6 Steps to Success

Since we are embarking on a brand new year thought I would share some thoughts on success. Whether you want to get better at salsa dancing, move to professional competition, improve your personal relationships or perhaps even start or improve your business or career then here are 6  things you could do in 2014 to help you achieve them.  Really at the end of the day it’s all about action, action, action!

1. Harness a Winning Mentality

To succeed you have to have a winning mentality, you have to believe that you could accomplish things, you have to be willing to take action.  You have to take responsibility for your own results and outcomes and not blame anyone else or expect your parents, family, friends, organizations to come to your rescue.  You have to be self-sufficient and do it on your own.  You have to create the path that others follow and create your own destiny.

2. Learn

If you are not there yet, then there are so many books out there, autobiographies, etc. of people that have made it. You have to leverage off that knowledge and not re-invent the wheel.  You just have to have a learning mentality.  This could be your first step in terms of doing things differently in order to achieve different results.

3. Delay Gratification

Sometimes what it comes down to is becoming more disciplined and gaining the ability of delaying gratification of activities like checking through e-mails, going on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, surfing the net, watching TV.  Anytime you are doing this you have to ask yourself, is this activity getting me closer to my goal or is it simply getting me instant gratification?  Different studies have proven time and time again that delaying gratification is a sure formula for success.

4. Don’t Give Up

A lot of times when we see diminishing returns from our efforts, people just give up when they are almost there.  We stop short from reaching our full potential, because to go any further takes work and it is a lot easier to justify why this extra effort is not worth it because of the little extra return it will produce.  This is why people will plateau at different stages in their career progression or personal success.  Simply because they have given up just went all it would have taken is another push.  Returning to the comforts that you are used to is always easier.  Don’t do it.  Stretch yourself in 2014!

5. Focus

To reach an elite status in any field whether it be sport, business, music, etc. it has been proven to take about 10 years of practice.  And this is not just any practice, it has to be deliberate practice where you make optimal use of your time.  Not just taking the path of least resistance but creating new paths that bring on new challenges that stretches you from where you were before.  Once stretched you will not go back to your old self, you will be one with even more potential.  So focus on your goal and do everything that will move you towards it.  It won’t be easy but then anything worth having is never easy to get. That’s why it’s special.

6. Treat Failure as an Opportunity

In striving to reach our potential, we have to learn to not let set-backs or obstacles force us to give up.  We have to learn from our mistakes, like Edison or Colonel Sanders did when they failed thousands of times, and just treat it as finding another way that didn’t work and not taking it as failure.  It’s a mindset that has to be controlled or else you will easily give up like the majority of people do when they are faced with setbacks and go back to their comfortable living that they have been used to and just say, this is not for me.  Then they continue going to a job that they hate or don’t enjoy or that does not pay them enough.  Or perhaps a job that takes so much of their family time that they barely see their kids or their wives.  I mean is this a way to live? Is it fair to those that you are impacting?  Of course the easy justification that I have heard numerous times is that we either make this sacrifice to maintain this standard of living or else…  But at the end of it all, is it really worth it?  We have a short life and it will go fast, so make the most of it by making that decision to change starting today and treat setbacks as learning experiences.

Think of failures as opportunities to change your tactics or strategy so that you tweak your path towards your goal.  Success is always a work in progress. Make 2014 your best year but you have to do things differently to get different results!  Ultimately it’s your choice. All the best in 2014.

Would be great to hear what your main focus will be for 2014 and some ideas on how you plan to do things differently?  Remember that sharing your goals publicly is what will also help you commit to them.

Check out a great inspirational video here