Success Steps For Your Personal Or Business Life
Fact: Success is something of which we all want more.
Fact: Most people believe that success is difficult.
Fact: They're wrong - it's not!
Success isn't really that difficult. There is a significant
portion of the population here in North America, that actually
want and need success to be hard! Why? So they then have a
built-in excuse when things don't go their way! Pretty sad
situation, to say the least.
For those of you who are serious about having more, doing more,
giving more and being more, success is achievable with some
understanding of what to do, some discipline around planning and
execution of those plans and belief that you can achieve your
desires.
The Truth About Success
The first thing to remember about success is that it is a
process - nothing more, nothing less. There is really no magic
to it and it's not reserved only for a select few people. As
such, success really has nothing to do with luck, coincidence or
fate. It really comes down to understanding the steps in the
process and then executing on those steps.
There are basically six key areas to higher achievement. Some
people will tell you there are four while others may tell you
there are eight. One thing for certain though, is that
irrespective of the number of steps the experts talk about, they
all originate from the same roots.
>From my perspective then, here are the six key steps:
1. Making the decision
2. Clarity - developing the Vision
3. Focus - having a plan
4. Commitment - understanding the price and having the
willingness to pay that price
5. Belief - believing in yourself and those around you
6. Taking action - practice Ready, Fire, Aim...
Making the Decision
If success is a process with a number of defined steps, then it
is just like any other process. So, what is the first step in
any process?
Making a decision to do something - this is the first step. We
all know that nothing moves until someone makes a decision. The
first action is always in making the decision to proceed. This
is a fundamental step, which most people overlook.
So, make the decision to move forward. Commit your decision to
paper, just to bring it into focus. Then, go for it!
Clarity
Having clarity of purpose and a clear picture of what you
desire, is probably the single most important factor in
achievement. Why is Clarity so important?
Without clarity, you send a very garbled message out to the
Universe. We know that the Law of Attraction says that we will
attract what we focus on, so if we don't have clarity, we will
attract confusion.
Consider the following analogy:
You are going on a cruise, but when the ship sets sail, you
discover it has no rudder. What happens? One of 3 things will
occur:
1. You will sail along until you collide with an immovable
object, after which you will sink to the bottom
2. You will run aground and become hopelessly stuck in the mud
3. You will drift aimlessly until you arrive back at the
original dock
Trying to go through life without clarity is similar to sailing
a rudder-less ship - no good thing can or will happen!
The sad thing is the majority of people have no clue about what
they truly want. They have no clarity. When asked the question,
responses will be superficial at best, and at worst, will be
what someone else wants for them.
So how do we get clarity? Simply by asking ourselves lots of
questions: What do I really want? What does success look like to
me? Why do I want a particular thing? How will this achievement
change my life? How can I use this success to make a difference
for others?
Introspection is the trick. Understand what you want, why you
want it and what it will do for you. This is a critical factor,
and as such, is probably the most difficult step. For this
reason, most people never complete this aspect - then wonder why
life is so difficult!
Once you have a clear understanding of what you want, it is
critical that you engage in goal setting - specifically setting
SMART goals.
SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable,
Realistic and Time Sensitive - S-M-A-R-T. Knowing what you want
and setting SMART goals as mileposts on your quest cannot help
but give you clarity!
Focus
Focus is having the unwavering attention to complete what you
set out to do. There are a million distractions in every facet
of our lives. Telephones and e-mail, clients and managers,
spouses and kids, TV, newspapers and radio - the distractions
are everywhere and endless. Everyone wants a piece of us and the
result can be totally overwhelming.
So, how can we stay on course with all the distractions in our
lives? Willpower is a good start, but it's very difficult to
stay on track simply through willpower.
The best way is to develop and follow a plan. Start with your
goals in mind and then work backwards to develop the plan. What
steps are required to get you to the goals? Make the plan as
detailed as possible. Try to visualize and then plan for, every
possible setback. Commit the plan to paper and then keep it with
you at all times. Review it regularly and ensure that every step
takes you closer to your Vision and Goals. If the plan doesn't
support the vision then change it!
Along with your plans, you should consider developing an action
orientation that will keep you motivated to move forward at all
times. This requires a little self-discipline, but is a crucial
component to achievement of any kind. Before starting any new
activity, ask yourself if that activity will move you closer to
your goals. If the answer is no, you may want to reconsider
doing it at that time.
I coach my clients to practice the 3 D's - Defer, Delegate or
Delete. Can the particular activity be done later? Defer it! Can
it be done by someone else? Delegate it! Does it need to be done
at all? If not, consider deleting it! Posing these questions
will help to keep you focused on what is truly important!
Commitment
Commitment is something that comes from understanding that
everything has its price and then having the willingness to pay
that price. This is important because nobody wants to put
significant effort into something, only to find out after the
fact that the price was too high.
The price is something not necessarily defined as financial. It
could be time, effort, sacrifice, money or perhaps, something
else. The point is that we must be fully aware of the price and
be willing to pay it, if we want to have success.
Belief
This is perhaps the single biggest obstacle that all of us must
overcome in order to be successful.
We all carry a lot of baggage, thanks to our upbringing. The
majority of people carry with them, an entire series of
self-limiting beliefs that will absolutely stop, and hold them
back from, success. Things like "I'm not good enough", "I'm not
smart enough", "I'm not lucky enough", and the worst, "I'm not
worthy" are but a few of the self-limiting beliefs I have
encountered. We carry them with us like rocks in a knapsack, and
then use them to sabotage our success. So, how twisted is
that?!?!
The old expression is absolutely true - whether you think you
can or you can't, you're right!
One of the main areas that I work on with my clients is shedding
these non-supportive beliefs and replacing them with beliefs
that will help them to accomplish their desires.
It is truly amazing the damage that we, as parents, can inflict
on our children. So why do we do it? For the most part, we don't
do it intentionally or with malice. In the majority of cases,
the cause is a well-meaning but unskilled or un-thinking parent,
who says the wrong thing at the wrong time, and the message
sticks - as simple as that!
And it's not just parents that are the cause - teachers,
friends, clergy members or anyone else that has influence in a
child's life can be a contributor to these self-limiting beliefs!
The bottom line is that we must shed the bad and replace with
good beliefs.
Taking Action
"Nothing changes until something moves" - this is the battle cry
of author and journalist Robert Ringer. And he is absolutely
correct. Not all of the decision-making, clarity, planning,
focus and belief in the world, will get you to where you want to
be, without taking action!
Action - putting your plans into play - that is what will get
you to the destination. Don't get caught in the paralysis of
analysis, or in the conundrum of Ready, Aim, Aim, Aim, Aim...
Get the oars in the water and start rowing. Execution is the
single biggest factor in achievement, so the faster and better
your execution, the quicker you will get to the goals!
Conclusion
So, there you have it; the six steps that will help you to the
fabled land of achievement and success! You now have the
opportunity to push ahead and reach your potential. No more
excuses - make the commitment to take action TODAY!
Figure out what you want, put a plan together to achieve it,
understand the cost, believe in yourself then go and get it!