free of superstitions is a superior formula component for personal success, and that adopting a superstitous belife would be a downgrade? Or are you saying that it has to do with me? That i may be a natural realist, and that a natural realist cannot hold sufficient stable faith in a superstition. — XanderTheGrey

I don't know enough about you. I have only what you have said here to go on. If you are "a natural realist", then realism is the way to go. Like I said, "adopting a superstition" or "a belief in karma" or a belief in something else, is not a workable strategy.

My opinion, for what it's worth (probably not a lot) is that adopting a superstition is a definite downgrade. It's a downgrade from first class to the baggage compartment of the airplane.

This is my secound objective in asking the original qestion im sure you can see; "to look for patterns that seem to lead to success." — XanderTheGrey

There are people who have conducted research into the nature of success, what makes some people more successful than other people, and so on. People like Stephen R. Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, have delved into this. (DO NOT rush out and buy the book, please). Research has been done into how belief systems figure into successful behavior. Sure, there's a connection -- but it isn't an obvious straight forward connection.

People who have well organized belief systems seem to be happier, have better social relationships, and live longer than people who do not have well organized belief systems. But be careful: it may not be the content of the beliefs that make people happier. We don't really know, for sure.

If you are a young person (like, high school? In your twenties? You didn't say.) and anxious to get on with life, this all seems very urgent. I recommend a slow and steady approach. As you get older (not like in 50 years, more like 5 years) this will become clearer. It takes time.

Seven Habits of Highly Successful People — Bitter Crank

I bought it quite awhile ago, useless book!

I thought that might be the case. I only know it by its title. You can judge a book by its cover if that's all you know about it. It's a great title, assuming that there were 7 particular habits of highly successful people.

The bigger problem, of course, is that any "method" for success that is widely known will no longer be a method for success, as everyone will be doing it. No doubt that being:

1) Be Proactive
2) Have a Goal
3) Keep First Things First Things (Prioritise)
4) Think win-win
5) Understand others first, then seek to be understood (empathy)
6) Synergy & Teamwork
7) Continuous self-improvement/growth

Will all help, but "key" to success? Doubt it. Though the last one I think is extremely important for long-term success compared to the other ones he has listed.

Another thing that he misses that is extremely important is not following the herd. You cannot follow the herd and do what most people do and expect outlandish success. That's just foolish.

Tinkerbell Effect....if you believe hard enough it will effect what happens, all the research suggest it works, because you believe it will work. The truly virtuous man will never suffer evil.