Sunday, April 25, 2010

Create Your Own Success Story


I think there is a great myth held by many of us that we are entitled to a great life – that someone else is responsible for our continued happiness and ultimately our success.  But I believe the truth is …
We must take 100% Responsibility for our life, our business, our relationships and our own level of success!
You can’t live the life of your dreams if you make excuses.  Taking 100% responsibility means you acknowledge that you create everything that happens to you.  Good and bad.   Now think about that for a moment?  You control the outcomes you experience.  Therefore, you can un-create them & re-create them at will.
How can success be defined? 
the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines success as – 1 obsolete: outcome, result 2 a: degree or measure of succeeding b: favorable or desired outcome; also: the attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence…
Everyone wants to know how to be successful.  There are not many people who will say, “I am not interested in being successful at anything!”  Let’s face it, success is a hot topic!  A google search of the word success brought 312,000,000 results!   The word is used thousands of times a day.  But what is success?  What does it mean to you?  What does it look like?
How do you create your own success story? 
First, you must decide what it is you want, believe you deserve it & then practice successful habits.  But, keep in mind – success takes time, effort, perseverance and patience. 
Have you ever stopped to wonder why some people in this world achieve unbelievable levels of success while others struggle to even define it? 
Success has nothing to do with luck or even hard work alone.  There are proven factors I believe that can lead to your success.  I also believe that they are well within your control and can be improved upon every day.   
Let’s take a look at why some people are always successful:
  1. Successful people make decisions and take action.   Right or wrong action, but they take it.  They believe it’s always better than making no decision at all. 
  2. They do things even when they don’t feel like it. 
  3. They do the most productive things first.  They identify what’s important.  They prioritize.  Instead of just doing a bunch of things, they think and plan before they act and try to focus as much as possible on their thoughts and actions.
  4. They do one thing at a time.   Success minded people do not multi-task!  They actually don’t believe in it!  Consider this – If you are “multi-tasking” it’s probably because you failed to make decisions and take action! 
  5. They have a positive attitude.  Success minded people know that a negative attitude can be damaging & limiting to your life.  A positive attitude will always open doors.  A positive attitude will leave you open minded to new ideas and opportunities.
  6. They have redefined failure.  Successful people see failure as useful feedback.  They don’t like to fail but they don’t fear it either.  They know if they fail they can always start over again. 
  7. They do not let fear hold them back.  They look at fear as a dragon to slay.  When you don’t let fear hold you back it pulls down the barriers in the mind and creates new roads.
  8. They have found a purpose in life.  They are internally driven rather than externally driven.  Successful people do not conform to what others think they should do.
  9. They don’t get distracted.  They focus on what needs to be done and don’t allow themselves to get caught up in everyday life.  They value their time highly and plan it out well. 
  10. They have developed good communication skills.  So much of what we do in life has to do other people.  So it seems quite obvious that to be successful you probably have to have good communication skills.
Successful people also have an open mind and are willing to learn.  They invest time in themselves and genuinely enjoy improving their skills.  They are open to other’s thoughts and take suggestions to heart.  Successful people embrace change because they often look to re-invent themselves and improve their skills.
So you want to be more successful!  Now what?
Take things one step at a time.  Start with clearly defining what success means to you in each aspect of your life such as Health/Fitness, Family, Relationships, Career and Spirituality.  
Then consider which of the 10 factors above are most important for you to focus on first.  You may decide that 2 or 3 factors are interconnected and you will work on developing them at the same time.  What you focus on first will be different for everyone.   We all define success differently therefore our goals and how we work towards them are different too. 
It’s been said that success leaves clues.  Acknowledge your past successes.  Give yourself credit for all the positive achievements you have experienced in life thus far.  The more you do so, the more confident you will become in taking on new challenges and successfully accomplishing them.