5 Steps to Success

Ever thought you could one day be super successful? Well why not start with a dream?

Dreams are our first steps to being successful. And banking on the fact that no one dreams to be unsuccessful, dreams can be a great tool to work on if you want to be successful.

Once you have gotten enough courage to dream about success, here is what you do:

1) Decide what success means to you.
2) Decide how you are going to achieve it.
3) Decide now what sacrifices you have to make in order to help you achieve it.
4) Plan accordingly your year, your quarters your months and your days so that you can achieve it.
5) Do it according to plan and know exactly why you need to work as hard as you have to.

Step 1 means that you have to decide what goes into your life and what does not. As a person has 70 odd years in life, there will be a chance to achieve everything that you want in life. But that means you will have to plan it now. To some success is traveling the world. To others, it is a clean bill of health. To many, it is financial freedom. You can have all of these too, but that means you have to work harder at it. More importantly, dream big and dream realistic.

Step 2, “Deciding how you are going to achieve it” means judging on everything that you wish to do, how are you going to achieve it? With the salary that you are receiving, the time you are putting in to work on your dreams, versus the size of your dreams, is it possible that your dream will come true? At this step, rescale your efforts versus your expectations.

Step 3, to decide your sacrifices, is to decide on the matters decided on Step 2. Will working 14 hours in a day help you achieve your goals? Does that mean you skip on watching TV, exercising or going for short holidays? Re-look at Step 1 and decide how much of time or effort you would have to put in to reach that goal.

At this juncture, you will realize no one likes to dream because dreaming about grand futures will result in us actually putting it to work and sacrificing other dreams. Trust in yourself. Trust that your dreams are worth the effort.

Step 4 means planning how hard you work at your current job. Most of the time we do not need a lottery strike to be able to achieve our dreams. Compare salaries with the ones that your boss is receiving. Ask yourself what skills must you have or roles you have to play to be your boss? Do you need to learn these skills? Make sure the entire year is filled with milestones to achieve this dream. Maybe in the first month you will take on more responsibilities from your boss. By mid year, you are the expert that your boss can rely on. By the next year, you convince your boss to make you the official champion for your department and a small change in your designation. Step 4 also involves living your dream right now. If your dream is to travel the world, do plan and save for something big in the future, but you can also do mini trips or picnics this week end. If your plan is to spend more time with your family, plan yearly quarterly and monthly, even weekly activities. Make sure that you practice your plan later.

Step 5 is the best part. Actually doing the activities you have set out to do. The danger is that we start walking the way and go astray or even stop walking it later. This step calls for us to trust in our plans and stand firm in our dreams. It might be easy to say, “My dreams are too difficult to achieve” and give up immediately. But recall the words of the wise, that everything can be achieved if you were diligent.

If you are feeling tired or doubtful if your dreams are ever going to come true, talk to friends about your dreams and tell them how hard your wish to be working. Find friends who will encourage you honestly to be around you. Avoid people who will discourage your efforts or laugh at your dreams.

One day your dreams will become reality. But only if you are brave enough to take the first step and walk until you have come to the end. Be brave to hang on in your journey. Be resilient.

All concepts above are either borrowed or rehashed. Picture by Daniel