In almost every book, blog, article, newspaper there are a few titles that indicate that inside you will find the 3, 5, 10 things you have to do in order to achieve anything from losing weight, becoming rich, being successful, being happy. Quite simply, the secret to everything in this world has been found and written about.

The only problem is that things are never that easy or if there is a secret it’s just so obvious that it’s not really a secret. Think of all the secrets about how to lose weight that are out there, all the diets, supplements and anything else you can think of. Let’s get one thing straight. In order to lose weight there is only one secret, burn more calories than you get from your food and drinks. That just means you have to stop eating as much or stop eating at all. It’s that easy.

When it comes to this kind of things the only “secret” out there is motivation. If you really want to lose weight you can just stop eating for a few days. Just test it. Measure your weight. Stop eating for 3 days. Measure your weight again. Secret revealed.

On the other hand there are a few other things that are not that obvious and here you can see most of these titles coming to save the day. I especially love the one revealing the secrets to success. They almost always have a combination of elements from working hard, to being creative, to learning from mistakes, to asking for help. What they never tell you is what the proportions for all of these are .

If it’s about hard work, I think there are a lot more people working harder and longer hours than most successful people did, people more creative, who invented and innovated a lot more, people who made far more mistakes and even some who asked for help all the time. Something must be wrong with the secret then.

The truth is that it’s never that simple. For things that do have a clear solution, like losing weight, it’s all about motivation. On the other hand, the things that don’t have a clear set of facts that produce the desired result, like success, are a combination of motivation, hard work and luck.

Even if no one ever says it, luck plays a big role in life. It actually beats any other 10 things I could have said.