Finding Your Balance
February 9, 2016Gaining New Clients: Growing Your Prospects
August 19, 2016
Success is a very big word. Success can encompass family, work, friends, and the achieving goals and dreams as a reality in life. So it’s easy to see that the word isn’t just limited to how well we do in our jobs. There are lots of predictors of success and some are more accurate than others. Here are 10 things to think about as you plan for your success.
Are You Ready To Grow Emotionally and Mentally?
Being ready to grow assumes that your character, intelligence, and creativity are all things that you can improve. If you assume that you can’t improve them, then you guarantee that your development will be slower than those who assume the opposite. You will work to simply avoid failure rather than pursuing your goals in life. If you have the right outlook, you will be able to see failures as learning experiences, each of which will ultimately lead you to success. Accepting criticism, surviving setbacks, and looking for the next challenge are all signs of people who are determined to achieve their goals. Research indicates, time and time again, that people who believe that their potential is limitless achieve more than people who place arbitrary limits on their success. Face it, if you know you are going to succeed, you work harder.
Keep Your Goal to Yourself
Learning that keeping your goals to yourself is a more likely path to success than bragging about it has always surprised me. When you tell people about your goal—and they support you—your mind begins to “feel” the success and often slacks off and doesn’t work as hard. It is called making it a “social reality” and it gets in the way of making it a concrete reality. Success can be difficult at times and you need to be sharp and as motivated as possible. When you talk about it, you start off shooting yourself in the foot.
How Happy Are You Really?
Now I am not saying that you should be satisfied with less than your goal, or the success you plan for yourself, but keep in mind that being happy along the way helps you remain positive and being positive is another key to success. Often it is in our relationships that happiness is born, so regardless of your success in work, it will be really hard to be truly happy without positive relationships in your life.
Self Esteem: How Strong is it?
Newsflash! It takes confidence to take action. Low self-confidence leads to sitting on your butt and doing nothing. After all, why bother if you won’t succeed? Make a plan, take those first steps, and you will see your confidence blossom and soon success will be in sight!
Be Whoever You Really Are
When people say, “fake it until you make it” they aren’t really telling you to be a fraud. Instead, they mean to work on being a new and better you as you pursue your goal. Studies have shown that “acting as though you are” is one of the precursors of being who you are. You gain confidence and soon the people around you will begin to see the new you.
Indefatigable Will Power
Do you procrastinate? Do you really want to get it done? One way to be more effective is to choose to improve and work on it a little every day, refusing to procrastinate on the little things that make up the whole. Whether it is making that one call or loading the laundry, just do it. You will find that successful people are more consistent at this than most others.
How High is Your EQ?
Newsflash! Folks who are smart and have well-developed social skills, or emotional intelligence (EQ) tend to earn more than the rest of us. The right combination of the two is one of the big keys to success!
How Badly Do You Want It?
Have you ever heard the word “grit”? Just how much of it to you have? Grit is the willingness to keep focused on your goals in spite of challenges. It is another thing shared by very successful people. They set their minds on a goal and work harder than most to achieve it. They understand their why, and grit keeps them coming back for more.
Planning for Risk
The most successful people know in their hearts that to achieve their goals, they will have to take some measure of risk. They have learned that at times, they can jump ahead with solutions by managing and learning from a well-handled crisis. They don’t spend tons of time looking for the “most perfect” way, but instead, execute using the skills they possess, sure that they will learn more along the way.
Are You Resolute?
Really successful people know that they will encounter negativity in other people, but they rarely let that negativity drag them down. They recognize that in life, as in golf, your biggest competitor is yourself. They don’t measure their success in comparison to others, but rather by comparison to the goals they set for themselves.
What the Heck Does This All Mean?
We all have some basic needs—food, financial security, safety—and if you don’t have them, it’s hard to feel good about yourself. So first make a plan on how you are going to get those things and then how you will move to the next level. If you don’t do it, no one is going to save you. There aren’t rewards for just showing up. As you lay out your plans, don’t forget to surround yourself with peers who are equally ambitious, hard-driving, goal-setting people. Look and see if they have grit and if they do, work to support each other as you work towards attaining your goals.
THERE ARE NO REWARDS FOR JUST SHOWING UP!
Frank Hopkins is a certified Professional Coach (CPC). Frank is and certified by the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC). He is a certified Master Practitioner (ELI-MP) of the iPEC proprietary assessment tool. The tool, the Energy Leadership Index offers seminars on Energy Leadership. He maintains memberships in the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and the Institute of Coaching (ICPA).
