Are you a winner? Are you someone that always gets what they want? Are you one of those people who do what they set their eyes on no matter what the circumstances? If you answered yes to all of these questions then you are among the highly successful people in the world that have a proven formula for success. If you did not answer yes not all of these questions, you are part of the other majority in the world that tries to succeed but has good and bad days. This post is for the majority- because have some catch-up to do.
Success is not magic or sorcery. Success has also nothing to do with luck. For someone to be lucky would mathematically be attributed to chance or probability almost every single time. Luck is also a factor that happens when we get or are presented with an opportunity. “I found a great job. I got lucky”, or “I found the best tickets, I got lucky”. These are terms commonly used to define a stroke of luck, but these are nothing but opportunities where you got favored through chance or probability theory. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. You can still say you got lucky. No harm done.
Success, chance, opportunity or probability? Being successful to most of the part is an art. It's a defined series of steps or actions that must take place in order to yield results that you then call success. Sometimes success is also failing, if that was your goal in the first place. So in addition to being relative how you define it and how you view success in the specific situation, let's assume that for the sake of this blog, success is gaining or achieving something that you are working towards. It could be monetary, financial, career, professional or personal goal that you have set your eyes and mind to. So what would it take to be successful? How can we have just one formula to succeed at everything? Is it even possible to succeed at everything with just one frame of mind? Yes it is. Here is how.
- Plan Your Success Planning is a key part of success. Everyone we know as successful have achieved success through careful planning. Ye I can guarantee that. Take a look around and look at people in your circle, your community your city that are highly successful. Every one of them succeeded because of a plan, each being unique to that individual. Highly successful people have the habit of planning the steps they need to take to succeed and the collection of these steps is the plan. A plan usually has a few moving parts. As you start you need to create key milestones in your plan. These are things that stand out as important things that must happen as your plan takes place. You also need to have a timeline of when things should happen in your plan. This is called your timeline, and lastly what the end result of your plan should be. Without identifying these, your plan is as good as a sand castle. Success has a much higher chance of happening if planned properly.
- Respect Time Everytime Time and tide wait for none. This saying stands true no matter what year it is or what place on earth you live on. Time has been called and known as the most precious commodity in the world. Given that you have planned your steps to success, most of the times it is helpful to have a set defined time with your plan. A set time for success will give you the right direction and help you put together the right resources. Planning time is also key to being able to set your milestones. Respect time as the ultimate governor of success.
- Monitor Progress Planning your steps and allocating time to your success is not enough if you do not have a mechanism to measure your progress. Measuring results, progress or the lack of are important to gauge how your plans to succeed are going. Perhaps you are short of time and need to work extra hard or maybe you are far ahead of the curve and need to slow down a little. It could also be that you are far ahead in your plan but have not hit any milestones yet, which could be a cause for concern. No matter what it is, you have to be able to monitor your progress at a regular basis.
Bonus Step
Planning your success, setting a timeline and measuring progress are the foundation of achieving any goal. What adds to this trifecta of success is creative visualization. Now we are not talking about any voodoo magic or like, but actually visualizing how your plan is going to execute and visualizing yourself achieving success at every step. Visualizing has been used as a success aid for many decades in areas such as high performance sports, business and other areas to drive people to that extra mile towards success. Don't feel shy to take a few minutes away from your time to visualize your success and how it makes you feel. It will definitely add a new dimension to your skills.
Let's Plan Your Success
No matter what your goal, success can be made much more planned, and when it's planned it has a much higher probability of happening. Success is a process that can be defined, a result that can be made more probable by planning, and a series of steps that can be executed. Keep in mind that the weakest link in your success is going to be how detailed your planning is and how you measure up to the tasks of creating a timeline and following through. Remember, you can be successful at anything, provided you define what success for you is and that you take the right steps towards it. Lastly about being lucky, maybe you can define that for someone after you have succeeded through the three steps and help them understand how true luck happens.
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