“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” – Wayne Dyer
We have always been a breed that underestimates the power of discipline. You can see it in the streets, where some continue to cross disregarding the stoplights and other traffic rules. You can also observe them in other forms when people work for their goals in life – some being serious about it, but the majority if not all, continue to delay and take for granted the chances given to them every single day. Suffice to say, for every one of us to reach the level of success that we dreamt of, a new perspective on things is necessary. Without it, the consequence is a lot of pitstops, detours or U-turns coming our way – a significant delay in our plans.
It has always been about the why’s and not the how’s. If people start on themselves and focus on their self-development, then this will serve as a rallying point towards their targets. As they say, if you want to change the world, focus first on yourself, then your family, then your region, and finally country will just follow. The energy of a focused and passionate individual is contagious and radiating. It will be like a wave that will sweep other people to change on their own, eventually reaching the community, the region, the country and then the world.
But how do you motivate and inspire yourself to continue and live a life focused on improvement and progress? Let me share to you some of the things that I stopped doing, things that I start to see and observe, and things that I start to listen to, thereby helping me to achieve my goals and live the life of my dreams today.
STOP
- Stop Procrastinating
The world doesn’t stop when you don’t feel like doing something that is important. Actually, it gains speed, up until the moment that you really need to do it and then you realized that the time is not enough for you to finish. The problem with procrastinating is that we create a pile of to-dos that we thought we could do in a jiffy, but not. That’s why I see to it that I change this behavior if I want to be successful. I do the things that can be done whenever I can. I rally myself against laziness. Whenever a task is hard, I ask for help or find other ways to do it. Lastly, I always think of a reason to push me even more.
Discard the fear of failure because it feeds your laziness. And we all know that laziness is the main reason why a lot of us are having a difficult time succeeding. Do it now.
2. Stop Giving Excuses
We tend to be creative in giving excuses in a lot of things, including why we are not still successful or why we have not yet achieved our goals. It seems to be an innate Filipino talent. However, we have to be accountable to our lives, and this accountability includes owing up to you and to your mistakes. The old adage “If there’s a will, there’s a way” is a good starting point. If you are habitually late, be earlier than your earliest time. If you are slow, then be faster than your fastest. You see, the successful people of today are just small fries before. They just continue to work on themselves and put the blame on them for everything.
Be a person that harbors no excuses in order to be successful.
3. Stop Overthinking and Analyzing
A man chops a tree in succession, while the other contemplates on cutting his tree for the first time. After an hour, the man that chops in succession has finished, while the other one continues to think and makes no progress.
If you want to do something and you want to have results, do it fast. Thinking about it a lot, analyzing everything that may happen and delaying to take action, will delay your progress towards a shot on success. Just do it.
This was all me before. I was so apprehensive to start because of the potential embarrassment. I was a person that was full of excuses, and too lazy to act. But I stopped being like that. I changed into the person that diligently works on himself so that I can have a longer time in the future to do the things that I wanted the most.
LOOK
- Look for Opportunities for you to Grow
The world is filled with endless possibilities. You just need to grab them decisively. Be aggressive in creating your networks. Invest in trainings that will enhance the skills that you need. Join groups and organizations that resonate with your belief. Pursue growth either in your business venture or your corporate career. Find mentors and coaches that can help you improve day by day.
What I realized is that, growth is a necessity for success.
2. Look for your Deep Why
It is hard to be successful, but it is harder if you don’t know why you want to be one. When you were a student, why do you want to have good grades? Do you know why you work so hard despite the traffic and severe weather? Why will you still cling to your business even if the profits are not looking good, and a lot of rejections are coming your way?
You see, your why is like the foundation of a building. The deeper it is, the more stable the building would be. Life is a torrent of blessings and challenges. Unfortunately, some challenges sway us to give up on things we want to pursue. Your whys are reminders that keep you level-headed in dealing with situations that can bring you down.
LISTEN
- Listen to those who have made it
I want to be successful, that is why I listen to those who are already successful. The problem with some of us is that we often ask and follow advices from wrong individuals. If I want to become a great manager, I ask an advice from a manager that I look up to. If I want to become a successful entrepreneur, I ask an advice from a successful business owner that I admire. You would not want to follow the advice of a dentist regarding the optimal design of your house, right?
2. Listen to Audiobooks and positive Aspirations
An apple a day keeps the doctor away. This is the same as a positive and learning experience a day can keep the feeling of giving up away. Whether we know it or not, positive things and emotions greatly affect our chances of success. It amplifies what we are going through. However, this is true for negative things and emotions as well. So, choose wisely.
Our minds are powerful processors of information. And in this age of digital revolution, a single click can take you to a lot of knowledge and know-how, take advantage of it and learn new things. For something that is free, this is definitely worth it.
3. Listen to trainers, mentors, and motivators.
The more we listen, the more we learn. And the higher the quality of the source, the more beneficial the learning will become. So, I did not hesitate to listen to trainers, mentors and motivational speakers. They provide guidelines that we can utilize to become successful. It doesn’t matter if they are younger than me or if I have a higher standing than them in terms of educational background or position. At the end of the day, the goal is to become successful.
In Conclusion
Stopping the things that weigh us down and delay our path to success is hard. But, it is doable. Looking for things that we need, people that will show us the way, can be frightening and out of our comfort zones. And yet, it is still doable. Listening to people that can help and guide us along our journey can be taxing, too. Yet again, this is doable. We become unstoppable if we put our hearts and minds in what we want to do. You just have to believe in yourself, in others, in God, on opportunities that will come, the system that you operate on, and the culture that you have created.
Take it from me. I am now living the life of my dreams, because I Stopped, Looked and Listened, in my journey towards success.