The 4 Secrets of Successful People

No matter who you are at some point in life you want to know that you have been successful.  But how do you determine you have been successful?  One way is found in The One Thing You Ned to Know by Marcus Buckingham, he says “truly successful people think of success as making the greatest possible impact over the longest period of time”. He found they focused on long term strategic objectives not short term goals. They are clear about the difference between goals and strategic objectives.

Unfortunately, most of us aren’t. We use short term goals as the measure of our success. The affect is when you miss a goal you feel like you’ve failed. Successful people see missing a goal as simply one step towards achieving their strategy. Successful people use what they’ve learned from trying to adjust their strategic plan and move forward. Four components are the building block of success?

1. Know Who You Are Today– By knowing yourself, you are more confident in your belief that you can be successful. Knowing yourself means having an integrated character. You are clear on what’s important to you, you understand clearly what your unique self brings and have the ability to appreciate yourself.

1. Know what’s important to you. Success is measured by looking backwards over time. We judge our success not only by what we did but how we did it. The old saying “to thine own self be true” is the best measure of success. Successful people judge being true to thyself as judging how well they lived  by their underlying beliefs and value of life.

1. Take Charge – Create an Action Plan. Your plan acts as a compass guiding you along the way. Successful people have plans and consciously use them as a compass more often than others.

1. Master Change – Change is hard .Successful people know that to remain successful they must master the change process. Nine out of 10 people won’t change. That’s a fact. But one person will. Why? Because they have mastered the three R’s essential to change. Relationships –They have trusted advisors and friends that keep them focused, grounded. Re- frame – they use others to help them see the problem from different perspectives. That’s right! They get other perspectives to help see and define problems from multiple perspectives and seek new ways.  Retrain –Successful people seek out and embrace learning. And they are not dissuaded by failure. They see failure as one step towards success.

So now ponder what the rest of 2009 will be like for you.  We’re 1/3 of the way through the year. How are you doing on your 2009 goals?