Five Steps to Success
by guest blogger buddhaofhollywood
There is this old story about a very pious, religious man that every day of his life prayed to God to win the lottery – which never happened.
Finally the man dies and goes to heaven. There he meets God and asks him “God have I ever done anything to upset you?” “No – said God – You have lived the life of a saint, I’m very pleased with you.” “So how come – said the man – you never granted my wish of wining the lottery?” And God replied “Because you never bought a freakin’ ticket.”
So you see, success is not an accident. Even wining the lottery requires some action.
Now that the New Year is around the corner, and New Year resolutions are on order, I thought I’ll share with you my 5 steps to success recipe. It goes like this:
(1) Stop dreaming
It is hilarious how many self help gurus proclaim the virtues of wishful thinking:
“If you want it badly or hard enough you will get it.”
Stop dreaming! You will not get it.
How many people do you know that want to be broke and miserable and sick? None. We all want to be happy, wealthy and healthy, but the ones that will get there are the people that have stopped dreaming and turned their dreams into goals.
(2) Set your goals
The difference between dreams and goals is specificity.
Goals are well defined targets of your life. They are part of a global strategy that should encompass all aspects of your life material and spiritual.
You should look at money, career, business, relationships, health, spirituality, love, family and all the other aspects of your life as a whole interacting and interdependent of each other. Here is some help in setting your goals: Are you enlightened ?
(3) Visualize your success
“Wait a minute I thought you said – stop dreaming!”
Visualization should be a mental rehearsal of the steps you will have to take on the journey to success. Visualization is a disciplined technique not day dreaming.
There are two parts to visualization:
The constructive visualization – Where you start from where you are today and see yourself taking the necessary steps towards accomplishing your goal.
The deconstructive visualization – Where you see yourself at the point of success and you are tracing your steps backwards towards where you are today.
This less known and used technique is very useful when you get stuck and can’t figure your way over an obstacle. You pick a point past the obstacle and work your way backwards. It is also very good in checking out for omitted steps and flaws.
If your visualization runs smooth both ways you are ready for:
(4) Planning
I know, I know. “Isn’t planning the same thing?” No it is not.
Planning is done on a piece of paper or a computer. Planning is taking your visualization to the next level.
In planning everything becomes concrete. If you are planning to contact an editor, or a sales person or the president of a company, in planning you should put the name of the person, all the contact information as well as the time when you will contact the person.
Your plan should have a time table with dead lines and concrete measurable results of your progress.
Planning is the essential step between visualization and actualization. Without a plan you’re your goals and your actions are disconnected and you most likely are facing frustration and failure or at least make things much harder and complicate.
(5) Do it!
Everything must end in action. Without action nothing will be accomplished.
Here is my personal recipe for getting things done: How to accomplish more
Footnotes:
Handling rejection
There is no rejection! It is all in your mind.
Unless the person you are dealing with is your friend or a relative, there is no rejection.
When I started blogging nobody would come to my blog and read my posts. I felt pretty bad and I had to remind myself that there was no rejection. The rejection was only in my head. The people did not read my blog because they did not like me. Simply nobody knew I was writing a blog.
When someone tells you “No” or ignores you, it is not because they have something against you. It is just the way things are, it is part of the business and it doesn’t have anything to do with you.
So don’t make it personal. It is up to you.
Handling failure
You know the saying “Behind every successful man there is a woman”?
Well behind every failure there is a good excuse.
There is a story about Edison working on the bulb invention. He tried about 500 different materials for the filament but none worked. A journalist visiting him asked: “Don’t you think after 500 failures you should give up?” Edison replied: “I didn’t fail 500 times. I eliminated 500 bad choices and now I’m 500 steps close to success.”
The problem with intelligent, smart, educated people is that they are very good at finding the best excuses. Some time the dumb people succeed simply because they don’t see any reason for failure.
There is no failure unless you accept your excuse.
Go back to step 1!
About timethief
22 Comments on “Five Steps to Success”
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I like this article. And I bought a ticket by the way… if you are listening up there :)
John Rocheleau – Zen-Momentss last blog post..Is the Auto Industry Bailout a Good Deal?
