As we have officially crossed over into the second half of the year, I decided to take a look at my goals and how close I was to achieving them. This got me to thinking about every other major goal I have achieved in my life and what created that success.
4 things kept popping up: clarity, commitment, confidence and consistency.
I often wondered why some coaches call their discovery sessions clarity sessions and now I know. Nothing happens until you are clear about what you want and why you want it. This is just as true for our potential clients as it is for us.
Clarity
Freedom from indistinctness or ambiguity (as defined by Dictionary.com)
This is one of the major reasons we fail to succeed; we are not clear about what we want.
Can you describe what the end goal looks like? Do you know why you want it? Are you clear about how you will go about getting it (at least the next step)?
Commitment
Once you know what you want and have the plan in place, are you willing to take action even when you don’t feel like it?
It’s so easy to get all geeked up about starting a business and making a bunch of money, but when the rubber meets the road, will you stick with it? This is where you have to be so committed to that end goal that you allow it to fuel you rather that your current feelings. Brooke Castillo calls this “the sacred moment”. This is the point in time when you, for example, know it’s time to go for that run or you have a choice to eat healthfully or make a different choice. The best advice I heard her give is to decide before it comes up that this is what we are going to do. (By the way, the word decide is of the Latin root -cide, meaning to kill. In this case, kill off any other options but the one that will lead you to your goal)
Clarity + Action = Confidence
Confidence
Another reason people fail to succeed is because they lack confidence in their abilities, in their dreams.
Let’s talk about abilities first. I 100% believe that success is 80% mental and 20% skill. Think about it. We can Google and You Tube just about anything we want. The brain is an amazing computer that is not fixed, but capable of learning new things well into old age. In addition, if you don’t know or don’t want to know, how to do something, all you have to do is pay someone else to do it for you. Problem solved.
As for dreams, I do not believe that you will be given a vision or a desire for something that you do not have the ability to acquire. Meaning that you will be drawn to people, resources or knowledge that will help you achieve it if you are open and willing to the process.
Consistency
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Period.
A fail is simply a First Attempt In Learning. If we learn to be consistent in our seeking knowledge, practicing our skills, talking to people about our businesses (marketing), asking for the sale, correcting our mistakes, success is inevitable.
One of the biggest issues I see is people treat success like a sprint instead of the marathon that it is. If you want to lose weight permanently, you have to do little things consistently over time to be successful. If you want to build a profitable business, you have to do little things consistently over time to be successful.
Solid, predictable income comes from knowing what you need to do and taking consistent action.
In the spirit of Independence Day, which just passed, I am hosting a Freedom Challenge. If you want to figure out what exactly you need to do to create success and freedom in your world, join us. We start Monday, July 13. (powered by Instagram #freedomchallenge)