Success on Your Terms

Written on the 2 August 2018 by Janet Culpitt

Success looks different for everybody, and yet successful people often exhibit similar traits and attitudes. Here's a little toolkit we put together to help you develop a success mentality.

Intent
It can be so easy to live life on auto-pilot, not really thinking about long-term plans, or the consequences of everyday habits. Taking a step back and starting to live an intentional life are huge steps towards success. Media tycoon, Oprah Winfrey, defines her decision to live intentionally as a turning point in her career:

'The intention with which you give, the intention with which you serve, determines the outcome.' - Oprah Winfreyi
What this means is being able to articulate precisely and concisely what you want. The subsequent decisions you make and actions you take will be shaped by the clarity of that initial intent.

Failure
'It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all in which case, you fail by default.'- J.K. Rowlingii
Failure is inevitable if you are to pursue a dream. What defines you then isn't the failure itself but your willingness to learn from it. Successful people develop a healthy relationship towards failure, understanding its importance as a learning tool and how it allows you take stock of what really matters.

Self-belief
Let's make one thing clear. Successful people are not free from self-doubt. What they have instead are mechanisms in place to ensure that self-belief trumps doubt most of the time. Whether that is positive self-talk, a network of friends who encourage them, or tangible routines to get them out of their head (exercise is great for this), successful people always exhibit a means to ensure that the fire in their gut is never put out by adversity or self-sabotage.

Abundance trumps scarcity
One of the big things businesses talk about in terms of success is adopting an abundance mentality. Often this is simple as changing the language you use.

Businesses with a scarcity mentality think in terms of their limitations. Often, you'll hear phrases like, 'we can't because' or 'we would, but' whereas businesses with an abundance mentality ask 'what if?' or 'why not?' Sometimes it's as easy as changing your conjunctions from 'or' to 'and'. In this way you foster a growth mindset where the scope of possibility is broader.

On a personal level this is even more important: feeling that you are deserving of success means you are more likely to achieve it.

Nothing comes from nothing
We all know success is almost always the result of hard work. What's harder is maintaining the mental fortitude to keep up the work over the long term. That's where intent and self-belief come in. Embracing the right mindsets towards success actually make the hands-on work easier.

You should not, however, labour in vain. Make sure you are taking time to enjoy leisure. This is how your brain recuperates and is able to operate efficiently.

This also means being smart with your workload. Aim to be process-driven. If there is an easier way to achieve the same result, take it. This clears the space for more potential.

Success as a journey
Your idea of success is going to change throughout your lifetime.

Where once your goal may have been to see the world, now it might be to climb the corporate ladder. Where once it may have been to own a house, now it might be to nurture the relationships that matter most to you.

The most prosperous people exhibit both the surety of self and the capacity for introspection to recognise when their vision of success changes and to alter their actions in suit.

This is not to say you should go it alone. Success when shared manifests like compound interest.

If you're looking for a sounding board for your dreams, or help creating a plan to reach your idea of success, come have a chat to us. We're always here to help.

i https://www.instyle.com/awards-events/oprah-speaks-power-intention-essence-festival

ii https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/06/text-of-j-k-rowling-speech/