Success can be a fickle idea. People have their own understanding of what success means for them, but at the end of the day, everyone wants to achieve it. They want to reach the summit of their climb and be able to say, “I did it!” The thing about success, however, is that it’s mostly a state of mind. It’s the ability to stake out a goal and move towards claiming that goal. Phrased that way it sounds so simple, yet there are countless people who are frustrated and discouraged at the thought of never reaching their personal or work goals. The good news is that even though each person’s goals may be different, the basic principles of getting there are pretty much the same. If you’ve been struggling to find success in a certain area or areas of your life, give these four steps a whirl. There hasn’t been a situation I’ve run across where these don’t apply.

1. Learn
The first step to anything isn’t actually an action step. It’s really more of an observation step. In order to know where to go, you must first know where you are. Many well-meant goals are never reached because people jump straight into what they think they should be doing without taking a pause first to make sure they are going in the right direction. Whatever your goal is, you need some knowledge of how to reach it.

Before you set out on your quest, you need to learn the lay of the land. If your goal is to get more social media followers, it would make sense to take some time to research some creative ideas on exactly how to do that, even if it means having a quick phone call with someone you know who is social media savvy. Taking that brief time to educate yourself so you can plan effectively can make all the difference in reaching your goals.

2. Apply
Once you have your knowledge in hand, you need to apply the information. Again, before you jump into action, make sure you have a working plan based on the information you’ve learned or acquired. In the case of increasing social media followers, you may have learned that images posted on Facebook have a higher interaction rate. Your plan might include creating some images related to your business and posting them throughout the week. You might have also learned that networking can be extremely helpful. In your plan, you might also include setting aside 20 minutes each morning to connect with your followers personally. Once you have a plan in place, then you can dive in and take action.

3. Analyze
At certain points (daily, weekly & monthly) you’ll want to analyze your current plan to see what’s working and what might not be working. Take time to really notice trends and trace what specific action caused them. Sometimes the actions you’re taking may be the right ones, but the way they are being performed aren’t optimal. Stats are your friend, even if they aren’t what you hoped for. They give you hard data to use for your next course of action.

4. Repeat
In the last step, you may have noticed some tactics that worked extremely well, while others didn’t give you much return on your time. At this time, you’ll want to keep doing the things that worked and then repeat the previous steps for the things that didn’t. Go back and learn something new about the area that didn’t result in the success you wanted, apply it again and then analyze. Maybe you found that you creating images for your Facebook Page took too long. In repeating the steps, you might have found an app that lets you add text quickly to images on your phone and post straight to Facebook. The great thing about this last step is that the cycle is neverending and can be used in every area of your life.

Give these ideas a try for one area of your life you want to improve and come back and let me know how it worked! I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Share the love...