The 5 Steps to Success
Success means different things to different people. For some people it's about becoming a millionaire. For others it's about having lots of things. Whatever definition you care to choose, it is probably about achieving more of the goals that you set yourself.
The good thing about success in any of its main environments - e.g. business, sport or relationships - is that it often leaves clues. If you carefully study successful people you can find these clues and a process or discipline that underpins their success, whether the person in question knows it or not.
The first step on the ladder of success is developing a positive philosophy. This is not the same thing as having PMA, but more a realisation or acceptance that you are responsible for the results that you have experienced up to this point in your life through the decisions you have made and the actions you have taken.
The disempowering alternative is to say that it is the fault of other people and the events in your life. If you adopt this thinking change becomes difficult, if not impossible, because the power to change rests outside of you.
Swapping the word "you" for "I" is a great first step. Change from saying "I've got a problem, what are you going to do about it?" to saying "I've got a problem, I'm responsible for solving it." Developing a positive philosophy is about becoming a cause or creator of the circumstances in your life rather than the effect or victim of those circumstances.
The second step is to know your outcome or, as Stephen Covey puts it, begin with the end in mind. It is often said that 19 out of 20 people are not clear about where they are going in their lives.
This lack of clarity will usually mean that at some point in their future they will utter the phrase, "If only I had..." as they realise they are somewhere that they don't want to be, often doing what they don't want to do. As the great baseball star, Yogi Berra once said, "If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else."
The first thing to be aware of is that life is not one dimensional and that to achieve success requires balance across the 8 dimensions. These are:
1. Physical 2. Mental 3. Material 4. Professional/career 5. Financial 6. Interpersonal/relationships 7. Intrapersonal/character 8. Service/contribution
Success requires balance across the dimensions. At the very least, there should be no conflict between them. So, it is vital that you check your goals for ecology or you might find that achieving a goal in one area might inadvertently damage another dimension.
To be a well formed outcome, a goal should be written down in a form that is positive, personal and present. It should direct your attention to what you want rather than what you don't want. It should be something that is important to you rather than someone else's goal for you. Finally it should be worded in the present tense; e.g. It is December 31st 2010 and I earn £100,000 per annum.
Having identified your desired outcome, the third step is to take action. Success is not about taking huge actions, but more about taking committed actions. Very often it is the small things that make the biggest difference.
In his book "The Slight Edge", Jeff Olson introduces the philosophy of personal discipline, doing the easy things that accumulate into big things. The problem is that these things - including diet, exercise, study and savings - are easy not to do and such neglect accumulates in a very different way.
The fourth step is to notice what actions are actually taking you towards your goal. Some of the things you do will be working and some will not. It is an exercise in futility to keep doing what is not working in the vain hope that it might work today.
The advantage to any action is that it informs you. Edison is perhaps the best example of the philosophy of 'there is no such thing as failure, only results' when he said, "I haven't failed, I've just found thousands of ways it won't work" as he attempted to produce electric light.
The final step to success is, therefore, to change whatever isn't working and try something new or in a different way.
These 5 steps make success a deliberate process that, if followed, makes success more likely. You could always cross your fingers but you need to be smarter than that!
About the Author
Ian Henderson is a highly experienced trainer, consultant and speaker. In a 20 year career he has worked with thousands of people from a wide range of organisations in the UK, the USA, Europe and Africa. he is the director of training of Eagle Training Ltd, one of the UK's leading management and leadership training companies. For more information go to http://www.eagletraining.co.uk
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