When I first started to read this article I was sad. My gram prayed everyday that she would win the lottery. She played every day. Then, when I came to the end of the paragraph my mood lightened up. My husband used to say “One day I’m going to win the lottery.” I gave him an odd look and said “Ummm… don’t you have to play to win it?”
Some good tips. Why do we tend to feel rejected? Sounds like something to really think about.
Failure can be followed up with determination. In high school I had to take algebra. I’m not good at math but I was determined to figure it out. The first year I got “F’s.” The teacher sent a note with my report card, “Shirley tries really hard.” I don’t give up easy I took it yet another year the first part of the year I passed with a “C” and the second part I failed. I decided I need to try one last time. The third year taking the class I had “A’s” all the way through. My algebra teacher loved me to death because I don’t give up.
Just because you fail doesn’t mean you give up. You just dust your knees and get back to work.
Shirleys last blog post..Proof Positivity: Toys That Are Safe
Thanks for the tips! I usually drift about in the “dreaming” phase. Aaargh! :o|
earthtohollys last blog post..Sleepy holidays
TT, i have to respectfully disagree with the number 1 point. i think if no one dreams then how will they set goals? we need something to look forward to, right? and setting goals or going after the goals starts with dreaming…atleast i think so.
i agree with the rest of the points. wonderfully written…
:D
irtiza104s last blog post..Life as i know it : Open for Suggestions
Sound advice there. I must heed it sometime. :p
Seriously though, I think success is whatever you wish it to be. For some, that might be getting out of bed in the morning. There are so many things that are out of our control in this crazy old world. For me, the biggest success one can have in life is finally owning one’s own thoughts and actions without requiring others to validate them first. There are so many people who can’t live like this, and I’m one of them at least some of the time! I mean, who doesn’t want validation, right?
This was a great article, TT. Bravo! :)
I like this, TT. Dreams are great to have, but without action, that’s all they are.
Ironic, though, that you use the lottery ticket story as an example, because if there ever was a scam that keeps people dreaming about easy street without having to plan and work for it, it’s the lottery.
I’m a big dreamer and even though subconciously I’ve always known these steps are the ones I need to take to progress I still find it hard to execute them. I’m not sure why that is as I do have lots of mental strength… but I know I also have terrible self discipline when it comes to doing things for myself- yet I can move mountains to do something for someone else. Oh dear, I suppose it’s time for my New Year Resolutions again…
Mrs Ts last blog post..Christmas Socks
Thanks for this interesting post…
As a person who has big dreams on point 1) Did you really mean Stop Dreaming?
I would say dream big and if you are determined you WILL get it. Most successful people have big, even huge dreams. For every accomplishment you will find a dream that was never given up despite the odds. The problem is, I think, that most of us don’t dream big enough. Or we give up our dreams because we can’t see how they can be achieved. Or because we think we don’t deserve it what we’re dreaming of. If you don’t have a dream, how can you have that dream come true? There’s a song about that somewhere.
Now, I do agree that dreaming alone won’t get you what you are dreaming of. You must take action (as you say), you must set goals, you must give up making excuses.
On Creative Visualization
As a person who uses creative Visualization very successfully, here’s my two cents. When you visualize you don’t always see or even know all the steps you need to take. What you do ( what I do) is Visualize the outcome of your ideal life, or vision or whatever, as ALREADY accomplished. That means you include all the feelings, attitudes, thoughts etc that you’d have if you had already achieved your dream. You use all the senses and you act as if it’s already real.
You then set goals and action and start moving towards that vision, all the while acting “as if.” The universe (through the Law of Attraction) brings the people, situations and opportunities you need into your experience and you act on them. It never fails. Sometimes because we don’t see the “how” of what we want to achieve we give up, or become discouraged and figure it can’t be done.
You’re right, creative visualization is not simply day dreaming (although day dreaming is something I believe we should do more of) it’s disciplined daydreaming.
Nicky Jamesons last blog post..Blogging Tips: How To Get Ideas And Content For Your Blog
Thanks for all the comments. I have advised the author of this post buddhaofhollywood that your comments are here and he will respond to them as soon as he can.
