The 7 Principle of Success I confirmed by
jumping out of perfectly serviceable aircraft!
A friend of mine recently invited me to
talk to a group of business people on the subject of success in business, and
life as a whole. But then he complicated my life by asking me to use some of
the experiences that I had during my military career to illustrate the
principles that I would be sharing. The complication came simply from the fact
that it is not a period of my life that I reference very often, and I was truly
not convinced that it was something that would be of general interest to other
people. But because I'm such an amazing friend, I reluctantly agreed to do it,
and ended up with about 30 minutes of pretty interesting content.
The good news for you is that I am not
going to bore you with the military stuff, unless you specifically ask for it,
of course! Instead, I'm going to pull out the major elements of the
presentation that identify the 7 primary areas that each of us needs to focus
on if we wish to be successful in our businesses, or our lives as a whole. So
here we go…
1. Accountability
This is the fundamental requirement for
success – we need to each own the process that got us to where we are today,
even though we may not regard ourselves as being successful yet. A lack of
accountability manifests in our lives as a lack of understanding of our
personal values and that leaves us unsure of what we really believe, or where
we are actually heading. As soon as we become accountable for our past we free
ourselves up to be equally accountable for the future of our choosing.
Continuing to blame random forces, over which we have no control, keeps us
trapped in our past, and allows our history to determine our destiny. Each of
us has arrived at the point in our lives that we are at today because of the
decisions that we have made. In turn, each of those decisions was based on our
thinking at the time. Therefore, it follows that if we can change the way we
think, that will change our decision-making process, and that will allow us to
move into the future of our choosing.
2. Forgiveness
A lack of forgiveness in our lives keeps us
emotionally bound to historical problems and issues, and stops us being able to
be objective about our current situation and our future. We end up
"shoulding all over ourselves" – I should have done this, I should
have done that, I should do the next
thing! Unforgiveness traps us in the no-man's land of inactivity, and hoarding
forgiveness very quickly leads to bitterness. Releasing the demons of past,
which you can do nothing about anyway, gives you a clear heart, and a new
beginning. Apart from the fact that all of the hours spent planning the
confrontation and revenge for past wrongs could have been used for something
far more positive, all that they have actually created is a psychological rock
in your shoe, and the person you are angry with has probably not lost one
second of sleep over the issue. Start
each day with a forgiving heart, forgive other people's lack of understanding,
and accept that criticism is the price you pay for moving out of mediocrity.
3. Happiness
Without wishing to burst your bubble,
success does not always bring happiness. Think about how many eminently
successful people you know about, who live in a state of abject depression, and
are extremely unhappy. Despite existing
levels or degrees of success, a lack of happiness is often the result of fear
of failure. Unfortunately, we have got the formula wrong, and any of you who have
read any of my previous blogs on the subject will know that happiness is a
choice, and is critical in order to achieve success, not the other way around.
Happiness, as a choice, is the end result of thoughts and activities that bring
about a chemical reaction in your physical being, called euphoria. And the good
news is that euphoria is completely under your control. Smile a lot, start
every day with laughter, and the chemical reaction in your bloodstream will
translate into enthusiasm, which will make you alert to all of the
possibilities that day, or situation, holds. Be grateful – if you're reading
this blog my guess is that you have too many good things and people in your
life to honestly maintain an attitude of un-gratefulness. Happiness fuelled by
gratitude creates enthusiasm, and other people will follow enthusiastic people
anywhere.
4. Teach-ability
A lack of knowledge, understanding or
specific skill set will obviously hamper your ability to be successful. I
mentioned earlier that nothing you can do will ever change your past, but everything
you do from today will change your future. Choose to become more teachable.
Read books and listen to input that will help you make positive changes in your
personal relationships, and give you a greater understanding of other people.
Take advice – making decisions using only what you know has got you to where
you are today, but adding input from intelligent men and women to your existing
experience, will exponentially increase your chance of success in the future.
5. Certainty
I regularly interact with people who have
not taken the time to clearly define what success looks like for them. This
lack of definition often results in high levels of unfocused activity that
eventually lead to disillusionment and burnout. You need a dream, and the
bigger, hairier, and more audacious it is, the better! Go to sleep at night
exhausted, comfortable in the knowledge that you've done everything you could
that day to move you towards that dream. Don't apologise for your dream, but
use it to create your vision, your passion, and your hope for the future. As
you do that, you will develop certainty, which will focus your activity on
achieving your dream. Use analysis to help you make the decisions that will
turn your dream into a reality, but understand that the purpose of the analysis
is to arrive at a conclusion. Don't be timid and don't wait, every problem gets
smaller the sooner you confront it.
6. Activity
I mentioned earlier that high levels of
unfocused activity usually cause burnout. The problem is not the activity; the
problem is the fact that it is random and unfocused. In order to prevent
burnout, the certainty resulting from your definition of success needs to be
used to focus your activity. Grab (verb) every opportunity and run (verb) with
it. Faced with the choice of doing nothing, or doing something, always choose
activity. Successful people make decisions quickly and change their minds
slowly, and as you increase your focused activity level you will inspire other
people, and automatically become a leader. Leading is doing, and to become a
leader you must take action.
7. Persistence
I recently heard of an aboriginal group
that became renowned for their ability to create rain by doing a rain dance.
When the leader of the group was interviewed on their 100% success rate, his
response was that the group did not dance in order to make it rain, they kept
dancing until it rained! Failure on any level, makes us want to give up, but in
order to be successful, once we have dealt with the past, clearly defined what
success looks like for ourselves, and focused our activity, we arrive at the
final piece in the puzzle. We need to choose to persist, irrespective of
circumstances. Average and mediocre people stop when exhaustion starts, but you
need to see exhaustion as the final step before victory. How many times does a
baby fall down, trying to walk, before they actually get it right? They never
ask how long they will need to keep trying before they succeed, and neither
should you. If you persist, irrespective of circumstances, towards a defined
and achievable expression of success, the outcome is guaranteed.
Success, whether in business, or life in
general, does not have to be some mythical concept, achievable only by luck. I
work with people on a daily basis who are applying these principles
systematically, and seeing their, and the lives of their families changed as a
result. To help more people along this road, I have created a Personal
Manifesto for success, which defines and explains these principles in more
detail, and is presented as a personal statement of intent. You can download it
for free here.
If you would like
me to come and present the principles to your team, including all the war
stories, send us an invite via our Facebook page or the Contact page of our
website. Anton and I have also developed a number of tools, exercises, and
programs, designed to help you achieve success in your business, based on the
same principles. If you need more specific help on this subject as a whole, or
on any of the individual principles, please feel free to leave a comment below,
or connect with us through http://www.version8.com.au,
or our Facebook page.
No comments:
Post a Comment