4 Steps to Success
From The Successful Thinker Newsletter
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Happy New Year and welcome to 2006. The New Year has come in with a fresh new desire to achieve all that life has to offer as well as seek out every opportunity to become successful in life. This past year was one of great achievement and advancement in many of our lives. There were many things that we accomplished that deserved a round of applause, but we all know that there were things that we did that we would rather forget. There were many ups and downs and many times in the midst of our failures we missed the lesson that was to be taken from the situation. I don't want any of us to look back at 2005 and dwell on the things that we didn't accomplish or the failures/shortcomings that we had because that will only make us feel inadequate as we move towards the future. I want us to focus on the things that we did accomplish as well as try to take the nuggets of knowledge from the failures/shortcomings that we had because in each situation we can, as John C. Maxwell says, "Fail Forward, and learn from our failures."
Now in order to make the most of 2006 and take those giant steps towards success, I have prepared the "4 steps of Success" to help each of us in our journey. Let's get started
Find It
The first step towards success is to find out what you want to do with your life. Many times this is discovered by finding your purpose in life. Your purpose is what you were created to accomplish on this earth and what your talents and gifts are most suited for. You can also apply the "Find it" principle to any new venture that you are getting involved in. Your first step in any venture is to seek out as much knowledge about your venture. Knowledge is power when it comes to being successful in any way sort or matter. As you seek out as much knowledge and information about your venture, then you can make a well thought out decision as to whether this venture is beneficial to you and how to achieve and exceed the desired results. When you are seeking out knowledge, use that knowledge to assess the opportunity that is before you. Use that knowledge to see the whole picture (and even the frame) so that you can be sure that this opportunity is the best choice in your pursuit of success. .
Believe it
The next step is to believe that you can do it. This step seems easy if you have all the information and knowledge about the opportunity but many people falter at this step. Believing that you can achieve great feats is not an easy task. When you have grown up in an environment where failure has tore down many people's confidence and faith, it's hard for people to believe that they are able to overcome. Let's look at the two definitions below that make up the basis for the "Believe it" principle.
As you can see from the definition of confidence, you must have faith or trust in a person or thing. Now myself I used to have all the confidence in the world in my self. I believed that my own talents, gifts and abilities were great enough that I could achieve anything that I wanted. The problem was that I didn't truly know the source of my talents, gifts and abilities. As, I developed a relationship with my creator, I learned that as my faith grew my confidence grew, so the real source of my confidence was my faith. I also learned that faith is what activates the promises in the Bible and therefore as long as I was in the will of God, I could have 100% confidence and faith in my gifts, talents and abilities because even though I could fail.the source of my faith, confidence, talents, gifts and abilities could not.
Talk It
The next step is to "Talk it". The "Talk it" principle is based on speaking things into existence. Many people do not understand the power of words. The power of words is shown constantly by our continuous use of them and the effect they have. The bible says "As a man thinks, so is he", now we know that words are spoken thoughts, so we can say "as a man speaks, so is he", therefore your words show who you truly are. For example, the Bible is a book of words, but once read, taught, spoken and applied the correct way, they can change lives. Our language is based on spoken words and the things you say to people have lasting effects and can either help or hurt your relationship with them. This newsletter is a collection of words organized into articles to help people reach their goals in life, by reading and applying the principles or telling others the principles that are presented in this newsletter, lives can be changed. Finally, here is the most important factor when it comes to the "Talk it" principle.When you speak, speak with confidence. When you start on your path towards success, many people will ask you what you are trying to do with your life or what your venture is about. You have to speak with confidence and be able to explain to them what you are doing and where you are going in life. People are attracted to confidence and when you speak with the confidence and assurance that you are going to be successful in life, people want to hear what you have to say. When you come across a dynamic preacher, you realize that the preacher has a confidence and great grasp of his or her words during the sermon. Those words capture our hearts, minds, emotions, souls and spirits and bring us closer to God. When you speak with confidence and speak positive things into people lives, you capture hearts, minds, emotions, souls and spirits and bring them closer to their goals of success in life.
Walk it
The "Walk it" principle can be broken down to one single word, progress. As you start on your journey towards your purpose and success, you have to continually take steps and make progress towards that goal. The bible says that the Kingdom of God is not just words, but living by the Power of God. That means that even though we can talk about many things and tell people what we are going to achieve in life, next we have start making things happen and taking steps towards that goal.
Everyday make progress toward a goal. If you see in your future a business for yourself then everyday make progress towards that goal. You don't have to setup the business all in one day but you can at least look up the business process or research your market to see if you can make money with your business. If you see yourself traveling in the future then start looking up the places you want to go online and make sure you will know what you are doing when you get there. You may have to wait to get there but you don't have to wait to be prepared.
The definition of progress is steady movement towards a goal. The keyword there is steady, whatever you want to do in life and wherever you see yourself in the future, continue to make progress everyday. I see myself as a person that teaches people to realize the success that is within them, so everyday I continue to build a company that showcases different ways to bring out the success in people. Remember if you have a lofty goal that is far away from you attaining now, you don't have to make one big step to get there, just make continuous little steps and you will get to the same place.
Finally, if you have a dream or goal that does not require you to become a better person then you are now then the dream is to small. Your dream or goal in life should be so large that it makes you get up everyday and make continuous progress daily so that when you look back in a week, month, year or years you see that you may not be where you want to be, but you are not where you used to be.
Remember, to have what you have never had, you must do what you have never done...because...Success Is Inevitable...So Get Ready!!!
