Three critical factors for Success

I recently gave a talk to a dedicated and ambition group of Alumni rebuilding a school in Northern Uganda. The launch event aimed to raise money towards this school that had been damaged by a recent 20-year war. I started to talk about recipes for success, and allow the inspired group to remember these three keys to success in any personal or business endeavour.

A congruent Purpose

Purpose is key towards clarifying your behaviours and actions. It determines what you say, what you do, what you have, where you are, and who you hang around with. It enables you to become attractive either to a niche crowd, or a wider audience, depending upon the qualities of your purpose. It is ignited by being aware of your heart’s desire. If you do not have a sense of purpose, you do not know where you are going, and if you do not know where you are going, you are not really living a fulfilling or satisfying life. There is a clear difference between people who have purpose, and those who do not, they appear more confident, attractive, driven, and successful. If you are finding it difficult discovering what your purpose is, it needn’t be a headache, rather it needs to be genuine and representative of what attracts your strong feelings of wanting or wishing something to happen. What is it that you really want to happen in your life? Napoleon Hill states that everyone must have a ‘chief aim’ in life, and says that everyone’s chief aim in life is to amass money or wealth, however, to say you want money is not enough, you need to devise and design the mechanism of how you are to obtain this money, and what rewards you shall receive from having it.

Purpose is what drives people to take action, stay focused, and have the determination, resilience, and persistence to achieve desired outcomes.

Planning & Strategy

Without the knowledge or practicality of understanding what is required to reach your goal, you cannot reach it. Based on a purpose, you can align your research and meta-analysis of your chosen field, to gain a perspective, an idea, and confidence to create a step by step methodology towards achieving your goals. Your Purpose is your reason why, however, your goal is what you want to achieve, and it must be developed using the SMARTER personal development and project management tool. Once you have developed a Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound, Environment-friendly, and Risk-Identified goal, you can now develop a mission statement or daily pledge, that supports and reminds you of your goal. The next stage is to develop a plan of action and strategy that supports this goal. This needs to be a step by step plan that needs to include learning, practicing, and mastering your craft, tracking results, receiving feedback, analysing and evaluate your results. If you find it difficult to develop a plan, break down your goal(s) into smaller objectives, which can then be broken down into tasks. Determine what actions are long term (+12 months), mid-term (3 – 12 months), or short-term (<3 months). Prioritise your actions using the Eisenhower Urgent/Priority Matrix or Action Priority Matrix. How you prepare is directly correlated to how you will win.

Effective Environment

Your internal and external environment is paramount! Make sure that you listen to the right personal growth material to get your head in the zone, listen to and read the top 5 books in your industry! Employ a coach or mentor or close friend or family member to support you in your endeavours, helping you with evaluation and feedback. Develop a mastermind group that drives forward action and organised effort towards succeeding in your goals. Block out any forms of negativity aggressively, and consume yourself with your purpose, your goals, and your chief aim in life! Environment, also includes what you eat, how you exercise, what you watch, who your listen too and everything and more! You need to be the master of your response to everything and understand you have the master controls. When you acknowledge that you are more than your situations, that is when you have won.

If you can embody and implement this advice, I assure you that you will be successful. You will not worry about how long it takes, even though your hunger will want you to achieve it as quickly as possible, moreso, you will want to achieve results and gain success! Good luck my friends, and stay positive, motivated, and smart!