Eight Steps on Your Road to Success

Eight Steps on Your Road to Success

Being a success is a complex journey; it is like a trek into an unknown wilderness, requiring various levels of planning, acquiring knowledge, building confidence and determination, an ability to focus, and many of the other crucial characteristics of the great pioneering adventurers.

The type of success that you are seeking may be very different to being the first to climb Mt Everest, but it is as well that you bear such an adventure in mind as you steer your way to your chosen destiny. Whatever it is, take small steps. Here is one possible approach to achieving success, through taking eight steps:

Success Step 1 - SWOT Analysis

Carry out a SWOT analysis of yourself; that is, analyse your personal strengths and weaknesses, your opportunities and threats. Using SWOT analysis is a business tool that is easy to apply to yourself. To show you really mean business, ask friends, family and colleagues to check it out for you. There is no point in deluding yourself, and you could learn some very useful things that will aid your success.

Success Step 2 - Check List of What is Needed to Succeed

Now that you have a broad idea of your strengths and weakness, you should check them against what is needed to achieve success in your chosen field. What is needed can include personal characteristics such as persistence, determination, and ability to listen and deal with set backs.

Success Step 3 - Discuss With Those Close to You

Having taken stock of what is required to succeed in your chosen route, discuss it with anyone close to you who will be affected by your efforts. Remember, it is better to have strong support from those closest to you, especially if their lifestyle may be affected by your ambitions.

Success Step 4 - Make a Final Decision to Pursue Your Dream and Set Firm Objectives

Having gone through the assessment stages, and cleared everything with those who are very close to you, it is final decision time. Are you going for success, or holding back? If you have decided to go for your chosen success, then set yourself some firm objectives, or even just one firm objective; your own Mt Everest if you like.

Success Step 5 - Planning Your Success

Put together an outline plan of what you need to do to achieve the success for which you strive. It can be a list to begin with, a check list of everything you have to do, including such things as knowledge gaps you need to fill, skills you need to acquire, and weaknesses you must address to guarantee long term success. Set yourself a sensible timetable, breaking your ultimate success down into appropriate stages that make it easier for you to monitor progress. It is useful to learn from others who have gone for the same goal, and see how long it took them, and what their difficulties and setbacks were. That will help you to be better prepared than they were for dealing with problems along the way.

If you know how to do network and critical path analysis, then do so to help get your plan on a realistic basis, with correct priorities for each action and phase.

Success Step 6 - Monitor Progress

Monitoring your progress against the plan is vital. You may think you are doing well, when in fact you have omitted something critical or are far behind in a crucial task. Your plan is not set in stone; as part of your monitoring process, revise your plan to fill in the gaps and revise priorities. You will be learning all the time, so as you proceed your planning will become more and more accurate.

Step 7 - Be Frankly Critical With Yourself

You are getting closer to your goal, but need to follow through so you do not let yourself down in the final stages. Take a critical look at what you have achieved so far, maybe at the half way stage, and tell yourself frankly what and where you need to do better. Ask yourself if there are any obstructions to your ultimate success and how you can deal with them. Determine where you are letting yourself down, and decide what to do about it. Then add your new actions to your plans.

Step 8 - The Final Climb to the Peak

You are now getting close to your ultimate success; the peak is in sight, and the adrenalin is flowing as you prepare for the final assault on the summit - your goal is about to be reached. This is a time to take stock again, and prepare immaculately, leaving nothing to chance. A final check of your equipment, your knowledge, your health and your determination. Are they all ready to go? If so, then you are on your way, there is no stopping you now. You are a success; slip ups are out of the question.

Congratulations! Now, what is the next success project?

Positive Thinking And Success

Positive Thinking And Success
The Role Of Positive Thinking In Achieving Success

The notion of positive thinking has been around a very long time, and I have used it quite unconsciously in the past. I can recall being quite junior in an office once, and then using visualisation to track out positive steps that leave me above those who were then my "superiors". I forgot about all that for a while, until a few years later I found myself senior to those managers I had looked up to. It took a lot of hard work, but I know for sure it was the positive thinking coupled with visualisation that made it quite a straightforward route to success in that particular arena.

