Setting Yourself Up For Success

Most people want to be successful in life. But success can mean different things to different people: making more money; spending quality time with your family; or learning to play a musical instrument.

Since success is personal, defining what it means for you is the first step to achieving it. Once you are clear about what success looks like for you, here are some important points to help you achieve it.

Steps to Success

1. Know your Potential: In order to succeed at anything you need to see that you have the potential to reach your goals

2. Understand your Goal: List three or four reasons why you want to achieve this goal? What is the result you want to obtain?

3. Set Realistic Goals & Timelines: Often times we want overnight success. Make sure your goals and the time frame you have set are realistic.

4. Create a Plan: This is by far the most important document of all. It allows you to keep track of everything involving your goal.

5. No Shortcuts: Shortcuts are sloppy and compromise your work and your integrity. "Anything worth doing is worth doing well."

6. Have Courage: Depending on what success means to you, you will have to have courage to stand up for what you believe and desire to do, even if it means disappointing others.

7. Stay Motivated: It is critical to stay motivated when striving for the big goal of success. Motivational tools will help you stay on track.

8. Be Passionate: Have passion for what you are doing and working toward. You will automatically put more effort into it.

9. No Excuses: If you want something badly enough, there is always a way!

10. No Fear: Fear of Failure is a normal emotion for everyone. How you get past the fear determines whether you experience success.

11. Create Opportunities: Make things happen rather than waiting for opportunities to find you.

12. Attitude: A good attitude will allow you to turn any bad situation into a learning experience. Staying positive and surrounding yourself with friends that share a positive attitude will help you succeed.

13. Make the Best of Each Day: Make the most of every day and accomplish something - even if it's something small. Every baby step counts towards your success.

14. Set Daily Goals: Setting daily goals keeps you on track. Seeing your progress will help keep you going.

15. Accept Responsibility: You will have help in many instances; however, the bottom line is that you are responsible for the choices you will make.

16. Be Open to Improvement: Accept that you do not have all the answers and more importantly, be open to recommendations from other people.

17. Paint a Picture: A great way to keep working toward your goal is to picture what it will look like when you are successful.

18. Identify Procrastinations: If you have a problem with procrastination, make a list of distractions you routinely choose, so you can recognize when you are off course and get back on track.

19. Want versus Need: Do it because you want it, not because you need it. When you want something, it requires and creates intention, desire, and action - all powerful tools for being successful (doing something out of need usually leads to pain, stress, and frustration).

20. Believe in yourself: Your confidence is what will get you through the challenges.

21. Be Efficient: Use your time and effort wisely.

22. Have Balance in your Life: Make the time for both hard work and pleasure.

23. Have Fun: Fun is a crucial element of success, but one that often forgotten once we get into the process. Find fun and joy in what you are doing, even in the midst of the challenges.

Cecile Peterkin is a Certified Career Coach, Retirement Coach and Speaker. With over 17 years of managerial, leadership, empowerment counseling and personal development experience, Cecile specializes in helping Middle Managers overcome the "Middle Syndrome" of being stuck in a middle position in mid-life. To learn more about Cecile, visit her website at http://www.cosmiccoachingcentre.com or call 416-782-5001, Toll-free:1-866-486-4112.

MORE RESOURCES:

RELATED ARTICLES

10 Compelling Reasons to Stop Singing the Blues
Are you:- feeling unfulfilled and dissatisfied with your life?- ready to stop holding yourself back from success?Is it time to:- get rid of self-sabotaging thoughts that keep you down?- say goodbye to the blues and take control of your life?Then the following life-changing information is for you!We're all born with the potential for living a fulfilled, happy and enjoyable life. Some of us achieve extraordinary success in business and in life, some of us watch others achieve it, and many wonder why they come up short.

Expect Success to Stay Self-Motivated and Get Great Results
If you called my office you will hear my voice mail message that ends with the words "Expect Success."There's a important intent behind that.

Reaping a Multiple Reward
For every disciplined effort, there are multiple rewards. That's one of life's great arrangements.

3 Keys to Boosting Your Inner Confidence
I've been coaching for a few years now, and the biggest thing I've learnt - both for me and for my clients - is that inner confidence is the key to it all.There are all kinds of strategies, ways of thinking, patterns of behaviour and practical tips for improving your life and feeling better about yourself, but they're all redundant if the foundation isn't there.

Seven Keys To Success In The Information Age
In 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down and the World Wide Web went up, the world changed forever. This marked the end of the Industrial Age and the beginning of the Information Age.

Thinking for Success
Thoughts are very powerful. An intention held long and hard enough will eventually manifest itself physically.

The Secret of Lasting Personal Change
Why do diets end up in gained weight? Why do some people fail again and again at business? And why do other people fall into one bad relationship after another -- in spite of their honest desire for a "good" relationship?Obviously no one *wishes* to fail in their personal or business life. Yet this is an all-too-common problemWe WANT to be in control! We WANT to make our lives a better place to be! We WANT success! We WANT a sense of security! We WANT a good relationship with ourselves and others.

The Communication of Your Biology & Beliefs
Not only do we communicate with ourselves, but our cells communicate with each other and the environment in order to respond to situations, which ultimately create our belief systems.Dr Bruce Lipton has done extensive work on how our beliefs and perceptions affect us at the cellular level.

100 Top 2004 Secrets to Success
After all the things I have shared with you this year on what is needed to feel good about yourself, your potential, and your chances of realizing your desires, here is a quick list to review your progress. Remember, you are a success no matter what.

Learn Faster, Change is Coming
Challenges posed by recent economic and market shifts, though predicted for some time, have instigated chaos in the lives of many business professionals and factory workers alike, not to mention just about everyone else who is paying attention. Instead of embracing change and allowing it to fuel creativity and activity, many people allow the very thought of it to cripple them through fear, indecision and inactivity.

Why Aren't You Seriously Wealthy Already?
I bet you want to be wealthy, but somehow the money eludes you.Perhaps you overspend, perhaps it's the impulse purchases, perhaps you just don't earn enough per hour.

Top 10 Secrets to Success
Much has been researched, written and taught about success. One thing is absolutely sure; success is different for every person because success means something different to every person.

Success -- Its All a Matter of Mindset!
"Walk away from the 97% crowd. Don't use their excuses.

Overnight Success - the Truth is Revealed
Overnight success seems to be happening to a lot of other people all the time. A new popstar arrives in a blaze of glory and is an instant success.

Why You Cant Budget For Success
Do you constantly find yourself saying "I can't afford it" or "It's not in my budget"?If so, when it comes to your business you need to replace those defeating words with "How can I generate the revenue that I need to invest in the success of my business?"This process is vital to the success of your business because thinking small will prevent big accomplishments.If you believe that you can't do what is necessary to grow your business, you are right.

Your Focus is the KEY to YOUR Success
Why do you need to know your focus when joining a group?The power of focus will differentiate you from the rest of the crowd. You need to concentrate on where business comes from for your organization.

Who Else Wants to Keep Failing?
Who wants to carry on being a failure?Failure. Not a great word is it? It is a very negative word, it says nothing good happened at all.

How To Get Out Of The Way Of Your Own Success
Success is something that happens all by itself once you've decided to have it happen and let go of the process. How many things in your life are you absolutely certain that you can be successful at? Take some time to answer this question because your answer will establish the upper limit of your success.

Attitude Is The Key To Success
We all want success in life. We want success in our home life, business life, and in our relationships with others.

Transform Your Fear Into Focus!
The greatest deterrent to success in life is fear. It drains our ambition, denies us power, and strangles our ability to overcome the challenges we face in our personal and professional lives.