Success Principles
(14 minute read; 2558 words)
Other than the saving grace of Jesus Christ— which is the ultimate success — a good attitude is the most important ingredient for success in life, both personal and professional. It begins with the way you “choose” to think— targeted, specific thoughts about what you want, what you need and how to get both. These success principles work in every area of everybody’s life.
Here are some simple definitions of the key components:
Success is the ongoing accomplishment of goals.
Goals are the things you want to be, do and have.
The great Zig Ziglar said: “You have to ‘be’ before you can ‘do’, and ‘do’ before you can ‘have.’“
A game plan identifies specifically the targeted, specific actions it will take in order for you to get what you want and need— to accomplish your goals; to be “successful.”
Here’s the Success Formula in three simple steps:
1. Decide Exactly What You Want or Need (be very specific)
2. Get a Game Plan and Take Action (targeted & specific)
3. Evaluate (constantly) & Adjust (as often as needed)
Ongoing success requires that you do these things consistently well. It’s as easy as 1-2-3. The formula is the same in all the things you do.
This is the blueprint and the plan— the process.
Decide exactly what your goal is— what you want or need to be, to do or to have. Make a master list and then divide by category and importance. Work your way down the list systematically with the most important ones first— needs before wants. Be very specific. You can’t be “it” or do “it” or have “it” until you know exactly what “it” is. What specifically is “it” that you want and need?
Design a step-by-step game plan, explaining how to make “it” happen. Take targeted, specific actions. Take only the actions that will take you closer to your goals. Know what those actions are and what they aren’t.
Constantly evaluate your actions and make the necessary adjustments by fine-tuning the actions of your game plan as often as needed in order to keep you on target or to perhaps, get you back on target. Sometimes you might even have to change the goal.
Each step becomes the most important step; 1 is most important – then 2 – then 3 and then back to 2 and then 3; maybe all the way back to 1 and then 2 and 3.
But if you had to choose the most important step of all, it would be number 2. Goals are great, you’ve got to have them, but they cannot be efficiently and effectively achieved without taking “targeted, specific actions.”
Pablo Picasso said, “Action is the foundational key to all success.” Not just action, Pablo, but “targeted, specific action.” The wrong actions will get you the wrong results.
“What changes lives is making decisions and taking actions that produce the results you want.”
This or That?
“This” and “that” describes the specific goal you want and the targeted, specific actions you must take to achieve it.
Here is how it works:
If you want or need “this”—whatever “this” may be—then you must do “this,” meaning the specific actions that will produce it, in order to get “this.”
So, if you want this, you must do this to get this.
If you want that, then you must do that to get that.
But if you want this and keep doing that, you will get that, not this.
And if you want that but keep doing this, you will get this, not that.
If you cannot decide whether you want this or that, and you fail to support your decision with targeted, specific actions, you may end up getting neither this nor that.
You cannot consistently do that and expect to get this. Your actions must match your goal.
And this is how that works.
Got it?
The Essential Attitudes
The essential attitudes required for ongoing success are discipline, confidence, motivation and determination— the sum of which is toughness. These are also called the “cornerstones” of success. These attitudes must be ingrained as automatic actions and reactions (what you say, how you say it, and what you do) that can be implemented on-demand. They are the driving forces behind your success.
Plug in the essential attitudes first thing, every single day.
It all begins with discipline. Discipline means doing things the way they are supposed to be done; doing the right things the right way, all the time. It is discipline that enables the Big Four– confidence, motivation and determination. 🙂
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit… an attitude.”
— Aristotle (384-322 BC) (emphasis added)
The Big Four
- Confidence means that you “know without a doubt” that you can be, do or have whatever you want or need. There is a huge difference between thinking or believing you can and knowing you can. Knowing is the most powerful mindset and it be your default factory setting; focusing only on what you want or need. Confidence comes from being prepared and the more you prepare and the better you prepare, the more confident you will be. “I know I can because I rehearse it daily, both physically and mentally.” Rigorously prepare yourself in every aspect of life so you will always be “fully confident” that you can and will get what you want and need.
