When we talk about success, or being successful, we refer to the desired outcomes of our visions and the goals we’ve set for ourselves. This could include success in achieving career goals, health goals, financial goals or achieving social standing and status.
Success doesn’t just happen. It requires a concerted effort and this effort refers to the ‘doing’ of tasks in an organised manner to achieve the desired goals and outcomes we seek. We need to act.
‘To act’ requires planning. It involves 8 key critical components, which we call the 5 Pillars of Success.
These 5 pillars are the primary elements that are required for you to achieve success in every aspect of your career and life.
I may add that Yang followed this exact same process which contributed to her becoming successful.
The 5 pillars are:
- Identifying and utilizing your primary and secondary motivators.
One of the key pillars to achieving success in life, is to have a full and unbiased understanding of what really motivates you. I found, through my working with my clients, including Yang, that for many, what they may be doing every day, is not what really motivates them. Are you also one of them? You too could be going to work daily to meet a need, but that need may not be your primary motivator in life.
I will refer to Yang again here. If you’ve read my previous Blogs, you will know Yang’s inspirational story. You can read them again here. After an in-depth consult, Yang agreed to do a self-perception diagnostic called a Motivational Map assessment to find out what her primary motivators were.
This was a life-changing experience for her.
She realized, through her identified motivators, that she had a different calling, just the way I did when I was no longer enjoying what I was doing. Her current motivators indicated that she was searching for freedom and autonomy; for security and stability and be able to use her talents and ability to specialize in something she was passionate about.
Yang always had the ambition to own her own Bookkeeping business but didn’t know how and where to start. Fear of failure was one factor holding her back.
After identifying her primary motivators, through her personal Motivational Map, Yang found clarity and direction. Today, Yang is a successful and flourishing Bookkeeper, running her own practice, working her own hours and able to spend more time with her kids.
The power of identifying your primary motivators, is your roadmap to achieving life and career goals. It is a great starting point for anyone seeking clarity and direction in life.
It helps you to set clear, achievable goals.
By measuring emotional energy through a Motivational Map, can help you overcome personal and career development issues and strategically turbo-charge your personal and career progress. Identifying your primary and secondary motivators, helps you to ascertain if what you are doing daily, is in fact, in alignment with your motivators, or which of your daily routines are hurtful and preventing you from getting what you want most in life.
Knowing your motivators can help you identify:
Whether:
- You are searching for meaning and purpose in your work and life
- You are seeking freedom and autonomy
- You seek creativity – new ideas, innovation and change
- You are seeking specialization and learning mastery in a particular field
- You would like to build on your wealth and possessions
- You seek power control and influence
- You are seeking recognition and praise
- You are seeking to fulfill relationships
- You are seeking security and stability in your life
- Identifying your skills and passion that aligns to your primary motivators
Having identified your primary and secondary motivators, the next step is to identify your skills, strengths and passion and ascertain if they align with your current motivators.
Consider the top skills and strengths you have. Are you using them to progress in your current career? Are your skills and strengths aligned to your passion? Together, are these aligned to your primary motivators?
If they do align, then you are on the right path to achieving success in your life and career.
If not, then what you are currently doing daily, is not what you really seek in your life and career and therefore preventing you from realizing your true potential and career progression. What other skills would you need to fulfil your passion that aligns to your primary motivators?
Answering these questions and taking immediate action to start developing the skills you will need to fulfill your passion and primary motivators, is putting a plan in place toward achieving success in your life and career. It helps you to cut out bias and guess work and helps you bring about clarity and purpose in what you are planning to do.
To achieve your objectives, it is important that you shift your mindset and focus more on your strengths and less on your weaknesses.
One way of finding out what your strengths are, is to ask people you know and trust, to get their honest feedback. Compare what they say to what you know about your strengths. Make a list of all your strengths and pick the key strengths that will help you progress with what you plan to achieve.
While you may have a few key strengths, focus on the most important ones that align to your passion and motivators. These are the strengths you will need and utilize as you progress toward achieving success.
- Taking charge of your negative ‘self-talk’ and removing limiting beliefs
“We become what we think about most of the time, and that is the strangest secret” as Earl Nightingale once said. Negative self-talk is the inner dialogue we have with ourselves, that may be limiting our ability to believe in ourselves and our abilities, to reach our potential. While our thoughts, opinions and beliefs may have been ingrained from early childhood, we tend to believe them as the absolute truth. This tends to impact on everything we think and do in life and stops us from moving forward and growing personally and professionally.
Taking charge of these negative self-talk and limiting beliefs, helps us to focus with a positive attitude. Our thoughts are like magnets and the more positive thoughts we have, the greater the attraction to the magnet.
- Cultivating a mindset of abundance
Cultivating a mindset of abundance takes time, a conscious effort and practice. It starts off with a focus on what we already have. By choosing to see the positives and focus on what we have, no matter how little, be grateful for that. The more grateful we are for what we have, the less we focus on what we don’t have.
By cultivating a mindset of abundance will help you:
- Manifest happiness despite life’s challenges
- Start living a fulfilling and satisfying life
- Feel less deficient and more plentiful with what you already have
- Feel inspired and creative to try new things
- Take advantage of new opportunities that come your way, no matter how small or big
- Turn opportunities into meaningful and memorable life experiences or career progression
- Feel confident, secure and purposeful to achieve success in life
- Maintain a healthy mind, body and spirit
As Deepak Chopra once said, “When mind, body, and spirit are in harmony, happiness is the natural result.”
Having good mental health helps you enjoy life and cope with your challenges. You feel more energized and can better deal with any challenges you may face. Your inner strength is your north star guiding you toward achieving positive outcomes and living a life of abundance.
Achieving success in life also requires you to take care of your body. Healthy nourishment is essential to function effectively to enjoy your achievements.
Aim for balance. Eating healthy, sleeping well, nourishes and energises your body. By practicing moderation in what you eat and drink and how much, contributes to a healthy lifestyle and living a fulfilling life.
One of the great things about life, is that you never stop learning. There are always new skills, strategies and techniques to learn. Dedicating time toward personal development is a way of finding internal peace, harmony and fulfilment.
Adopt a mindset of continuous learning. This deliberate and voluntary act will provide you with more opportunities and help