@ John – Thank you and good luck with the lottery!
@ Shirley – Rejection is a very complex subject to be clarified in one comment. If TT would permit me I would write an article on the subject.
Very good point on determination. Thank you for your comment.
@ Earthtoholly, Ian & Mrs T – You got it: Dreaming can be a very seductive trap.
Thank you for your comments.
@ Irtiza @ Nick – I never said “Do not dream” or “Dreaming is bad” Stop dreaming means that you already had a dream, maybe for a year maybe ten or maybe your whole life. If you wan to turn that dream into reality “stop dreaming” is a must first step.
@ Tony – Same as Shirley’s. I would ask TT if I can write more posts and hope that some time in the future to answer your question. Thank you for your comment.
@ Nick – About visualization. I totally agree with your points. It should be as “real” as possible. Thank you for the clarification.
@ TT – I didn’t expect this overwhelming reaction.
Today was my 5 years old birthday. From 7am till now it was just run, run, run.
I just opened my computer and I saw your message. It looks like I would need more of your blog space. Since you have the blogging expertise let me know what the best thing to do is.
I will come back for more comments ASAP.
Buddha of Hollywoods last blog post..Lost in translation
Hi Timethief–I do realize you are not the author of this post–and I thought it was a very good one! Although, like Irtiza, I believe that #1 is not the way to go. Dreaming big is important. What is not good is not acting on yoru dream–so I would revise #1 to say, “Keep Dreaming but go for more–ACT on your dreams!”
Melinda
Melindas last blog post..Crossroads
@Mrs T – Instead of making resolutions – set goals.Chunk them down into bite sized bits, don’t try to eat the whole elephant ;) Resolutions beg to be broken, you feel on top of the world when you achieve even the smallest goal.
@buddha of H – I could never stop dreaming.They are the basis of my goals.
Nicky Jamesons last blog post..Blogging Tips: How To Get Ideas And Content For Your Blog
Every day, I win lotteries. It is just a matter of recognizing them for being lotteries.
rummusers last blog post..Hello world!
@ Melinda – You must be a Zen Buddhist. That is the middle way philosophy. The way of the enlightened.
@ Nick – Everybody dreams.Dreams are wonderful but some people dream their dreams and others live their dreams. My point is not that dreams are bad, my point is that dreams are very seductive and some time they stop us from acting.
@ Rummuser – How wonderful is that. The world would be a better place if everyone would do it!
Buddha of Hollywoods last blog post..Lost in translation. Part II
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Its beautiful..
No god blessed it.
Thanks for your comment :)
I think the article was well written. One of the sayings that come to mind is:
How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.
Having dreams is an important and healthy tool. However, it should be used as such. Like the article stated, dreaming without action will not produce success. I also agree with Nicky’s statement that visually seeing your success will ultimately produce it. Our mind is a very powerful tool. When we put it to work, good things happen. However, the opposite is also true and as a result, we become a victim to ourselves.
We all have the power to project yourself into a more positive and successful life. Determination and motivation are big factors. No one can provide those tools for you. It has to come from within. Making excuses seems to be a pastime for many. Perhaps if we were to use those energies more constructively, the end result would be less failure.
Thanks for the comment. buddhaofhollywood is away right now and cannot reply to you.
A thought provoking article.
Planning to meet future goals is one thing.
Creating expectations of success or failure is quite another.
We experience life moment by moment.
All we can truly expect to gain is experience.
We cannot know success or failure if we are only here to experience. Experience is neither good nor bad. It is what it is.
Success or failure is how you evaluate yourself in retrospect in relation to your expectations. Life does not know about your expectations or how you think life should go.
You cannot change what is. Live moment to moment or make big plans, it will not change the outcome.
You will live life as it comes to you.
Life will take you where it will. May as well enjoy the ride.
Gilles
@Gilles
Thanks so much for commenting here. I have been reading your blog posts and learning so much from them.
Nice, nice, nice!
Excellent post! And I totally agree that success is not by accident, just like 99% of the things happening in our lives. We make it happen – success or failure – we only have ourselves to fall back on.
Success is not by chance, it’s by CHOICE!
Cheers,
Making The Best Better Team