Do you ever sit back in surprise at the success of other people and wonder how you could become more successful? There are no miracles when it comes to being successful – just a series of strategies that, if applied, will ensure you get ahead of the game. Many people believe that it is luck that determines whether a person becomes successful or not. However, it’s amazing how much luckier you get the more you practise so perhaps luck has a far smaller part to play in success than you might think.
It is true that you may not always achieve exactly what you are aiming for. Yet by using the success formula you can ensure that your chances of being in a better place than you are now are greatly increased.
The Success Formula
You can increase your success if you follow the Success Formula
S = Y + C + P
Success = You (your strengths and qualities) + Change/challenge (your drive to learn and develop) + Positivity (positive attitude and beliefs)
There are three components that make up success:
The first is ‘You’ and the strengths and qualities you possess at the moment. Clearly, if you are already a well-qualified, confident person with good communication skills you are off to a flying start. If you are not, all is not lost.
The second component is change/challenge. So even if you are starting with a disadvantage you can make it up. The more you work on personal self-awareness, communication skills and skill acquisition, the more you increase your chances of being able to spot and capitalise on what is happening around you. Self-awareness includes the ability to use your emotional intelligence to understand yourself, your strengths, your limitations and your personal motivations. It also means having an understanding of the effect you have on others.
Communication relates to your ability to influence others positively towards you as the more accurately you can ‘read’ people and situations the more likely you are to be able to get the most from them. Skill acquisition means that you strive to continue to maintain the skills you have and develop new ones that will help you move forward.
For example, your self-awareness may tell you that you need to develop better influencing skills to aid your communication and that better communication requires you to listen more effectively, use open ended questions more often to elicit information and strengthen your rapport-building abilities all of which can be broken down into skills that can be acquired.
The third component is ‘positivity’. All successful people believe in themselves and the rightness of what they are doing. Positivity is intentions and rubs off on people around you. The optimist invariably gains more support than the pessimist.
In addition to the success formula the following TopTen Tips will also ensure you increase your chances of becoming a winner.
Take a look from the outside
De-personalise your experiences so you keep perspective and your blood pressure down. When you find yourself feeling under attack, stand back and imagine a force field around you. Remind yourself that it is in your best interests to stay calm and handle the situation rather than react and lose out.
Check the rules are working for you
We all have ‘life rules’ that help us make choices. Make sure you are not operating on any that have reached their sell-by date. If I take every opportunity then I will be successful may have been a great rule to get your career started but could spread you too thinly if you have established yourself.
Count your blessings
Research shows that the more you focus on what went well every day the more positive, healthier and happier you become. Positive people get more out of life and when you feel good about yourself, you react more confidently and feeling grateful helps you become less stressed about life in general. Stress is a sure way of stopping you become successful.
Ask your way to success
She who don’t ask don’t get – learn to be more assertive. Good communication skills mean easier relationships, less misunderstanding and emotional upheaval and this means more energy to use developing the life you want. Ask for what you want and you’ll be surprised at how much you will get.
Change how you do something
Learn to be efficient with your behaviours. It is easier to do something than worry about it – don’t think about it, just do it. There is no excuse and the more you make excuses the less successful you will be. Fear will not kill you but giving in to it will make you less successful.
Laugh – it makes your brain work better
Laughter releases the happy drug Dopamine into the system that makes you feel relaxed and happy. When people are happy and relaxed they make better decisions and use less energy making them too.
Phone a friend
Research has shown that the more friends you have the less likely you are to be depressed and the faster you will recover from upsets. Improve your social circle, get out and meet people and not only will you develop a great personal resource but the more people you know the more chances you will have of developing a useful personal and professional network.
Join the 21st century – make technology your pal
Email, mobile phones, text messages, computers, and personal organisers – all of these can increase your ability to keep in touch with people. Take control of technology and it will serve you well. Keep a dictating machine with you so you can note down your ideas when they come to you.
Use your time well
There are 168 hours in a week. If you sleep 8 hours a day then you are left with 112 hours to do everything else. Don’t waste your time – remember that you need to split your time into time for work, rest and play if you want to be a rounded person. Successful people know that time is at the heart of success and use the time they have to best effect. Make plans and use your time wisely.
What goes round comes round
You get what you focus on so if you think about all the negatives you’ll end up with negative outcomes. Focus on positive people and learn from them, read positive books and listen to positive radio programmes. Use your car journey to listen to inspirational tapes and turn dead time into learning time.
What would you add?
You might want to take a look at my Transformational Coaching Programme.
