1. Get serious
Make a decision to go all the way to the top. Up until now, you’ve thought about it – now make up your mind to go all the way and your life will take off. Get serious. Don’t make any more excuses.
2. Know what’s holding you back
What’s the one skill area that’s holding you back? What’s the action?
• Find out what you need to become good at
• Find out what’s keeping you stuck
• What’s the critical limiting step that’s determining your success today?
Stop running after these temptations:
• The temptation to get rich quick. Everybody wants everything instantly – instant coffee, instant rice, and instant success.
• The temptation to take shortcuts. When taking shortcuts and cutting corners, you’ll be building on sand and it’ll collapse – always has, always will.
• The temptation to believe “the grass is greener on the other side.” We need to stay focused on where we are and what we’re doing now – our present opportunity; our present job; our present activity.
• The temptation to quit too soon. History books and storybooks are filled with illustrations and parables of people who quit digging “three feet from finding gold.” You can avoid them if you just:
• Commit to a singleness of purpose
• Set and put into writing specific, clearly-defined goals
• Outline exact action steps you must take to achieve your goals
• Form a support group for accountability
3. Be around the right people
Stay around eagles – people full of positive passion.
Get away from negative individuals – toxic people who complain, whine, and moan all the time. Life is too short.
4. Take care of yourself
Take excellent care of your health – that means a good diet and exercise. Everybody knows they should eat healthier food, work out regularly, and get plenty of rest. If you’re going to work hard five days a week, go to bed early five days a week.
5. See yourself as the best
Visualize yourself as the best in whatever you do – continually. All improvement in your life begins with an improvement in your mental pictures. Be true to yourself.
6. Talk positive to yourself
Control your inner dialogue and practice positive self-talk, talking to yourself the way you want to be, not the way you happen to be at that moment. Remember, you may have gotten to where you are today largely by accident, but where you’re going in the future is purely by design.
7. Get going
A sense of urgency is the ONE thing you can develop that will separate you from everyone else. Become a person of action. The more you act, the better you’ll get and the more you’ll like yourself. The more you like yourself, the higher your self-esteem will be. The higher your self-esteem is, the greater your self-discipline will be. The more you persist, the better chance you’ll have to ultimately become unstoppable.
Remember, stay the course and be resilient. As you set forth to achieve your goals and dreams, you cannot be thin-skinned. You must be durable and strong, with a determination to get to where you want to go.
Dr. Ola B. Madsen is a much sought-after leadership and management speaker, as well as a life coach. He has worked with and shared center stage with the likes of Tom Peters, Denis Waitley, and Ken Blanchard. He has consulted and conducted in-house seminars for many Fortune 500 companies in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit his website at www.olamadsen.com.