How do we attain success? Lots of people contemplate this question. Whole books have been written on the subject. I read several and want to reiterate the major points.

•  Desire
  • One of the biggest factors determining success is desire. From my own experience I can firmly declare, without desire to change nothing will happen. Success starts with a burning desire to rise up from your current state and to create action.
• Goals
  • Setting goals improves your chances of success.
    • Increased motivation – Taking time to set a personal goal requires motivation. When you voluntarily set a goal you will put forth greater effort to achieve it. We don’t want to disappoint ourselves. I know for myself being a disappointment is one of the worst things I could ever be. Once a goal is set you have increased motivation to achieve this goal because you don’t want to disappoint yourself or anyone else involved in this goal.
    • Focus – Goals help us focus. I recently watched a TED talks about focus. It reiterates the importance of looking wide and then focusing. Most successful people are not great at lots of things. They are usually only good at one thing. Goals help us take that one thing and become the expert of it.
    • Persistence – Too often we set goals in life. Then discouragement comes and when we don’t reach them. Having a firm goal reminds us that we need to achieve it. I have touched on this topic before in my weight loss journey.
    • Personal development – We should always be setting goals that will help us grow personally. If we set weak goals it promotes laziness and lack of achievement. Setting goals that stretch us will push us to grow and do the impossible. There is nothing more liberating than achieving a goal you thought impossible.
• Planning
  • If you want to achieve success, make a plan. I love maps. Maps tell us where to go. An important wilderness survival skill is map reading. Knowing how to read a map can get you to any destination. Your plan is your map. Once you have the desire to succeed and a quantifiable goal. Start drawing your map. Take time to do this. Take time to put the necessary steps in place. What roads of life do you need to travel to get to your destination of success? I assure you any goal you have set you can achieve with the proper plan. If you don’t reach it with that plan. It just means your plan was wrong. That means back to the drawing board. Keep adding to your map until you reach the goal.
  • Here are some steps to creating your plan.
    • Goals –  I established in the last step that you need to identify clear goals.
    • Required steps – This is where you look at the goal. You need to analyze it, break it down. What tasks do you need to undertake to make the goal a reality?
    • Priorities – Once you have all the sub goals identified. Prioritize and choose which goal to focus on first.
    • Timeline and quantification – Once the goal is all broken down and prioritized. You must put a time stamp on it. Give yourself a timetable for when you will achieve your goal and sub goals by. You need to be able to quantify your progress. Keep track of numbers and time. This is how you can measure your progress.
    • Evaluate – Schedule when you will evaluate your progress. Look at your numbers see where you were. What has been most effective? How you can improve? When these steps are followed you will be on the path for success.
• Action
  • The other day I had a conversation with my father. I told him “I spend too much time thinking about what I am going to do. I have plans upon plans upon plans. When I sit down to work on them and get very little done because I start thinking about more plans.” I had an epiphany that day. Stop thinking and start doing. To often we spend too much time thinking. This ends up becoming a form of procrastination. Once you have a rudimentary plan in place. Start doing it. Don’t delay. Start now.
  • If you still need some help there is always Shia LaBeouf to motivate you. #kiddingnotkidding
• Never Give Up
  • This has been touched on several times already.  So I decided to write you a poem instead of stating it again.

Wake the clouds
Muffled screams of rain against glass
Motivation stirs as the book stares back
My page turns

Dare to spin before my mind?
A vision bursts into light
Open her hand and blow
Winds of irony create the flow

Sun grants passage
Illuminating my understanding
You will succeed the tattered page says
Reinvigorated I stand