Success the slow way

We live in an age when people want it all… and they want it right now.

Many people seem unwilling to roll up their sleeves and do the hard work necessary to achieve the success they want. They hope that a lottery win or a sex tape will skyrocket them to the stratosphere of achievement. The persistent popularity of get rich quick schemes is a great example of this. So are many of the ridiculously unhealthy ways to achieve a healthy physical look.

But it doesn’t work that way. Success is the long-term result of small, incremental advances. Yes, there are “win-falls” and “lucky breaks” but we shouldn’t build our lives around those.We shouldn’t strive to suddenly wake up successful. We should strive to wake up and take one more step toward success.

And, I think that there are many people (in Hollywood, especially) who show us that too much success too quickly is detrimental. (Hello, Lindsay Lohan? This is your self-respect calling).

Instead, we should adopt the “success the slow way” model of achievement.

Rather than trying to fast track our way to financial success or popularity, we should accept that success will come to those who have the tenacity and discipline to achieve it.

So what does success the slow way look like?

• It looks like waking up every day earlier than your competitors.
• It looks like paying in sweat and time to get what we want rather than buying our way into it.
• It looks like the athlete who gets up again after falling down.
• It looks like 10000 failed attempts at a lightbulb
• It looks like hours of study.
• It looks like sacrifice.

I love this video. I think it sums it up perfectly. This is true, meaningful, lasting success that springs from a willingness to work harder and sacrifice more to achieve it.

6 tips for successful action-taking

One of the most valuable lessons I continually learn in life is this:

Successful people take action.

They list their dreams and, create goals around those dreams… but lots of people do that that.

What really makes someone successful is that they move forward with their dreams. They slowly move the needle farther and farther each day. They accept the risk that they’ll make mistakes and they move forward even during those times when they don’t know EXACTLY what they should be doing. They push through and figure it out as they go.

How to take action

If all you do is dream, you’re not doing enough. If all you do is set goals, you’re not doing enough. Instead, you need to…

Dream and then (from that dream) create goals and then (from those goals) create action steps.

And then you need to do those action steps every single day.

That’s it! That’s the recipe for success. I see a lot of people (especially on Twitter) posting about the secret to success and they often list visualization or the principle of attraction as two ways to become more successful. I think there is merit to both of those ideas but as success principles they fall short if you’re not also acting to move your goals forward.

Something magical happens when you act. Action can break you out of a slump of depression, procrastination, unhappiness, or feeling unomotivated. For some reason, when we take action and cross our tasks off of our to-do list, we overcome those internal feelings of negativity and laziness. So action-taking not only helps us to achieve our goals, it also helps us to overcome mental and emotional set-backs, too!

Do you have a to-do list? Perhaps you do but is it drawn specifically from your goals? Make sure your dreams and goals and to-do’s are aligned and make sure you adopt the one success principle that has never failed:

Act now!

5 ways to get “re-motivated”

I struggled with a lack of motivation last week. I think it struck around Tuesday and lingered until Thursday afternoon or so.

I’m not exactly sure why (although I’m of the opinion that a combination of diet, exercise, stress, sleep, and a bunch of other factors will all play a part in how you feel). So there I was on Thursday afternoon looking at a big pile of work and wondering how I would possibly get it all done by the weekend (and regretting that I hadn’t been motivated earlier to do it).

Sometimes that happens to all of us. We just get into a sort of mental funk that keeps us from moving forward and taking action on the stuff that is important in life.

So when that happens, here are 5 ways that I get re-motivated:

Exercise or go for a brisk walk

Be careful not to use this as a procrastinating or delaying tactic. However, you can instead use it as a way to get the blood pumping. And in my case, I can sit in front of my computer and be unmotivated but as soon as I get some new scenery, I feel a lot better and can’t wait to get back to my desk.

Revisit your purpose, vision, goals

We all exist for a reason and we all have dreams that excite us. And there’s a very good chance that you are working to fulfill those dreams. So sometimes what you need to do is take a step back from the mundane “grind” of the workload and remember why you’re doing it in the first place.

Drink a bunch of water

I keep a 1 liter (or 1 quart for my American friends) water bottle in the fridge and when I get unmotivated, I try to drink it all at once. Okay, I realize that probably sounds crazy but there’s a point at about 3/4 of the way through the bottle when I start to feel so much better.

Set a timer for 10 minutes and do something

After being unmotivated for a while, it’s hard to pop the cork and get to work. A lack of motivation tends to lead to procrastination and fear of starting something. So I set a timer and do SOMETHING for 10 minutes. Often, it’s enough to just get things moving again.

Announce your goal

One of the best motivators is the threat of public shame. So when I really want to get something done (ESPECIALLY if I’m reluctant to do it or I’ve been unmotivated for a while), is to announce that you’re about to do it. Find a network in which you’re really connected (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, your blog, or a forum that you’re an active participant in) and announce your plan. You don’t have to admit that you’ve been unmotivated, just write something like: “I’m about to start on a report for my client”. Then look forward to finishing it and posting your successful completion.

Next Page »