The Keys to Success

What is success to you? How do you measure it? How will you know when you have attained it? Is there really a one size fits all approach to success? I don’t believe there is such a thing however I do believe that there are key elements that need to exist for us to reach our personal versions of success. I mentioned the revelation that having the right mindset brought me in my previous blog post, Achieving Life Balance. This seemingly simple element has been vital in setting me on a purposeful and productive path that is aligned with my values so I will share a bit more about my experience in this post.

I had been grappling with certain life decisions for years and this unresourceful energy had leaked into other areas of my life. I was unaware that I was feeding this unresourceful state with my limiting thoughts, which then led to unhelpful behaviours and naturally, unwanted results. Reflecting on this, I should also mention that whatever we end up doing, our thoughts and behaviours contain some form of positive intention. We do what we think is best at that time. Otherwise why would we do what we do?

After discovering Coaching and connecting with engaging people, my mindset began to change on both on a conscious and unconscious level. Yes, you can consciously choose to change your thoughts! I was genuinely invested in improving myself and threw myself into reading literature about Coaching, Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) and self-development. I found sharing experiences with others and the learning process to be so insightful and as a result, I shed the layers of unhelpful states that had been clouding my mind. That’s not to say that I don’t still have “off” days – we all do naturally! – but the way that I respond to these situations has now changed immensely. I soon noticed that I was attracting more people who held a similar outlook to me and that gave me more of a boost. My resourceful thoughts were leading to resourceful behaviours, which were leading to successful outcomes!

Now, having the right mindset is a fantastic and powerful ingredient for success but I believe there are other elements that are just as vital. The two that stand out from my own experience are strategy and commitment. Without these, having a resourceful mindset on its own is unlikely to be enough to get you from A to B. An effective strategy will help you to hone your desired outcome and really drill down to the finer details such as what needs to be done to get there, how long it may take, milestones to review progress and who could help you. I would suggest spending time thinking about your strategy and refining the details as this will serve as your framework. Commitment is what I consider to be the third core ingredient in the recipe for success. You can have the right frame of mind and a solid strategy but commitment is the key to ensuring that you maintain consistency and continuity until you achieve your desired outcome. Your level of commitment will define how much you really value your end goal and whether you will do what it takes to reach it regardless of any obstacles you face along the way. You could say that commitment and mindset are interlinked in that sense.

So there we have it. Mindset. Strategy. Commitment. My three key ingredients for achieving a successful outcome. Three powerful tools which I am happy to share with you to take on your own journey to success.