It is important to note here that in life, you must “always know you can,” but also “know that sometimes you won’t.” These real life results have nothing to to with what you know you can do. It’s just the reality of life. In everything you do, you always have a 50-50 shot. You either can or you can’t, you will or you won’t, you do or you don’t. Focus on can, will and do and never on can’t won’t or don’t. Give it your best shot on every pitch with the right mindset and then deal with the results, good and bad. Most will go in your favor and some will not. You know that up front— I always can, but I sometimes don’t. That “sometimes don’t” thing should never dictate how you compete. Doubt and fear should never enter into a competition because it hasn’t even happened yet. Don’t let your mindset be your worst enemy. Laser focus on the task at hand. Get a plan, stop thinking, and see it and react.
There are zero benefits in thinking that you can’t In fact, thinking you can’t over and over translates into knowing you can’t. Thinking in a tunnel. Don’t go outside that tunnel.
Confidence means that you know without a doubt, with absolute certainty, that you can do whatever you want to do and whatever you need to do. It is not just thinking you can, like the Little Engine That Could, and not even just believing you can — but truly knowing you can. Knowing leaves not room for doubts to creep in to distract you.
Confidence comes and grows through preparation. The more you prepare, the more your confidence grows.
It will never hurt you to always know you can.
“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect… Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident.” — Mark Victor Hansen
Motivation is the internal driving force that propels you into action; motiv-“action,” if you will. If you really want to do something, nobody can stop you from doing it. And if you really, don’t want to do something, nobody can make you do it.
Although outside forces can motivate, like your parents, coaches, teammates, motivational speakers like Zig and the Attitude Coach, true motivation must be self-generated— it must always come from within. It is a high priority and it’s very important to you. You must be “highly motivated” because you really, really want to be.
Motivation is the internal driving force that propels you into action — motiv-“action,” if you will. Get your motor running. Get emotionally engaged and stay within yourself without getting outwardly emotional. Keep it controlled from the inside-out and not from the outside-in. Emotions are just “energy in motion.” You must have good energy to compete well. A good term for this is “controlled adrenaline.”
Controlled adrenaline is emotional and physical energy that is deliberately focused and directed into productive action rather than allowed to become panic, anger, confusion, or reckless behavior. It means controlling what you do with the heightened energy produced by challenge, competition, urgency, fear, or anticipation. Adrenaline prepares the body for action by increasing alertness, energy, heart rate, and readiness to respond.
Controlled adrenaline makes you alert, focused, energized, and ready to act.
Controlled adrenaline means keeping your head while using your emotional energy to perform at your best.
Motivation means this is a high priority and it is very important to you. You must be highly motivated, because you really want to be.
Here’s a new term:
MotivAction is memorable, easy to understand, and fits The Attitude Rules extremely well. It bridges the critical gap between wanting and doing:
Motivation creates the desire. MotivAction creates the performance.
MotivAction (noun)
mot·iv·ac·tion (mō-tə-ˈvak-shən)
The self-directed force that turns motivation into immediate, purposeful, physical action. It is the moment when desire, belief, commitment, and decision join forces and become productive action.
Motivation gives you a reason to act. MotivAction gets you moving.
Motivation says, “I want to.”
MotivAction says, “I am doing it—now.”
MotivAction (noun); mot·iv·ac·tion (mō-tə-ˈvak-shən) — The internal force that turns motivation into immediate, purposeful, physical action. It is the moment when desire, belief, and commitment join forces to become productive.
MotivAction is not just wanting to do something — it is doing it.
It is the bridge between intention and execution, where thoughts become actions and goals become results.
Notable Thoughts about Motivation:
If humans have one unlimited power, it is determination. Determination means to compete with tenacious willpower and stubborn perseverance in order to make things happen and get what you want or need. Nothing is more powerful than these two forces. You must be resilient and relentless in the pursuit of what you want. It takes a “dogged determination” to consistently accomplish your goals. Dogged determined is a fearless effort in order to achieve something; to do what it takes, no matter what, to make it happen and to not be denied.
