Most people live in the moment, constantly focusing on the now as opposed to what could be. In my final blog article in 2012, I’m going to share 17 actions you can take right now to grow your level of success in 2013 and beyond. As you read through these simple and easy-to-adopt actions, remember one thing: When you release the limits on what you will do, you have released the limits on what you can do because when you think of limits, you create them. Follow these 17 actions to enable the blessings that await you. So get yourself a pen and some paper, and let’s begin with the first action you can take right now to grow your success.
Declare Your Success in Advance: What does success look like? What would you be doing? Where would you be? What challenges would you need to overcome to achieve your goals? How long will it take you to get there? By writing down the answers to these questions, and identifying the actions you need to take to achieve your success, you effectively declare your success today so that you can achieve it tomorrow.
Think and Speak Positively: The language of success is based on positive thinking, so whenever you experience a challenging situation, think your way positively out of it. Success is found in your choices, and it starts with consistently making the choice to be positive.
Use Social Media to Grow Your Network: Whatever your skills and knowledge gaps may be, find and engage with people on social media who can help you close the gaps. Twitter or LinkedIn are the best for business networking whereas Facebook is effective for personal relationships. If you’re not sure who to follow on these social networks, start by following the people that I follow and go from there.
Get Smart: If you have a need, chances are, there is an app that can help you address the need. Review apps in tech magazines. Ask your friends and colleagues about the cool tools your friends are using. Use Google to find them. The point is, find them and use them!
Develop and Maintain a SUCCESS TEAM: As John Maxwell says, “1 is too small a number to be successful.” List the top four challenges or weaknesses you’re dealing with right now, and use your SUCCESS TEAM to help you overcome them. I define all the key players you should have on your SUCCESS TEAM so read my blog article and take action to recruit the members who you don’t currently have helping you achieve and sustain success.
Develop Habits of Success: We are creatures of habit, and our habits turn into our daily routines. Review your daily habits and routines and look for time wasters, “no value added” activities, and actions that delay or derail progress toward your goals. Write them down, and then identify 3 actions you can take to replace each success-blocking habit. Eventually, success will become a habit.
Be Available to Those You Love: Many people have inadvertently let their immediate challenges and circumstances prevent them from spending quality time with those they care about. Fix this by simply marking time on your calendar to spend with the ones you love. Make it fun. Make it interesting. Just make it happen.
Be Outward Focused Rather Than Inward Driven: It’s easy to be completely absorbed with dealing with your own issues. Successful people never make this mistake. Identify at least three actions each week you can take to help someone else get what they want. As the boomerang effect consistently proves, whatever you invest in others returns to you tenfold.
Change Your Questions, Change Your Life: Success is always based on asking questions. The challenge is, most people ask the wrong questions because they ask mostly closed ended questions. I’ve uncovered the formula for success – you should be asking at least 5 open ended questions for every closed ended question asked. Read my article for more insights on asking the right questions.
Stop Right Fighting: As my good friend and success expert Jim Smith, Jr. will tell you, too many people focus on the need to be right rather than focusing on doing the right thing. To ensure you’re focused on doing the right thing, ask yourself two questions: “What am I about to do?” and “What objective does it relate to?”
Recognize Your Fears and Take Action Anyway: Fears and procrastination keep us from acting on our ideas. Starting today, take time to capture all of your great ideas. Write them down, record your ideas on your smartphone, whatever. At the end of each day, make note of your top 2 ideas and identify at least one action you can take the next day to begin moving towards seizing the opportunity. Do this habitually, and eventually success will become a habit.
Spend the Majority of Your Time with Those Who Encourage Your Success: As John Maxwell said in his book Talent is Never Enough, you should spend more time with people who see you not just as you are but as you could be. So make a list of people who encourage your dreams, help you overcome your doubts, and ignite your passions, and make plans to spend more time with these people as soon as you can.
Stop Making Excuses and Start Making Progress: Every excuse blocks your success. Stop making them. Take accountability and responsibility for the contributions you made for everything that happens to you. Once you do, you increase your probability of success.
Keep a Grateful Journal: As one of the most successful people in history, I value the awesome tips Oprah shares in her books and magazines. One of my favorites is an extremely effective strategy for growing your success. She suggests you think of 5 things you are grateful for on a daily basis and write them down. Do this consistently, and you will change your perspective about your day and your life. You will learn to focus on what you have, and once you do, you will always see that the universe is abundant; and by default, you will have more.
Follow an Action Plan to Achieve Success: To achieve and maintain success always requires a plan of action. Don’t have one? No problem. Read, print, and follow the 7 steps to achieving success that I shared in my blog article.
Use Failure to Identify Opportunities: Failing at something is an inevitable part of the process of becoming successful. The key is to be able to experience failure without losing enthusiasm for your goal. You do this by writing down what you failed at and then identifying as many actions you could take to prevent and / or overcome the failure. (see “Stop Making Excuses and Start Making Progress” above)
Look for Opportunities in Other Peoples’ Problems: All products and services were created to provide a solution to other peoples’ wants and needs. Even looking at what is ordinary can yield some fantastic opportunities for success. You just have to train yourself to seek out opportunities that lie between the challenges that people experience. When you see them, capture them and turn your attention to identifying actions you can take to seize the opportunities you’ve uncovered.
You now have 17 specific actions you can take right now to grow your success and the awesome thing about them is that they cost you nothing but the investment of your time and effort. Start by identifying the first 3 actions you will take and take them. This will help you get some quick and easy wins while breaking the total success process into smaller, more manageable chunks. Then move on to another 3 and repeat the process until all 17 have been implemented. Don’t wait. Start right now because success awaits you.
Do you have other tips and strategies for achieving success? I’d love to share your ideas, so please do share your tips in the comments section, and know that you have my appreciation in advance of your sharing.
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