The Path To Success

Definition: Belief – the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true; Mental acceptance of a claim as truth; something believed;

Beliefs are something that can help our success strategy or hinder it. Our beliefs are not real but we act as though they are and if our beliefs work against us then not only may we not start on the path to success we may not even know that it exists in the first place.

I don’t want to get into the nature versus nurture discussion but I don’t think there is any doubt that as you are growing up your environment such as your family, affect your beliefs. If people tell you often enough that you are hopeless at something you will believe it and if people tell you that you are brilliant at something you’ll believe that too. After all this is the basis of advertising – tell people something often enough and they’ll believe it.

However our beliefs may not have any relation to reality. Have you ever met someone who you thought was brilliant at something but they thought that were awful at it? Sometimes it can be shyness or humility but it can also be that their belief is that they are useless at it.

If you’ve ever watched any television programs about women’s body image you’ll notice that most women believe that they are bigger than they are. It’s often proven to be incorrect during the show.

So why are beliefs so important? Once they are created they affect everything that we do. Yes everything. Our beliefs shape our thoughts because we can already decide that we can (or more often can’t) do even before we’ve tried it.

One of the keys to being successful is to work out what your beliefs are and whether they are working for you or against you. If you discover that they are working against you then you can change them. Remember I said that beliefs aren’t real? Since they are not real you can change them to be something that works for you.

It’s writing a new program for yourself that you get to choose. We do a lot of things subconsciously and when we start to question what we do and why we do it, it can lead us to our underlying beliefs. One way to discover this is to write down what you think about a particular topic, for example money. When some people write down what they think about money all they discover are negative beliefs such as stinking rich, money doesn’t grow on trees, etc. It’s all negative and yet they wonder why they can’t make or keep money. You can do this with any area that you want to improve.

Once you know your underlying beliefs you can create new ones to replace them, ones that empower you to being successful.

Success quote: “You can have anything you want if you will give up the belief that you can’t have it.” ~ Dr Robert Anthony

Definition: Accountable – responsible; answerable; subject to the obligation to report

One of the first steps on the path to success is accountability. Whether we realize it or not we are all accountable to someone, somewhere. I have never liked the idea of being accountable since it meant giving people permission to hold me to account, ensuring that I report whether I did, or did not, keep to my intentions. I said I didn’t like it since someone was watching over me but in truth it was because I didn’t want to accept responsibility. Accountability and accepting responsibility is an important part of a success strategy.

When we are personally accountable it means that we are responsible for our lives. We make the choices for what we do and do not do and accept the consequences. There is no-one to blame for our lives and the way they turn out other than ourselves.

Being accountable to someone for getting things done can be a great motivator. Set deadlines for your actions and let others know about it. Ask them to hold you accountable – yes you actually give them permission to ask you on a set date whether an action was completed.

Why is accountability important in a success strategy? It’s all too easy (and yes I speak from experience) to find an excuse to do something else rather than what I intended to do. It may be that something gets boring when you’re doing the same thing day after day and so it seems easier not to do it. If I’m being held accountable I’m much less likely to be slack.

When you hold yourself accountable you realize that you are not at the mercy of anyone else, you are not a victim and there are no excuses. You are responsible for your own path to success and not relying on fate to lend a hand. You are at the source of being successful and no-one can take that away from you.

Success quote: “My belief is that personal freedom cannot grow beyond personal responsibility. The more people that learn to be fully accountable for their lives, the more freedom each of us can enjoy and the more fulfilling all of our lives will be.” ~ Reed Konsler

What does being successful mean to you?

Before you create your success strategy to start on the path to success you want to work out what success actually means to you. It may mean that you accomplish a goal that you set or that you accumulate a certain amount of money. Get straight what it means to you now so that you’ll know when you get there.

Who do you need to be, to be successful?

No I don’t mean pretending you are someone else but what personality traits, habits do you need to acquire to be successful. It’s likely that you have some already (whether you realize it or not) but there is always something else you can learn.

Obviously we’ll be covering some of these in this series but if you know someone who is successful in the field where you want to be successful then discover what they do, how they act etc. This is why I love reading autobiographies of successful people since I get an insight into how they live their lives.

This doesn’t mean that you want to completely become like another person – that would be creepy. However you can add successful personality traits and habits to your existing ones.

Some important ones that we’ll be covering during this success strategy series are:

Accountability – holding yourself accountable for what you do and what you don’t do

Commitment – Know that you are going all out to achieve your goals no matter what

Responsibility – taking responsibility for your life so that you have the power to create what you want

Goals – start with the end in mind and then work backwards to the present

Read through these articles and you’ll be able to build your own success strategy to take you from where you are now to where you want to be.

Success quote: “As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.” ~ Mohandas Gandhi