5 Tips To Become More Successful

5 Tips On How To Become More Successful 

By Mark Wager 

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I’m often asked about the role of a Leadership Coach. In its most simplistic terms, my job is to make people successful. It maybe that they are seeking a promotion, wanting to start their own business or just wanting to become more confident regardless of their own personal definition of success. It’s my role to help them get there. Everyone’s journey is unique and requires very specific advice and guidance but there are some general tips that will apply to everyone and in this week’s article I want to share those tips with you so that you too can become successful.

Tip 1: Don’t live half a life 

Here’s a quote by former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt:

"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure … than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." 

For me this quote is about how much better it is to live a full life, one which is filled with dreams and ambitions and even if that comes with painful failures it will still be a better life than one which is left unfulfilled and here’s the biggest barrier to success, the illusion that we are living the best possible life when in reality we are capable of achieving so much more.

Feed the fire

We all possess a certain amount of motivation. It’s a quality that is natural to everyone of us but in some it’s a spark and in others it’s a raging fire and like fire motivation can grow and spread. You just need to know how to feed the fire. No matter how motivated you may be at this present moment you can become more driven, more focussed and more disciplined and when you do you can live a life that is worthy of you and here’s how to do it.

Tip 2: Get specific, very specific 

"If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else." - Lawrence J. Peter

When you are travelling to a location it’s obvious that your trip will be a lot quicker and easier if you have a specific address. The same methodology can be applied to your ambitions. If you have a specific goal you will be far more likely to achieve it than you would if your goal was vague. Here’s a common example. Someone comes to me wanting help to achieve their goal of obtaining a promotion yet often they can’t tell me about the job description. The competencies/skills/qualifications required for the role. This is like trying to get to a location without a map and you are now replying on luck rather than a precise strategy. 

Whatever you goal is it needs to be specific. The  more details, the better you need to be at a stage that when you describe your goal it feels like it’s actually real. I know from experience that the people who have specific goals are always far more likely to achieve them over people who don’t.

Tip 3: Establish real consequences. 

“Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat. Only by so doing can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win, essential to success.” - Napoleon Hill

If given a choice between two paths, one easy and one difficult, it’s a natural instinct to go down the easiest path regardless of where that path will take you. The unfortunate reality is that the easiest path never leads us to greatness, it will take us all the way to a feeling of comfort but greatness is not always comfortable so you have to push yourself further. On this difficult path you will face failure and self doubt but this is a natural part of your journey. This is why most people fail to reach their goals. They only go as far as the easiest path takes them, yet successful people are prepared to go down the difficult path which takes them closer to their goal.

On your journey you will require that additional motivation. To get you through the difficult path, the highly successful people I know find this extra drive by ensuring there are real consequences if they fail. Ask yourself what happens if you fail. If the answer is nothing then at some stage you will struggle with motivation. A hungry man will always be more motivated to act than the man who is well fed. A popular tactic that I have seen is to create consequences by making a public commitment. Tell people what you are going to achieve, not what you are aiming to do but instead what you will do. A goal kept to yourself is a goal that will never be realised.

Tip 4: Focus on the small steps 

"The great danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark." –Michelangelo

You would be familiar with the saying about how every long journey starts with a single step, this is the mindset that highly successful people possess. If you want to become highly motivated don’t focus on the destination instead focus on the journey and in particular the small steps you need to take. When I work with authors, they very rarely have a target of writing a book instead their target is to write a page or two pages a day. When you think about writing a book it seems like a big challenge and can easily seem daunting yet when you focus on writing just a page or two then it seems easily achievable. Ask yourself what is the next small step you need to take in order to reach your goal. Focussing on your goal will make you happy but focussing on the small steps will make you successful.

Tip 5: Build momentum 

The most important thing you can do to achieve your goals is to make sure that as soon as you set them, you immediately begin to create momentum.” - Tony Robbins.

One of the most important aspects of motivation is momentum. Success can easily become a habit yet so can failure. In order to develop successful habits you need to do something every day in order to take you closer to your goal and I mean every day even if the next step is a small step you have to keep on moving. You need to build momentum. Just look at sports. Have you seen a team that puts together a few wins and then they look unbeatable and then there are teams that go on a losing streak which they find difficult to break. The key is momentum. It doesn’t matter how fast you go as long you are moving. If you have tasks to do tomorrow stop and ask yourself what is stopping you from doing them today. The more proactive you are, the more you will achieve and the more you achieve the more successful you will become and success comes with confidence and with confidence you are able to achieve even more. This is momentum. 

If you have a goal then in the words of Theodore Roosevelt don’t live in that grey twilight that knows neither victory nor  defeat instead follow the path of highly motivated people and make your dream a reality and the first step is to take action now, not later, not tomorrow but this very moment. Take action now and you will find that you won’t have to seek out motivation because motivation will come to you.