It is very possible for you to achieve your own brand of success, but to do so, you have to take action. No single factor guarantees achievement to one person, but prevents it for another. When you focus on your goals, take steps and have a little faith in yourself, you can accomplish major success. Following are 10 steps you can take to help accomplish your vision.
- Go boldly after your biggest goals. Identify specific goals that connect to your overall vision and set a target date for each. Begin working steadily toward achieving them.
- Be your own No. 1 fan. With humility, keep your name and accomplishments on the radar. Make sure you’re getting the recognition and credit you’ve earned. If you still have doubts, consider that announcing your accomplishments validates the investment others have made in you.
- Don’t underprice yourself. Many people mistakenly believe they’re doing their employers a favor by not pushing for more, or that they’ll be more appealing if they don’t ask for higher compensation. However, most underpricing occurs because many just aren’t comfortable asking for what they think they’re worth.
- Make sure you stand out. Do everything you can to ensure that you aren’t seen as interchangeable or dispensable. If you’re able to make yourself invaluable and leverage the characteristics that make you unique, you’ll be impossible to replace. And when that happens, you’ll be in control of your own price.
- Network with big players. It’s normal to gravitate toward people who are the same as you, but in business, a major reason people don’t get ahead is that they don’t connect with people who are a rung or two higher than them on the professional ladder. If you impress someone who is more successful than you are, they’ll have a lot more influence than someone whose position is equivalent to yours.
- Break the checkmark addiction. Skin care professionals are constantly sabotaged by nonproductive energy-wasters. These are the easy, albeit often unproductive, tasks that make you feel good. Checking these minor tasks off of your list offers instant satisfaction, but they won’t help accomplish your greater goals.
- Set aside sacred momentum time. Designate time for yourself each day to work uninterrupted toward achieving your goals. To carve out time, examine every activity and decide how to eliminate it, delegate it or do it faster. Claim your momentum time, and you’ll find those lost hours you’ve been seeking.
- Have confidence in your abilities. It’s unlikely that you’ll reach any goal you set for yourself if you don’t believe with your whole heart that achieving it is possible. Any time you find yourself entertaining doubts, remind yourself of your past successes.
- Surround yourself with mentors. There are two ways to develop the skills, habits and mindset you’ll need to achieve success. The first is to go it alone, and learn by trial and error. The second path is to learn from others who have encountered and surmounted problems that are similar to your own.
- Safeguard your momentum. Accept that someone is bound to be unhappy about the changes you make to focus on your goals. Discard all discouraging messages. These are your passions and goals, not anyone else’s.
You can’t snap your fingers and suddenly actualize your goals. The successful people you envy weren’t able to do that either: They worked for it; they set big goals. They didn’t settle for small-time achievements.
Vickie Milazzo is the author of the New York Times best seller Wicked Success Is Inside Every Woman (Wiley, 2011). She has earned a place on the Inc. list of Top 10 Entrepreneurs and Inc. Top 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies in America, and is the owner of Vickie Milazzo Institute, an education company she founded in 1982.