What is success ? Everyone has different ideas about success. While some consider it as all success in life, others compartmentalize it into various aspects of life, such as success in their relationships, family, financial aspects, and so on. If you turn the pages of history, you will find many people who seem to have the Midas touch – being able to achieve greatness, seemingly impossible things.
On the other hand, some may attribute pure luck to the reason for their success, and others, the result of more hard work, such as the successes of people like Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie .
Here are eight essential tips for becoming successful in life.
1. Becoming successful is deciding on a course of action
One of the first steps is to make a decision to achieve something. We all know that nothing can move forward without the first decision being made. The initial action is always the decision to achieve a goal, which is a rudimentary step that many people tend to ignore. Simply decide what your goal is, put your decision on paper, just to keep it in focus, and then go after it.
Before we continue, we would like to introduce you to some more articles about success:
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2. Success means having clarity of vision and purpose
Having clarity of vision and purpose is one of the most important factors in achieving success. Without a clear picture of what it is you want to achieve and how you are going to achieve it, your goals will have no meaning. According to the Law of Attraction , we only attract things that we focus on, so until we have clarity, the only thing we will attract is confusion.
The fact is, most people simply have no idea what they truly want. Instead, they lack clarity of vision and purpose. How does one gain clarity? Well, introspection is key. Ask yourself questions like: What do I really want? What does success mean to me? How will this achievement make a difference in my life? In other words, clarity means understanding what you want, why you want it, and how it will affect your life.
3. Becoming successful involves setting SMART goals
Once you have clarity of vision and purpose, the next vital step to achieving success is setting goals for yourself – specifically setting SMART goals . The acronym “ SMART ” stands for S ( Specific ), M ( Measurable ), A ( Achievable ), R ( Realistic ) and T ( Time -Sensible). Identifying what you want and setting SMART goals that you set as a milestone along the way is another key to achieving success.
Recommended Reading : How to Set and Achieve Your Goals
4. Success means making a plan and staying focused.
Staying focused means being able to accomplish what you set out to do with unwavering concentration. Life is full of distractions – newspapers, TV, family, managers and clients, email and phones – all of which can be completely overwhelming. So how do you stay focused amidst all of life’s distractions? Well, willpower is one factor; although willpower alone is not enough to focus.
One of the best ways is to come up with and then stick to a plan. Start the plan with the goals you have in mind, and then develop that plan, listing each step that is necessary to achieve those goals . The plan should be as detailed as possible. Make an effort to visualize all the possible delays that may be present and plan for them. Write the plan down on your computer or paper, and evaluate it regularly, ensuring that each step you take is one step closer to your goals.
5. Achieve Success by Deferring, Delegating, Deleting
In addition to making your plan, you also need to develop a direction for the action plan that will keep you motivated to continue to be followed through at all times. While it may take some self-discipline to do this, it is a vital aspect of any kind of achievement.
Before you start any new activity, examine it to see if it will help you move toward the goals you have in mind. If not, you could put it off for another time. Defer, delegate, or delete are the 3 Ds taught by many personal and business coaches. If a certain activity can be left behind, defer it. If it can be done through something, delegate it. And if it doesn’t really need to be done at all, delete it. This kind of thorough examination of each activity will help keep you focused on the things that are most important.
6. Success is about commitment
Commitment is the characteristic of being firm and sincere in your purpose. It usually involves paying the price that has to be paid . This is an important factor because no one wants to put all their efforts into something, only to find out that the price they paid was too high. The price may not be in monetary terms; it may be sacrifice, effort, time, and also money, or something else important. The point is that in order to become successful, you must be fully aware of the price involved and be ready to pay it.
7. Success involves self-belief
Lack of self-belief is one of the biggest obstacles that many people have to overcome in order to become successful. Most people have a lot of baggage due to their upbringing. This baggage usually consists of self-limiting beliefs, which can certainly prevent them from finding the success that they seek. Often, people are bogged down with notions of how they are not good enough, not smart enough, not worthy enough. Success can only be achieved by overcoming these self-limiting beliefs and replacing them with positive self-beliefs. It is an established fact that if you think you can do it, you can, conversely, if you think it can’t be done, it will lead to failure.
8. Success is in action
Nothing can be achieved without any action being taken to achieve it. After all the steps of deciding on a course of action, having clarity of vision and purpose, setting goals, making plans, staying focused, being committed and building self-belief, you will need to go through and take action on what you want to achieve. By putting your action plan into play, you will understand what you must set in place to become successful!
Success can be termed as a state of mind, which anyone can aspire to and achieve. One of the first things to keep in mind is that success is a process. There is no esoteric secret that is reserved for a select few today. Intrinsically, success is not just about fate, coincidence or luck. It is basically about realizing the steps involved in the process and then putting those steps into practice. Being successful is not rocket science – all it takes is determination, tenacity and the desire to excel in whatever we choose to do. I hope the above tips will help you on your path to success !