Success – the seven-letter word that has more people chasing after it than Liam Hemsworth, and for a multitude of reasons: self-realisation, happiness, wealth… the personal list is endless, the chase is high, and at times overwhelming. Getting lost on the way, or even before you begin is not uncommon. Sometimes you just have to simplify it, and figure out your vision, start at the very beginning of the alphabet as it were…

AIM:

Having an aim gives a sense of direction. Without it, you’re pretty much a ship without a compass. As humans, it is innate for us to seek and set goals. But to really hit that bullseye confidently, you need to sharpen your tools and techniques. The skills and experience you acquire along the path to success is what defines your rate of growth, not just getting to the goal itself. Your aim empowers you to think and respond differently, and change all those things that weren’t working for you before. You need to examine the tools you have been using all along and see if there’s another kind of arrow you need in your quiver or if your bowstrings need tightening. Once you’re equipped, you need laser-sharp focus on nothing but the task at hand.

It’s also important to not berate yourself if you don’t make it the first time around – set definable goals with a deadline, break them into smaller goals, and then letting fear and negativity set in when you don’t realise them.

Your aim, when set right, will excite you and give you a sense of purpose. Ultimately, the real joy is not in the achievement of your goal, but in who you become as you walk down the path to achieve that goal.

BELIEF:

Remember those tools in your kit that need an update? Well, one of those is belief. Your beliefs are what will propel you towards your goal when all else seems unlikely. So, they need to be shaped out of some pretty strong stuff!

What’s more, your beliefs should be centered around working on yourself instead of trying to change the face of the world. As Neville Goddard put it so elegantly in his book, Your Faith Is Your Fortune: “Stop trying to change the world since it is only the mirror. Man’s attempt to change the world by force is as fruitless as breaking a mirror in the hope of changing his face. Leave the mirror and change your face. Leave the world alone and change your conceptions of yourself.”

The thing with your beliefs is, they need a base too: our beliefs are formed on the basis of the present evidence we have in our lives, the company we keep, even the world’s opinions around us. Altering that evidence with more research and education is what will change a jelly-like affirmation into a cemented base for you to stand on, to work on that particular kind of success that you stand for. This motivation will polish your performance and your demeanour.

In short – whatever you believe is true.

CONFIDENCE

Confidence is the force propelling you to use your abilities that will deliver all the things you want to achieve. I like the way Marcus Garvey has said it: “With confidence, you have won before you started” Marcus Garvey

According to a recent article by Psychology Today, self-confidence is linked to almost every element involved in a happy and fulfilling life. Think about it: your lack of confidence is a direct link to negative emotions including anxiety and depression over failure. On the other hand, a person with confidence is able to motivate themselves to do what they want to succeed in regularly, along with a coping mechanism to handle regular setbacks positively. The first step to inculcating self-confidence is not by treating it as a quality to be attained, but as a process that has to be engaged in throughout your life: this is because confidence as strong as it may seem, can be wiped out in a second with one setback. 

What’s even more interesting is that confidence is infectious: if you’re confident, the people you interact with show confidence in you. It also runs the other way around by the way.

If you are confident about where you are and how you’re going to get ahead, it is easier for you not just to discover a greater sense of purpose but to be empathetic and more supportive of those around you.

DISCIPLINE

“Discipline is to give yourself a command and follow it”- Bob Proctor

The toughest thing to discipline in our lives are simply ourselves. To put it another way, self-struggle is the toughest kind of struggle there is, simply because you are giving in to base impulses or indulging in behaviours that are detrimental to the potential success the universe has stored for you. Be it health issues, procrastination, financial clutter, discipline can be your best friend, (or lack of it) your worst enemy.  

The perfect alignment of mind, body and spirit is what leads us to uncovering brilliant results, but this can’t be achieved if we don’t consciously hone ourselves to it.

Discipline however, is not just restricted to your daily habits, behaviours and actions. Your mind, your thoughts also have to be regulated. Keep asking yourself this: Am I focusing on thoughts that are helping me?

ENTHUSIASM

Read this several times and engrave it on those grey cells: Talent as incredible as it is, will never encompass raw, unfiltered enthusiasm. Napolean Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich amidst other excellent reads) wasn’t kidding when he wrote, “Enthusiasm is a state of mind that inspires and arouses on to put action into the task at hand…enthusiasm bears the same relationship to a human being that steam does to the locomotive – it is the vital moving force that impels action.”

To develop a dynamic personality, you must find your enthusiasm – it is a vital force which will recharge your mind and body. What’s more it’s infectious: the energy you radiate will spread to those in close contact. 

Your levels of enthusiasm will get you to move mountains, especially when coupled with the previous ABCD’s… but you have to find ways to keep it going and harness its power every single day. Think about what it is that you really want to be doing, and push out all the negativity that cites it to be impossible or tough (use B – Belief).