Success. It’s a big word, and its meaning can be different for every person you ask. How do you achieve success? What are the best strategies to help you get to that top tier of performance in your life?
Let’s take a look at 15 hands-on strategies to achieve success.
Define Success
This is probably the hardest thing that you will ever do. People always say they want to be successful, but they have never defined what success looks like for them personally. If success for you means career advancement and monetary goals, how far do you want to go for work? How much money will mean you have been successful? If your idea of success has enough time for your family every night, without worrying about bills, how do you achieve this? Now you may not know how you are going to achieve your success right away. However, you cannot go any further without knowing what success looks like for yourself. If success is living debt free, then you can begin to build a plan to find your success.
- Don’t Be Someone Else
Many people will tell you that you should emulate those who are successful. While trying to find success and imitating the type of success you want that you see in others, do not forget that you are not someone else. You are your own person, not your boss, your dad, or your neighbor. Life Hacker says that if you forget to do things that work for you because you are seeking your personal success you may find that you lose yourself and sight of your success on the way. - Embrace your limitations
Embracing your limitations is not about giving up because there are things you cannot do. Forbes magazine recommends that you identify what your limits are so that you can understand when you are facing an obstacle that can be overcome or an actual limit. An example of a limit would be a person with night blindness couldn’t drive at night. Once you know when you are facing an obstacle, you know it can be overcome, no matter how hard it may seem. Anything outside your limitations is only an obstacle. - Dream It
This may sound a lot like knowing what success looks like to you, but it is a little different. When you dream about your success, you need to touch and taste how it feels to be successful. Forbes recommends that you dream about your success by visualizing it daily so that you are already successful in your mind. Once you believe you are successful, your actions will reflect the success that you know you have. - Set Goals Daily
Setting daily goals is going to get you into a mind frame of achievement. Entrepreneur magazine notes that successful people are always goal driven people. They plan their days with to-do lists that make sure their energy is spent on goal-oriented work. If you don’t have goals on your way to success come up with five goals, you can do daily that will allow you to achieve your vision of success.
When wording these goals, it is always better to write them as if they have already happened. This doesn’t give your brain any room to back out! An example would be “I will not watch more than ½ hour of TV a day.” Should be written as “I only watch a ½ hour of TV a day.”
- Check Lists
If you have ever heard of Motivational Guru Chalene Johnson, you know that the best way to achieve success is through checklists. She has an entire 30-day program that teaches you how to organize your goals and your time in a way that keeps you motivated. Checklists will let you see your productivity and keep you honest about how you are hitting your goals. - Engage in Self Improvement
By now, you know what you want, you have a good idea of what you are achieving every day, and you probably know where you are coming up short. This is why you must engage in self-improvement daily. Whether you lack time management skills or you notice you’re unorganized; engaging in self-improvement daily is going to help you get to your end-state success faster than if you ignore the areas that you have weakness in. - Do The Worst Task
Brian Tracy wrote a wonderful book called Eat That Frog. It outlines 21 ways to stop procrastinating and get more done. The number one thing he says to do every day is to eat that frog. What does that mean? Eating the frog is to complete your most hated task first. Get it over and done with. Doing this will free you up to get many more tasks done, without having to spend energy dreading the task you don’t want to do. - Utilize The Compound Effect
Darren Hardy wrote The Compound Effect, where he describes phenomena where people’s good habits build upon themselves and form success. If you make small changes, daily, those changes make big impacts over time. Use this to your advantage and make 2-3 small changes in your attitude or work habits that will end up being big success down the road. Whether you are making five more sales calls at the end of the day (ends up being 1,225 calls over a year) or you pledge to skip your cream in your coffee, which is only 100 calories a day, but could equal a 10 lb. the difference over a year. The compound effect can work in any area of your life. - Recognize Habits
Habits are good and bad. Charles Duhigg explains in The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business; why many people fall into the trap of unsuccessful careers because they become stuck in habit loops. Becoming aware of your actions and forming productive habits will set you up for success. - Love Failure
You will fail, and it will happen repeatedly. It is ok. Learn to love it so that you can get up and keep going. The only path to success is knowing that you can get over the feeling of failure so that you can rise to the next opportunity. - Don’t Doubt Yourself
Self-doubt can be a huge killer of motivation and production. In the book, “You Are A Bad Ass,” author Jen Sincero discusses how self-doubt can stop even the strongest person from achieving their goals. Thinking you don’t deserve something ultimately leads to actions that will sabotage your success, always believe you are worth your success. - Take Care Of Your Health
Whether you are taking care of chronic illness or making sure you eat right and exercise often, your health is an asset in your success. Entrepreneur recommends that you recognize your health as a skill that you cannot afford to lose. Keeping healthy will set you up for success in your later years as well as give you the stamina to keep going when others are quitting. - It Won’t Fall In Your Lap
What many people make the mistake of thinking is that success will just find them. That is not going to happen. You are going to have to go out and find it yourself. Pick The Brain notes that if you have a lazy streak, you are going to have to get rid of it fast. People who aren’t willing to chase success probably won’t find it. - Say No to Naysayers!
People are going to doubt your dream. It will happen all the time. All you have to do is ignore them. Say no to their negativity and ignore the people who say you can’t make it. You have your plan for success, you know you can do it!
Now you have several plans for making success happen. All you have to do is chase it down!– Scott Blessing