Success means a lot of different things. One thing that is always true that is that it is primarily defined by your level of productivity. Another true indication of success is your level of consistent improvement in how you exist in the world and who you are. The more you improve, the more you’ll be able to decide what matters most to you personally.
Success is something you need to define for yourself.
I’ve narrowed down ten clear and specific actions that will help you focus, narrow your goals down, develop yourself, and work towards your own personal version of success.
1. Make the Most of Your Mornings
I’m going to start with the one area I need the most improvement. Statistics will challenge this but for the most part mornings are the most productive time of the day. The first three hours often accomplish more than the entire rest of the day. Learning to wake up early might be difficult at first, but imagine what you can do with all the time you will have. In reality, it’s only going to hurt for five minutes.
If you can over come just five minutes of pain and disappointment, you can set yourself on a new path towards productivity and success. Studies have shown that the longer you hesitate to do something, the less likely you are to get it done.
One you pull yourself out of bed, change environments IMMEDIATELY!! Don’t give yourself a chance to hit snooze. Hop in the shower, walk your dog, drive to go get a coffee, whatever it is, commit to being awake. These early hours are what will set your tone for the entire day, and losing them to unnecessary extra sleep could be what’s keeping you from true productivity. It will take a full thirty days for waking up early to cement itself as a habit, and even longer for you to develop a productive and healthy morning routine, but trust me, it’s worth it for the change it will make in your life. As Aristotle once said, “It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom.” Who are we to disagree with such a smart guy?
2. Put first things first.
What is your biggest priority in your life? To really figure this out consider that it isn’t what feels most urgent or required, but what you think is most important to becoming the person you want to be. This is what you should be doing first in your day, because if you let it go you might never make time for it in the day, and if you aren’t making that time, is it really a priority? Put what is most important to you first and all the other smaller tasks will fall in place when the time is right. It is even possible that by starting your day with your most important work, some of the smaller tasks and obligations will fall away or become absorbed into larger ones. Basically, what I’m trying to say is, don’t waste your time if it isn’t important, and if it’s REALLY important, start your day with it.
3. Tackle the things you’re avoiding.
A lot of times procrastination and avoidance can seem like the path of least resistance, but if you aren’t willing to face the work that NEEDS to be done, you’ll never get to the work you find more appealing. If you’re working towards a huge goal like a PhD, but have been avoiding work on your dissertation, sit down and make some solid progress on it and you’ll be amazed how much easier all your tasks will come to you.
If you are able to prove to yourself that even what you find most difficult is doable, then the other stuff becomes easy as pie. The amount of optimism you’ll feel for the future of all your hard work is unmatched once you start knocking out those things that intimidated you before. Let your fears drive you to new heights rather than hold you back, and you’ll see such a positive change in your attitude, ability, and productivity.
4. Figure out your why.
Knowing what you want out of your life is great and important, but the next step is figuring out WHY you want it. Knowing why you have the goals you do or understanding your personal definition of success will create motivation and a closer relationship with what exactly it is you want. Author and life coach Joe Stumpf has developed a great technique for figuring out your why.
Ask yourself, what about this is important to me? Give the first answer that comes to mind. For example, if your what is, “I want to work for myself,” then ask, “what about working for myself is important to me?” Let’s say your answer is, “Working for myself is important to me because I want to spend more time with my family.” Then ask yourself “Why is spending more time with my family important to me?” Keep going with this, answer the question then ask it again with your new answer in place of the old one. Ideally get at least seven questions deep in this game. It will help you uncover what is most important to you and give you the ability to tailor your what around your why, which will ultimately lead to a better understanding of yourself and more chance at future success.
5. Be a GIVER!
Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t understand the value of this tip here. Many people are takers who build relationships only to find out what they can get out of them. They are the types of people who see every interaction as a transaction of sorts and never really care about anyone involved in a deal who isn’t them. If a relationship doesn’t benefit a taker they won’t continue it, no matter what sort of person the taker is deciding to ditch.
DON’T BE THIS PERSON!
Structure your relationships on what you can GIVE to others rather than what you can take. Trust me, you’ll see a lot more success. As my Grandma says, “you catch more flies with honey.” Don’t be fake about it though, take some time to really think on this point and come to the conclusion that giving not only feels good, but is just the right thing to do.
6. Serve & give as much as you can.
“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”
— Winston S. Churchill
Givers don’t give to boast, or get ahead, or make other people feel less than. A true giver does so because they believe they MUST. They believe in humanity and furthering the success of others outside of their own success. While focusing on others might feel counterintuitive to focusing on your success, the opposite is actually true. When you are doing the right things with your time and money you will sleep more soundly, be more present in your relationships, and feel more attuned to the needs of others. All of these things will lead to your success in other branches of life. In everything you do, strive to be as much of a giver as you can be, and you’ll be amazed at the positive change it makes in your life!
7. Know what you deserve.
You get out of life what you expect, so it is important when reaching towards your dreams that you know how much you deserve out of life, people, and frankly, yourself. What you think you deserve impacts how you live your entire life, and once you realize the true rewards of being a giver, you will be given better insight into all that you deserve as a good and hard working person. If you believe you deserve great things, you will generally start to get them. In concurrence with that belief you will start working towards your goals with more confidence. You will only grow more sure of your own work and your ability to succeed once you embrace that it is what you deserve.
8. Learn differently.
Most people have a dominant learning style. It is important to realize that straying away from the most comfortable styles can be beneficial in the long run. Most people have growth mindsets in fields that fit their learning style, and fixed mindsets in fields that do not. For example, if you are a verbal learner, you might have a growth mindset regarding writing, but a fixed one regarding geometry or something else that requires a visual learning style. This means you believe you can become a better writer, but don’t believe you can EVER learn geometry!
It’s important not to let this trap you and prevent you from learning new things. If you take part in an activity outside of your comfort zone, you’ll be giving your brain some valuable and much appreciated exercise and will make progress towards goals that require you to go outside of your comfort zone.
9. Become best at what you do.
This isn’t impossible! Though it is if you believe it is (but that’s another article for another day.) You need to define what it is your business does. What problem does it solve and more importantly, who are the people it solves this problem for. Analytics and data are all helpful, but be careful not to define your audience by them, rather use that problem you are trying to solve for them help build your definition, and keep an eye out for other problems you can help solve for these people along the way. What can you do to make the lives of your customers as great as they can be? You can listen, develop a deep understanding of your niche, and continue creating products that will improve the lives of your customers. If you can solve their problems and be a great person/brand to interact with along the way, you will develop loyalty from your niche and rise up in the ranks.
10. Learn with others.
If you want to make sure you work hard to get something right, learn to do it around others. The raw experience and failure that is inevitable will help you grow, and the people it happens around will be able to hold you accountable for your progress. Try learning through direct coaching and courses as much as possible, it takes a lot of courage to try and learn a new skill publicly and more so to practice it in public regularly, but your bravery will be rewarded. It will be rewarded with faster learning, respect of others, and a sense of confidence in yourself for having the confidence to do what a lot of other people could not.
And there you have it. Some of my favorite tips for increasing your productivity, confidence, and success. Did you try some of these bits of advice out? Let us know in the comments!
