1. Start your Day right
How you start your day will most certainly influence how the rest of your day goes. It doesn’t matter how you like to start your mornings, whether it is by exercising, meditation or reading but it is important to start the day on a positive note. Avoid things first thing in the morning that can put a negative spin on your thoughts like your email Inbox! After you’ve entered into your day with some positive thoughts the next important thing is to Eat the frog! We all have different frogs, these are those necessary items on your to-do list that are unpleasant to do but have great results like making a couple of sales calls or writing that blog for your business.
2. Think Big, start small
Reach for the stars and you might hit the moon. This might be a cliché but contains a lot of truth. Although if your aiming for the stars preferably that is where you want to land! Don’t underestimate yourself and what you can achieve. Dream big and then put an action plan together with small steps. You don’t have to start at the top in order to get to the top. In fact that hardly ever happens. We mostly underestimate what we can achieve and then don’t allow ourselves enough time to get there.
Related article: 5 Things we can learn from 5 Great People
3. Nurture your connections
“Succeeding in business is all about making connections.” Sir Richard Branson
No successful man (or woman) is an island. Especially when you’re entering a field in business where you don’t have specialist expertise, it’s often the only way to get a job done right. One way of making sure you are building on your relationships with others is to check whether you are delivering value that makes people better off for the time spent with you, if not then you’re missing the mark.
4. Keep it Simple
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” Confucius
It is so easy for us to get into a rut of just doing things the way we’ve always done them. Maybe it is time to stop, step back and reflect. Simplify your life and get rid of clutter. This applies to your daily schedule, workspace, technology and priorities.
Related article: Effective Time Management – how to get a better start to finish your day
5. Have Fun
Seth Godin illustrates this so beautifully with the story of two girls selling lemonade. The first girl is selling store bought lemonade at $1 a pop. The other girl …
The other stand is different. The lemonade is free, but there’s a big tip jar. When you pull up, the owner of the stand beams as only a proud eleven year old girl can beam. She takes her time and reaches into a pail filled with ice and lemons. She pulls out a lemon. Slices it. Then she squeezes it with a clever little hand juicer.
The whole time that’s she’s squeezing, she’s also talking to you, sharing her insights (and yes, her joy) about the power of lemonade to change your day. It’s a beautiful day and she’s in no real hurry. Lemonade doesn’t hurry, she says. It gets made the right way or not at all. Then she urges you to take a bit less sugar, because it tastes better that way.
While you’re talking, a dozen people who might have become customers drive on by because it appears to take too long. You don’t mind, though, because you’re engaged, almost entranced. A few people pull over and wait in line behind you.
Finally, once she’s done, you put $5 in the jar, because your free lemonade was worth at least twice that. Well, maybe the lemonade itself was worth $3, but you’d happily pay again for the transaction. It touched you. In fact, it changed you.
Which girl do you think has a brighter future?
6. Never stop Learning
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” Mahatma Gandhi
Successful people know that they never arrive. They are willing to be humble enough to learn from others and also to learn from their own mistakes. Once you open yourself up to learning you will be amazed at all the opportunities to acquire more skills and knowledge and even more surprised at the people you can learn from.
Related article: It’s not you it’s your Bad Habits and Blind Spots that are holding you back
7. Own your Life
One of the biggest mistakes anyone can make is to blame others for their failures and shortcomings. The only way you can become successful is if you are willing to own your life. Take responsibility for your actions, your past and how you treat every day. Be responsible for your own success and by doing so you will avoid the traps that can keep you from reaching your dreams.
