A Guide to Creating Success

A GUIDE TO CREATING SUCCESS | 24 ESSENTIAL ACTIONS YOU CAN DO BEGINNING TODAY

To create the success you are seeking takes effort and it takes action. What keeps many of us from realizing the lasting success we desire is in not understanding what actions to take; so we don’t take any action. We stay stuck. And we stay unfulfilled and unhappy.

It is important for me to create lasting success in the different areas of my life. I want to take what I have learned and align it with my desire to continue learning. I have recently developed a game plan – a guide, I can use when I feel stuck.

This guide will provide the necessary guidance to help keep me on track and to keep me motivated. You are welcome to use this, too.

This guide offers very tangible and specific ideas, thoughts and strategies. It’s a tool, of sorts, to take the actions needed to accomplish the goals you have set in your personal relationships, as a parent, and to obtain the spiritual, career and financial success you may be searching for right now.

The guide is simple to use. Write these actions in a journal and then record your progress throughout your journey. To change, you must take action. Action begins with making a plan. Consider this guide for creating the lasting success, happiness and balance you deserve.

1. Decide What You Want. What’s on deck for you this week? Do you want to earn more money? Do you want to squeeze in an extra workout at the gym in order to keep your exercise routine on track? No matter what it is, make a plan for what you want to accomplish each day, week, month or year. Decide what you want make a deliberate attempt to achieve this.
2. Live on Purpose. Monitor your activities and actions. Step back and make certain your actions complement your life’s purpose. Make a conscious choice, each day, to do the things you love to do and to do the things for which you have a special gift and talent to do.
3. Remember What You Value. Live by your values. Decide on your five most important values and stick to these. My personal values are: Character, Loyalty, Self-Care, Respect and Fun. Make the difficult decisions you face based on your values.
4. Think About Your Future. Grab a friend, your wife or husband and ask them to indulge you for a few minutes. Project your life two, five or maybe ten years into the future. Talk about where you want to be; emotionally, spiritually and financially. Your future will feel more real and your dreams are more likely to happen if you articulate them because you give them life by this very acknowledgement.
5. Write Down Your Goals. When you take the time to write down your goals an amazing things happens – you will accomplish most of them! Writing down your goals not only stores them on a piece of paper; they are also stored in your unconscious mind. Your mind is then constantly trying to find creative ways to meet these goals. As a result, we reach 80% of the goals that are written.
6. Plan Your Priorities. Remember the sage advice from German philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Things that matter most should never be at the mercy of things that matter least.”
7. Ask for Help. Others have walked before you. Others have experienced what you are experiencing. Reach out and ask for help. Too often the fear of asking for help is greater than the fear of failure. Ironically, though, our greatest fear is we just might get the help we need to be successful. Consider yourself worthy of other people’s time and attention. Consider yourself worthy of being successful.
8. Take Action Every Day. What will you do today, right now, to accomplish a goal? There’s a big difference between deciding to do something and actually doing it. Decide to act.
9. Ask for Feedback. You don’t have to be perfect. In fact, striving for perfection is a waste of time. Instead, look for continuous improvement opportunities. Ask others how you are doing. Get their opinion and advice. Feedback is not criticism – it’s just an opportunity to learn more about you.
10. Make Adjustments. Never give up; only re-group and keep adjusting your strategies until you find the right combination for success.
11. Keep Believing. Believe you are worthy of reaching your goals. Believe you are capable. Keep believing you are more than enough to have your heart’s desire. If you believe your goals are worthwhile; then they are worthwhile. If you believe in yourself and believe your goals will take you to where you want to go in life, then they will.
12. Don’t Let Go of Fear. Fear failure. Stay scared. Both are great motivators, and reminders. If you fear something enough you will find every possible way to avoid it. Regarding the fear of failure, choose never to fail. Think of setbacks as an opportunity to learn and gain valuable information. Receive the feedback and lessons learned from disappointment and use this information to keep moving forward; past the fear and into the success that awaits.
13. Take 100% Responsibility. You are the sum of the choices you make. Take comfort in fact you are responsible for your life – no one else! Successful people are the folks who make it happen as opposed to those who keep watching, waiting and hoping. Take full ownership of your life, emotions and the results you achieve. Don’t wish – act.
14. Take One Step Outside of Your Comfort Zone Each Week. Do one thing you fear most this week. Make that phone call; send the email; have the conversation. Do the uncomfortable until it begins to feel comfortable. The result is growth. The result is success.
15. Understand the Highs and the Lows. If there’s one thing that has helped me the most, it’s this: Never get too excited over the high highs or too depressed over the low lows. It is the grey that lives in between that determines our success and happiness.
16. Take Five Golden Minutes Each Day. Every day, either in the quiet of your moon-lit kitchen over your first cup of coffee or late in the evening when you put your head down to rest, take five minutes and review your day. Ask yourself what worked and what didn’t. Ask yourself, and provide an honest answer back, if you took action to move your goals and dreams forward. If you did, then good for you. If not, give yourself grace and forgiveness. It’s not about being perfect; it about being willing to act. Choose to act today.
17. Consider Yourself the Underdog. Want it more. Be willing to do more than anybody else to achieve what you want to accomplish. Imagine the reigning heavyweight boxing champ is standing in the middle of the ring keeping you from what you want. Be willing to fight as hard as you can to overcome the impossible odds you face. Refuse to back down. Refuse to get knocked down. Refuse to lose.
18. Be OK with Thinking about Money. It’s OK to think about being rich. It’s OK to want to have money in life. Remember this: Your character is not defined by how much money you have; your character is defined by what you do with the money you have.
19. Keep Your Sense of Humor. Sometimes a good laugh is the best prescription for a bad day. When you can step back and see the humor in a situation, you are better able to take the pressure off. Humor is also an excellent mood changer.
20. Think Outside of the Box. Really big things usually start with really big ideas. BHAGs (big hairy audacious goals) have paved the way for more inventions than anything else. Keep your curiosity high and keep asking yourself, “Why not now and why not me?”
21. Don’t Always Take “No” for an Answer. Condition yourself to the point that when you hear “No,” it just means “Not now.” Become unstoppable, unyielding and uncompromising in going for the “Yes.” Do you know when most people quit? Typically, right before they hear the “Yes.”
22. Show Gratitude. Show daily gratitude. The Universe tends to give us more of what we are do. Therefore, if you are constantly showing gratitude and saying “thank you,” the Universe will show you gratitude in return.
23. Learn Something New. If you want to continue to develop and grow, you need to keep learning. Too often, we tend to use words that end in “ed.” For example, “I have learned how to…,” or “I have accomplished…” Instead, considering using words that end in “ing.” “I’m still learning to…” or “I’m accomplishing…” “Ing” words convey you are open to new possibilities and new ideas. Life is about achieving. Death is about achieved.
24. Do Something Extraordinary. Today, right now, make a goal to do something truly extraordinary. Strive to be the best. Don’t just settle for mediocre. Feed your passion, and your purpose, with deliberate actions; not convenient excuses.