Like many people I feel that so far in my life I have been successful. Without too much thought and planning I have enjoyed a rich and varied personal and professional life experiencing highs and lows along the way – great career, strong personal and business relationships, good income, fabulous holidays but also bereavement, illness, divorce, bullying and redundancy. I try hard to build on my successes and learn from my setbacks and I am pleased with what I have achieved. I think that I am bright, busy and self motivated BUT when I look around me I see others who look to achieve more success more easily then me and I wonder:

• What makes others so successful?
• What is their secret key to success?
• Why are some people successful and others not?
• How do successful people manage to make things look easy and seem to be in the right place at the right time?

When I started my own business I took a major step outside of my comfort zone as a paid employee. I found it tough but with my experience, knowledge and skills I asked myself ‘how could I fail to succeed?’ What’s more ‘how could I achieve success more easily and quickly than ever before?’

I quickly realised that my past experiences, vague hopes and loose plans would not guarantee the continued success to which I aspired. So I invested my time – and money – in learning about success and how to achieve it. What I learnt made a profound impact on me and totally changed the way I think, act and behave. It has made a huge difference to me and I thought I would share my learning with you.

First of all some FACTS

• Success is not an accident
• There is no secret key to success
• Success takes time and effort
• Successful people make their own fortune.

Successful people plan a journey towards success and follow it. Their skills, abilities, talents and objectives are aligned towards one purpose – SUCCESS.

All journeys start with a destination in mind and a journey towards success is no different. ‘You can’t get where you are going unless you know where you are going’. I am sure that you have heard this many times, on training courses, seminars, conferences and read it in self development books and journals.

You know it but do you really believe it and practice it? Do you plan to achieve success or do you hope and wait and see what happens?

We all possess success qualities but without clear goals, our qualities, talents, skills and abilities are confused. Lack of focus affects our attitude which in turn affects our behaviour and the results we achieve.

So – is it possible to learn to become more successful?

Yes – it is. Anyone can learn, change and grow as long as you understand and believe in the ingredients of success and acknowledge that it is largely attitude that limits achievement.

The route to SUCCESS is actually very simple.

It starts with a clear GOAL. To get a clear goal you must crystallise your thinking so that you can see where you are going, the obstacles that stand in your way and understand the actions that you have to take to overcome the obstacles. You then need a PLAN. To do lists are great but, lists are like loose schemes, they help you get things done but do they take you towards a goal? Occasionally they may but often they take you somewhere you didn’t expect to go. If you really want to realise and achieve your goal you need to crystallise your thinking and have a PLAN.

Your PLAN turns vague thoughts and ideas into clearer pictures and you see what actions you need to take by when and in what order. The clarity of what you need to do fires your enthusiasm and you develop DESIRE.

DESIRE to have what you want drives your self motivation and this connected to your PLAN aimed at your GOAL enthuses you and drives your attitude like nothing before. You have the power to achieve and you have CONFIDENCE that you will succeed.

CONFIDENCE connected to DESIRE, held together by a PLAN propels you towards your GOAL. So now that you are nearly there do you stop or keep going?

Well SUCCESSFUL people keep going. They have the DETERMINATION to keep going regardless of hindering circumstances or what other people say or do they do whatever it takes to keep going and reach their GOAL.

SUCCESSFUL people know that it is the connection of all these steps that guarantee their SUCCESS.

GOAL

PLAN

DESIRE

CONFIDENCE

DETERMINATION

Whilst each of these qualities and skills are fantastic attributes on their own, their real power lies in using them together.

So SUCCESS really is that simple, thousands of people know it and achieve it everyday. That now includes me.
FOOTNOTE

This article is based on Paul J Meyers Million Dollar Success Plan

Alison Fielder is a Director at LMI-UK. See the Events and Programmes that she is running here