“Action is the foundational key to all success” Pablo Picasso

Success is a choice; in order to achieve our goals, we must choose to stop procrastinating and start acting.

How can we take our goals and turn them into success stories?

1. Define Success

The first step in achieving success is defining what success means to you and what your goals are.

Whether you’re striving to finish the book you’ve been writing or you’re looking to embark on a new career journey, knowing your goals and where you want to be is essential.

2. Adopt the Right Mindset

Once you know what your aspirations are, it’s all about mindset.

When we have goals, no matter how big or small they are, getting started on achieving them can often be intimidating.

One way of making goals seem more achievable is by trying to see them as something we want to do, instead of seeing them as something we need to do.

For example, instead of saying “I need to finish this online course before I can watch TV tonight.”, try to think “I want to finish this online course before I watch TV tonight because I’ll be able to relax more and I will feel accomplished.”.

Reminding ourselves of why we want to achieve our goals can be extremely motivational and inspiring.

Also, closing your knowing-doing gap is essential in achieving your aspirations; plans will never turn into success stories unless we act on them.

3. Take Action

The final, and arguably the most important, step is taking action. 

Here are 3 simple steps you can take to begin your journey to success:

• Prioritise your goals
  Which goals do you want to achieve first and why? When do you want to reach each goal?
  
  
• Create an action plan
  What steps will you take in order to achieve each goal? When do you want to achieve each step by?
  
  
• Ensure accountability and take action
  A great way of ensuring that you stay on track with working towards your goals is by telling someone - a friend, colleague, family member - about your aspirations and how you plan to achieve them; research shows that we are much more likely to stick to our plans if we tell someone about them as we tend to value others’ opinions and we don’t want to disappoint them.

Getting Started on Success

Newton’s first law of motion explains exactly why getting started is the key to success:

“A body in motion remains in motion unless it is acted on by an external force. If the body is at rest it remains at rest”.

If we never take action, we will remain where we are and we won’t get closer to achieving our goals. Once we have taken that first step, it is easier to stay in motion as, over time, taking steps towards our aspirations becomes a habit.

If you are still unsure of how you can turn your goals into success stories, you can download a free guide here.

“The most important key to achieving great success is to decide upon your goal and launch, get started, take action, move” John Wooden