If you're disciplined it's actually becoming easier to be highly successful:
Bottom Line: One of my greatest frustrations in life has been obvious truths with which many are oblivious (sometimes due to ignorance, sometimes due to being indignant). I'll use God as an example. It upsets me that nearly 10% of Americans are atheists. At a minimum something can't come out of nothing. Science can't explain life. By definition there has to be something bigger than all of us that's beyond our ability to comprehend. Anyway, with that as a backdrop there's this information from one of the top business consultants in the world - Dan Waldschmidt: http://danwaldschmidt.com/
He recently wrote a piece on "The 8 things you have to give up to be successful". It's a brilliant piece that lays out the eight obstacles towards success - they're all within our control. They're:
Immaturity, Blaming others, Burying your head in the sand (not accepting responsibility for your mistakes), Following the crowd, Expecting life to be fair, Whining, Being a know-it-all (not listening/learning to/from others), Not taking responsibility for your actions
None of us are perfect - therefore it's likely we're guilty of some of these on occasion. If we're able to be honest with ourselves and attempt to end the non-constructive behavior - we're likely to stand out as a greater success. Many of these may seem obvious but do we necessarily adhere to them all? If not there's room for personal professional improvement (that will probably make us better people in general).