5 Keys to Success

Can you believe that 2016 is just around the corner? I believe that this is a beginning of renewal for the country, the world as well as ourselves. Change happens, it is unavoidable and if last year didn’t go as smoothly as you would like, know that this year is a new beginning, so start gearing up for it now.

Follow these five steps in creating your plan for success and make this year the beginning of greatness for you and your family. 

Successful people know what they want and work out a strategy to get what they want in order to get where they want to be. This is the very foundation for building success. 

With the New Year just around the corner you have to remember the adage, “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten” then ask yourself what you could do in this new year to be more successful.

Step #1 Build the right plan.

This plan has to be yours and yours alone. As long as you work on a plan for someone else, then that plan is his or hers and not yours. Everyone’s plan is unique and different, so make your plan.

If you find yourself working on someone else’s plan you may find yourself in a successful situation, but it will be a golden handcuffs type of situation.

Also, if you build your success off of someone else’s plan you will only find that when you reach the top of the success ladder, you had your ladder against the wrong wall.

Step #2 Keep a Journal.

Think of this as a written record of your life. Ideas, plans, strategies, etc., all need to go in this game plan. Never rely on memory.

Quotes that inspire you, reflections of the day; it all needs to be recorded so that you can stay on track and keep an account of where you are going and where you have been.

Step #3 Reflection.

Playing off of step 2, make time to reflect. Study the things that you have done right and wrong. Like I always tell my clients, friends, even my daughter, “he who only knows one side of a wall is often defeated by that which is on the other side” so it is important to, not only review your victories, but also your mess ups. Keep record of it all and reflect on it all to know how what to do next time and what to improve on.

At the end of each day, take time to go over the previous day and create a game plan for the next day.

Step #4 Set Your Goals.

Again, this is about you, set your goals, not what you need to do for your boss at work, or someone else that is using your time to advance their agendas.

Creating goals is the number one most important thing that you can do to move yourself forward.

Every effective game plan is written down, studied, modified and gone over again and again. Make sure to know your destination and what you need to know or achieve in order to reach that destination and then create a game plan to get there.

Step #5 Take action

The one thing that separates the successful person from the not so successful is action (or lack there of).

The number one thing that kept me in a state of despair, poverty and depression was this very thing. When it came to ideas, my brain was a computer, but when it came to following through, I dropped the ball so many times.

I heard the cemetery once described as the biggest concentration of wealth, intellect and achievement because there were so many people buried there who had the knowledge, ideas and creativity, but never acted and it died with them instead of spreading. I always thought this was sad, but true.

Values were meant to be costly. If they didn’t cost much, we probably wouldn’t appreciate the value.”-Jim Rohn.

I know I said five, but here is a bonus one for you. Values…Your values will tell the world who you are and what you are made of. To have effective goals, they must first be rooted in your values or you will not be committed enough to stick with them.