Students Of Success

Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work. - H. L. Hunt

I am not aware of anyone who has decided on going to the gym just for the sake of exercising. Behind that decision are powerful motiveshaving a great body, becoming fit so that you’ll live longer, to become more attractive, or to increase your self esteem in regards to your body. Similarly, there are very few people, if any, who are living a disciplined life just for the sake of maintaining a discipline. The reason the person maintains the discipline in their life is because of the promise that the discipline holds. It is their belief that their discipline holds the key to the successful achievement of their goals. The pull of their goals demand them to maintain those disciplines. The promise of what that discipline will bring into your life, if followed, is extremely powerful for the person who is hungry for success!

A person begins to go to the gym, not just for working out and getting hurt, but in order to first become and then remain fit. There is an invaluable lesson contained in the previous sentence in regards to the disciplines in the gym and for success in life. There is no use in just becoming fit and then losing out on the discipline. The promise has to contain the sustaining of the achievement as well. There is no use becoming a millionaire for just a day and then getting broke again. Therefore understand that you don’t strive for a goal just to achieve it, but also to sustain that achievement as long as you can. Discipline is the key for sustaining your success, but it is your promise that will make you stick to your disciplines.

The person who goes to the gym sees the promise of their future life in going to the gym. The beginner sees that if he/she continues to go to the gym regularly, they will achieve the fitness levels that have previously been possible only in their imagination. In the same way, the person who wants to be successful in life starts taking on the disciplines that will change their life because of the power of their promise. When you see where you are headed, you have already begun the journey. Now act on it.

In order to craft a new life for yourself, you will have to first create a compelling promise that will urge you to action; a promise that won’t let you off the hook. If you don’t have this promise, then you will stop at the first obstacle. However if you have this promise you will be ready to pay the price. Are you at the stage where you are ready to pay the price? Can you see your promise? These are important questions to ask and to answer. If you haven’t done so, I urge you to do it now. The promise holds the key to the art of the start! If you are serious about creating a new life for yourself, don’t be lazy in clearly defining your promise. Make it so strong and powerful that you will go to bed late and wake up early to work on it just to see it materialize. It is possible! Millions of people have already done it. Are you game? Then create your promise and get ready to pay that price.

If you are having trouble creating your promise, then you should answer the following questions and do the action steps required in the following section. Take some time out for yourself and your achievement because no one else will!

1. If you could achieve anything, what would it be?

2. Why do you want this goal?

3. What will it make of you to achieve it?

4. What will you have to do in order to make this goal real? What action steps will you take right now to start making it real?

5. Write a detailed plan for the one thing you would do today that will take you towards that goal. (Do this step everyday.)

If you don’t have the promise, you won’t have the power to persevere!
- Sukhbir S.

Sukhbir Singh is the creator of LifeApps! Personal Development Institute which is currently running a course called The 9 Doorways to Lasting Change on the LifeApps group at Yahoogroups. He is also the manager of an export business operating out of Bangkok, Thailand. His interest in success came from the study of many personal development books and audio programs that he got exposed to when he was in Sydney for his Masters degree in Business Information Systems.

LifeApps! is currently designing their website and should become active by the end of this year. The purpose will be to offer e-courses that will be developed into public seminars and audio programs. He has recently written a short motivational E-booklet of 20 pages called Success Lessons from the Gym. You can receive the current draft of this E-book by emailing him at suk_b@yahoo.com with the subject heading: SL Request.

Many motivational speakers and self-help books will tell you that you must have goals. I’ve even advocated goal setting myself in the past. You write down your goals and detail them for family life, friends, finances, career, recreation, health, learning, education and your spiritual life.

However, I’ve now come to the conclusion that successful people with strong self-belief don’t do goal setting in this way - why? - Because their too busy doing what they need to do to get what they want to get.

Successful people don’t spend time writing down what they want out of life they just get on and do it. To be successful at whatever it is you want to do, you need to ask yourself - what do I really want to achieve? What are my dreams and desires, what do I want to build, to create and what sort of person do I want to be.

You need to clearly identify what it is you want out of life, what do you hunger and thirst for, what do you really want to achieve?

If someone held your head under water you’d quickly realise what you wanted - oxygen! You need to feel like this to be successful. Most of us experience this feeling when we fall in love. We do almost anything to impress and be with the person of our dreams.

This is how people create success, it’s how new countries were discovered, products were invented, Everest was conquered and man walked on the moon. You may not want to achieve something so dramatic, you may want to have a
successful plumbing business, or be an excellent accountant, or even run a marathon. Whatever it is, once you identify and focus on it you will release the motivation to make it happen.

There is an often-told story of the swimmer, Florence Chadwick. On her first attempt to swim the English Channel she encountered huge waves and chilling temperature. Her trainers were alongside her in a boat. They had greased her body to provide protection from the cold and gave her hot
soup from a vacuum flask. She had everything going for her to ensure she was successful.