Ever since then, I have used positive thinking in all areas of my life, business and personal. From obtaining professional qualifications, to overcoming major business setbacks; from setting up my own business, to recovering from the emotional strain of divorce in such a way that I achieved a childhood dream and started my perfect life.

Filling your mind with positive thoughts can empower you to become far more successful than you currently are. You may not be able to release all your personal potential in one go, but you can certainly make it a smooth ride to success in your chosen path.

Using positive thinking to improve your life can not only improve it but change it completely. When you admit to your mind thoughts, words, and images that are conducive towards your growth, then you are using positive thinking. Positive thinking can be done using mere thoughts, eliminating negative ones, using words and phrases or quotes. Some people use positive affirmations and visualization to help improve their lives. It all depends on what works best on that person and with positive thinking, no two people will respond the same way to the same method. Everybody is different.

An open and positive mind is not only open to ideas on how to improve life, it enables you actually use the mind to control your decisions so that you can achieve better results in life. A positive mind anticipates happiness, joy, health and success. When the mind anticipates these things, that person will make decisions based on these expectations.

I realised a few years ago that every time I had a serious setback in my life, I would bounce back in better shape very quickly. So when, in 1998/99 I had a rapid series of business and personal setbacks, I actually began to get excited. Although the personal pain and problems were there, I felt I was being granted a chance to rebuild my life as I wanted it. So that was exactly what I did.

It would have been so easy to become despondent and depressed, but why do that when you have a chance to change your life for the better?

Ways to improve your business

Ways to improve your business


Every business owner knows that in order to grow their business you have to keep improving. This is true no matter how large or how small you business is. It is important to realize that no business is static. You should realize that your business is on an upward track or on its way down. Making improvements to make your business better is a conscious choice that the savvy business owner will be constantly focusing on. It is important to realize that not only must you balance your time but choose the right area of business that will make the biggest impact. Here are some ways to improve your business-

* Know where your business is at-You need to be keeping score and some an idea of the daily, weekly and monthly numbers that are going in your business. One of the biggest improvements you can do is to keep current on cash flow. If you do lack the necessary financial skills then hire the right person to do it for you.
* Use effective marketing-It is important to realize that it is easy to waste money, time and other resources on ineffective marketing. Smart business owners will constantly be working on ways to improve the effectiveness of their marketing. A crucial component of this is to measure the how the customers are finding you. Customer surveys, feed back calls and simply asking your customers what brought them to you can help you see what forms of marketing are the most effective.
* Set business goals-Setting goals and objectives is an essential part of business success. If you do not know where you want your business to go it becomes impossible to plan and lessons the chances of you success.
* Master the fundamentals of delivering a powerful business presentation-A great business presentation can help improve your business by a huge margin. It is important to realize that earning the essentials of a knockout business presentation can reap many rewards.
* Keep ahead of the trends-Savvy business owners realize that no business operates in a vacuum. There are always forces at work that come into play for the success of your business. It is important to realize that the events and changes in the global landscape have an effect on your business. Smart business owners will stay current on trends and issues.
* Always be sharpening your selling skills-The sales function is like the engine of your business it will drive it forward it simply cause it to stall. You should never forget to focus on sales improvement whether you are selling to large corporations or your target market walks in off the street.
* Find ways to motivate your employees-If you have the right people in the right job then your business will always be improving. Remember that your staff is your most valuable resource and talented and motivated people can bring big improvements about in your business.
* Be looking for best practices-Every industry has its own best practices or ways of doing things that are tried and true. You should avoid wasting money and time reinventing the industry. If it works well then stick with it.
* Know your limits-Every successful business owner has a clear idea of their limitations. By knowing your business personality type, you can manage your resources and find help in areas of weakness. You should never be afraid to ask for help.
* Do not be afraid to take a break-There is no denying that running a business is extremely hard work. Many business owners report that one of the best ways to improve their business is simply to take a vacation and come back refreshed and renewed.