Determination
If humans have one unlimited power, it is determination.
Determination means to compete with tenacious willpower and stubborn perseverance in order to make things happen. Nothing is more powerful than these two forces.
You must be resilient and relentless in the pursuit of your goals. It takes dogged determination to consistently get what you want and need.
Dogged determination is a stubborn, tenacious and fearless resolve to achieve something — it is the mindset of doing whatever it takes to make things happen, no matter what the odds. It says: I am not scared. I will not quit. I will not back down. I will not be denied.
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence and determination. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent (all powerful).” (Calvin Coolidge; emphasis added)
Toughness is the sum of discipline, confidence, motivation and determination. It means being able to control your thoughts, attitudes and actions in order to perform at a high level as designed, regardless of the circumstances, the self-perceived pressures or any distractions that might cloud your thinking and inhibit your performance. It is the ability to compete as you were designed and to focus on the task at hand by taking the targeted, specific actions just like you always do that give you the best chance to get what you want or need. The formula and effort is always the same regardless of the circumstances. If you consistently do things the way they are supposed to be done, you won’t have to change a thing when the stakes are higher. Just play it the same way you always do. Be a tough-minded competitor in all the moments of your life.
Toughness
Toughness is the sum of discipline, confidence, motivation, and determination.
It means being able to control your thoughts, attitudes, and actions in order to perform at a high level as designed, regardless of the circumstances, self-perceived pressures, or any distractions that might cloud your thinking and inhibit your performance.
Toughness is the ability to fearlessly compete as you were designed in all situations and to focus on the task at hand by taking the targeted, specific actions — just like you always do — that give you the best chance to get what you want or need.
The formula and effort are always the same, regardless of the circumstances. If you consistently do things the way they are supposed to be done, you won’t have to change a thing when the stakes are higher.
Just play it the same way you always do. Don’t let up and don’t tense up.
Don’t let anybody keep you from being what you want to be, or doing what you want to do, or having what you want to have…especially if that person is you.
Play life pitch by pitch, one pitch at a time, always looking for the good and expecting the best.
Be a tough-minded competitor in all the moments of your life.
Add quote about Toughness:
Be a self-disciplined, fully confident, highly motivated, doggedly determined, tough-minded competitor on every pitch of every game.
A competitor is an individual who fearlessly embraces a challenge, relentlessly pursues excellence, consistently gives maximum effort to win in each moment, and always consistently performs at a high level in order to achieve success.
And it all begins with the way you “choose” to think.
In summary, success is simply getting what you want or need, whenever you want it and whenever you need it. It is the ongoing accomplishment of goals. What do you want? What do you need? Be very specific. What’s the plan to get it? Do it! Take action; targeted & specific. Evaluate constantly & adjust as often as needed. Be self-disciplined, fully confident, highly motivated and doggedly determined! Be a tough-minded, fearless competitor in life, always looking for the good and expecting the best! Make it happen! Do not be denied! Do it again and again and again! Give God all the glory!
“The ‘ultimate success,’ the only real and lasting success in this life (which, by the way, has an expiration date) that you should really want and need, is to receive God’s amazing grace through genuine repentance and by putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
Don’t live here or leave here without it. Too many do and there is no excuse for it. Jesus said, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’ (John 14:6).
This must be at the top of your list; not your ‘to-do’ list, but your ‘must-do’ list and with a great sense of urgency because you really don’t have too much time. Your earthly life is short, believe me, like a mist or vapor, and time passes quickly with no time-outs or do-overs. You are not guaranteed another day of life, not another breath, not one more heartbeat and you will eventually die… we all will, and you do not know the day and the hour when Christ will return to bring history to its proper conclusion.
It is the only thing in this life that you ‘must’ do in order to change your eternal destiny. God’s grace requires a response. Do it now. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). It’s not too late— not yet.
Share the Good News of Christ with others who desperately need to hear it. Live for the One who died for you— do not risk dying for a second time— because eternity is a long, long time to be wrong.” – RAC
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