However a heavy fog set in and as the fog descended, her vision was limited to only a few feet. The water seemed to get colder, the waves higher and she started suffering from cramp in her arms and legs. She eventually gave up her effort and asked her trainers to take her on board the boat.

What she didn’t realise was that she was only a short distance from the shore. When the reporters asked her why she’d given up when she was such a short distance form the shore. Her answer was quite simple - “I lost sight of what I wanted to achieve. I’m not sure that I had it firmly in my
mind.”

You need to have a clear mental picture of where you want to go. You need to visualise yourself being successful and work towards it, you then have a far better chance of achieving what you want to achieve.

And case your wondering about Florence Chadwick - she did become the first woman to swim the English Channel on the 8th August 1950. It took her 13 hours 25 minutes and I bet her arms were tired!

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Whatever you want in life, you have far more chance of achieving it if you set a clear goal, written down, with a definite time scale.

For example, if you want to lose weight, set a target weight and a realistic date for reaching this target. This way you will be more committed to actually forming a plan to do something about it, and keeping to it. Follow this step-by-step process for your goal.

1. Once you have decided what it is you want to achieve, make sure you have a clear vision. Really see it, feel it, hear it, taste it. If you have a goal to lose weight, imagine how you will feel when you have reached your target weight - how will you feel about yourself? How will you reward yourself? Put up pictures or inspirational quotes that you will see very day to remind you of what your goal looks like.

2. Secondly, make your goal measurable. Something like losing weight is quite easy in this respect - you set a target weight that would be right for your height etc. If your goal is something like ‘be more spiritual’, this is more difficult to measure - but imagine what you would be doing, feeling, being if you were more spiritual. Catch the essence of what it means for you. Think of something specific that you could do if you were more spiritual and make this your goal. This is vital - if you don’t set a measurable goal, your goal will always be vague and you don’t really know exactly what you are aiming for, which will decrease your motiviation.

3. Make sure that your goal is achievable and realistic. If you have a track record of failed goals, have a look to see if you have been setting yourself goals that are too big to achieve within a given timescale, or are outside of your capabilities right now. This does not mean they are not ultimately achievable - but sometimes it is better to start with smaller goals that you know you can achieve. Once you start reaching these goals, you will feel more confident to follow a slightly bigger goal, and so on…

4. Next, set a date for when you will reach your goal. Write it in your diary or calendar. Tell your closest friends and ask them to ask you whether you’ve taken the actions you need in order to reach your goals. If other people know this is what you are doing you will be more motivated to carry out whatever it is you need to do.

5. Decide how you will reward yourself when you achieve your goal. This is very important. We often do not pause to pat ourselves on the back when we achieve something, and often our achievements go by almost unnoticed. Make sure you have a definite reward set out that will be a way of acknowledging yourself and giving yourself a confidence boost.

6. Set out the steps you need to take to reach your goal and work out when you need to do them - put these in your diary or calendar - and then keep to them!

7. There will be days or maybe periods of time when you feel de-motivated, disheartened and perhaps begin to wonder why you thought you could do it. Don’t allow these moments to stop you. This is just your internal saboteur - perceptions you have built up from past experience that have created self-limiting beliefs. Use the following guidelines to keep you motivated:

• If you are stuck, ask yourself the question ‘How can I get round this obstacle’ - you may be surprised how easily you will answer yourself.

• Keep your goal in mind - bring it to life by imagining how you will feel, how your life will be etc.

• Remind yourself of the consequences of NOT achieving your goal.

• DON’T feel guilty if you are not achieving as quickly as you would like - guilt is destructive - just review your goal and re-structure if necessary.

• Ask yourself if you’ve taken on too much - how realistic is your goal? Does it need simplifying, or a longer time period?

• Remind yourself of what you HAVE achieved so far - and give yourself a reward.

• Take a break - stop thinking about it for a few days - and then start again. You might find a few new ideas.

• Make sure you have the right people supporting you - if you have anyone putting your project down, don’t discuss it with them.

• Ask your most supportive friends to help - get them to ask you regularly what you are doing to achieve your goal.

• Refuse to listen to any negative thoughts in your head that tell you you can’t do it. Every successful person has these - but their success is result of the ability to ignore these thoughts.

• Remember that your goal IS achievable. Everything comes from our beliefs. The successful person is successful because they believe that it’s possible. The unsuccessful is so because they believe that it’s not. It’s really that simple. So believe that your goal is possible.

Above all, be good to yourself. Don’t give yourself a hard time - there is nothing wrong with you if you are finding it difficult to keep to a goal. It’s perfectly normal. However, if you are finding it difficult, you may be suffering from low confidence, or a self limiting belief - why not discuss it with a life coach?

Ros Bott BA (Hons) FAETC
Life Coach and writer
http://www.rosbott.com