Sometimes what helps us to be successful in our professional
lives is not such a great idea in our personal lives — competition is a quality
that comes to mind. At the same time, we all have a limited amount of time each
day to do the things that we want to do.
So for the sake of saving time and energy, I’m sharing a
list of tips that will help us be successful in both life and in business.
1. Add Value
No matter what you do and where you go, you can’t go wrong
with adding value. Simply put value is anything that people are willing to pay
for. In your professional life, the more value you can offer the more money you
can make. In your personal life, more value translates to closer relationships
and strong personal growth. The best way to add value is to find the
intersection between what people are willing to pay for and what service or
product you can offer that is aligned with your values, strengths and goals.
How are you adding value to your employers and loved ones
today? What can you do to increase your ability to add value?
2. Follow Your Passion
Reading numerous biographies on great people and from my own
personal observations and encounters, I’ve realized that those who achieve
greatness professional and personally follow their passion. The reason why
great people are few and far in-between is because most people don’t even know
what their passion is. For those that do figure out their passion, most of them don’t follow their passion consistently. This
is one of the main reasons why people don’t reach their goals.
Do you know what your passion is? If not, what are you going
to do to find out? If you do know what your passion is, are you following
it?
3. Be Extraordinary
If you do the same thing as everyone else, it’s hard to be
successful. It is important to find the edge and then push past it. That is how
you become noticed and get what you want. Whether it is money, meaningful
relationships and/or a sense of personal accomplishment, the extraordinary
person attracts them all.
How are you extraordinary? If you feel just ordinary,
what are you going to do to become extraordinary?
4. Start Now
There are many factors that go into become a success in both
your professional and personal life but the one factor that is required is
taking action. Most people miss out on reaching their full potential because
they never start. They are always preparing, planning and waiting for the best
time to start. If I waited until I was ready, I would not have a coaching
practice, a website, a blog, a workshop, etc. The stars rarely align and you
will never be completely ready so just start now and adjust along the way.
Are you waiting for something before you start? What is your
planning to doing ratio? What’s really the worse thing that can happen if you
got started right now? If you are someone that’s just been waiting, stop
reading this post and get started on what you have been wanting to do. This
article will still be here when you get back.
5. Hunt for Good Mentors
People who “make it” usually credit their success to a
mentor or a group of mentors who really helped guide them to get to where they
are. Mentors have gone down the road that you want to travel and can guide you
to get to your destination faster than if you went at it alone. If you want to
be healthy, you would find a mentor who is already healthy. If you want to be
rich, then you have to find someone who is already rich. What surprises me is
how rarely people engage in mentoring relationships and those who do usually
find mentors in only one aspect of their lives. If you want to be successful,
be active about finding mentors that will help you achieve what you want. Jeff Goins
has a nice short article on finding mentors.
Do you have a mentor in your life now? If not, ask yourself
what barriers are preventing you from finding or establishing a mentoring
relationship? If you do have a mentor, do you have one for the different
aspects of your life (financial, health, professional, personal, spiritual,
relationships, parenting etc.)?
6. Build a Support Group
While mentors serve as a guide with whom you review your
past actions and plan your next steps, a support group are your companions that
help you with during the actual execution of your plan. This may be in the form
of a mastermind group or accountability partner
where you keep each other accountable for your goals and to help each other
deal with situations that may arise while you are on your journeys. It is
extremely helpful to have someone you know that is willing to listen to your
frustrations and self doubt and to encourage you and remind you of how far
you’ve already come. Who is in your support group?
7. Personally Know Your Finances
Numbers scare a lot of people. Start talking about assets,
liabilities and net worth and people’s eyes just glaze over. If you are one of
these people who run away from numbers, please stop running because you are
hurting yourself. If you want to be financially independent, you need to know
how to keep score. If you have your own business or want to successfully
invest, your finances will tell you how well you are doing and reveal the health of a
business. If you don’t understand finances, you have to learn. It’s easy once
you get over the limiting belief that you are no good at numbers. For those
interested in learning more, you may want to check out these personal finance resources.
Do you know you net worth? If you are bad at numbers, what
specifically makes you believe that? How can you improve your financial
intelligence?
8. Get Help
I have a tendency to try to do everything myself and in some
ways it is good and in many ways it is bad. It is important to know and
understand all aspects of your life and business but that does not mean having
to do all the tasks involved in maximizing your potential in those areas. It is
true that we can always learn new things and become competent in them but what
is also true is that we are only given 24 hours each day and to live full
lives, it is more effective to do what we do best and to outsource tasks that
we’re not good at to people who excel at them. Delegating effectively takes trust and the ability to clearly communicate what you
want. For those that want to outsource, Elance is a nice way to find some
quality freelancers.
How are you spending your time? Is it doing things you are
awesome at? If not, what are you doing that you can outsource or delegate so
you can devote more time doing what you’re great at? What’s stopping you from
outsourcing or delegating?
9. Learn Sales
Many people cringe when they hear the word sales. “I would
never be in sales, that’s a sleazy job.” It is exactly this type of thinking
that stops people from being their best. Sales is nothing more than
persuading someone of something. When you are looking to get a date, you
are selling. When you are interviewing for a job, you are selling. When you are
trying to persuade your spouse or kids to go to Europe for your family
vacation, you are selling. In a professional setting, sales is paramount and
the lifeline for any business. If you want to get the most out of life and
business, learn the skills for effective selling. I am beginning a series of
blog posts on How to Sell on my blog and you can learn from other successful
sales trainers by reading material from Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracey and Og Mandino. When you hear “sales”, what associations come to mind? Are
they positive or negative? Do you know the how to sell effectively? If not, how
do you plan to learn?
10. Be Resilient
Things rarely work out the way you planned and there will
always be distractions and stumbling blocks that you have to deal with when you
are on your road to success. The key point to remember is to persist and to
develop the courage to move on even when everyone around you is telling you it
is ok to give up. This does not mean stubbornly holding on to your original
plan but rather continuing to pursue your goal as long as the reasons for doing
so is still valid (Make sure you know the “Why” of what you want). When
everything seems to be going wrong, keep in mind that “the road to success is paved
with a thousand failures” so each failure actually brings you closer to where
you want to be. If you have trouble being resilient, check out the 6 Effective Ways to Be Persistent. How often to you quit because things got tough? Would you describe yourself as an unshakable optimist? Do you view problems as
opportunities or warning signs? How do you view failure and are you making sure
that you don’t make the one mistake people make when learning from
their mistakes?
This is not an exhaustive list, but it does provide a good starting point. I would love to hear what tips you have found especially useful in both life and business in the comments section.
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