5 Things You Should Do To Improve Your Success Rate

Check out this quick post to see what actions you should take to improve your success rate!

Take Personal Responsibility

Taking personal responsibility is THE number one requirement to achieving personal success.  The saying, “if it’s going to be, it has to be me” is right on point and its application or lack of, will make or break our success.

So what does taking personal responsibility mean?  I’m sure we all believe we take personal responsibility for our lives.  We go to work, pay the bills, get the children to school, arrange our social lives and even indulge in self development through courses at work and books etc, so what could be missing?

Well, we fail in the personal responsibility arena when we are guilty of blaming others and making excuses.  Using either of these tactics will look like defensiveness to others, which in itself is not a particularly endearing characteristic.  But more importantly, by shifting the blame onto others or the circumstances (deemed to be) outside our control, we are removing our ability to grow from the situation, and, if we don’t grow then we will be unable to demonstrate improved performance the next time we find ourselves in a similar situation.

The second major area where we often fail is in our inability to control our emotions.  Reacting emotionally to difficult situations generally has the effect of escalating the perceived problem, resulting in more remedial work to do in the future to resolve things.

There is no easy way to deal with our emotional inclinations.  We simply need to understand ourselves better, by carrying out a little introspection so that we recognise our emotional triggers sooner.  If we can do this, then we will be able to place a momentary barrier between our emotional reaction and the circumstances, thereby creating some thinking space.  Sometimes this will work, other times it won’t, but the important thing to realise is that we are responsible for our reaction – not the person or thing that caused the circumstance to arise.  By taking this responsibility back on ourselves, it will enable us to have more control over the final outcome.

Believe in Yourself

Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.  Henry Ford

If there’s something you want to have or to achieve, then you must believe that you can reach your desired result.  The reason this is so very important is that if you have any doubt at all that you won’t make it through to your planned outcome, you will gradually slow down and eventually give up as each problem and obstacle is thrown into your path.

Some people see obstacles as signs that they are doing something wrong, rather than viewing them as opportunities to learn something new.  Instead we should view obstacles and problems as opportunities to stretch ourselves so that we become the type of person who has the wanted item or achieves the goal.

Learn to Embrace Failure

Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.  C S Lewis

Are you afraid to start in case you fail?  Do you think that failure is a sign that you should now stop what you are doing?  Many people believe the answer to these questions is ‘yes’ and therefore never get started on their goals.

If we were born with all the knowledge and ability necessary to get to where we wanted to be, then naturally failure would be a sign that we should stop what we’re doing, but of course, this isn’t the case at all.  We ‘fail’ at things because we are learning how to do them, and we will continue to ‘fail’ until such time as we have learned sufficient mastery to move on to the next stage of the journey.  Therefore punishing ourselves for failing is unreasonable in this context.  In fact, we should be celebrating our ability to try, fail, improve, fail, improve further and then succeed!  How else could we succeed?  There is no other way!

So make failure your friend.  Look for opportunities to fail, or better still, see it as looking for opportunities to grow both your skills and knowledge.

Ignore the Naysayers

If people tell you it can’t be done, or look at you like you’re from another planet when you tell them about your goals, then there’s a good chance that you’re on to something big!

People love to share their negative or less-than-encouraging opinions with us.  They love to tell us about all the things that could go wrong, where our limitations lie and all the other people who have tried and failed.  The chances are also very high that they’ve never done what you’re trying to do.  For this reason alone, my best advice is to ignore their advice!  On the other hand, if they have some useful feedback based on experience, then this might be worth considering, but only inasmuch as you use it as a lesson to improve your chances of success.

Remember the words of Mahatma Gandhi whenever you’re being waylaid by the Naysayers:

“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.”

Know Where You’re Going

Do you know what your ideal life looks like, or is it just a case of you just know it’s not this?  This is quite a dilemma for many people as they haven’t taken the time to identify what their ideal life looks like.  They’re so deeply involved in and conditioned by their current circumstances that they never take a peek to see what it could actually look like in the future.

Of course, the outcome of this is twofold, firstly we don’t know what we’re aiming for, and secondly we won’t know when we’ve got ‘there’!

Even if you only make a rudimentary stab at what you want in the future, it’s far better than doing nothing and just leaving it to chance.  In any event, by taking just a little time to picture our desired future, we will be opening our imagination to more input.  This will then help the process to develop over time until our future becomes clearer and clearer in our minds eye.

So there you have it, five things that, if you took action on them, would seriously improve your chances of success.  Why not give them a try?

Which of the five poses the greatest challenge to you and which do you think is easiest to implement?  Please let me know by leaving a comment!

 

Photo: SweetOnVeg