To be successful at anything you should have knowledge what success in that particular field is. You want to be successful in a business. You want to be successful in your profession. You may be a salaried person and want to be successful at what you do. Success may be a promotion. Maybe you want to be successful with your family. For many success is simply being happy, or being famous, or having money.
In my years of experience teaching communication skills I learnt that success to many young people was having a big house, a big brand car and a swanky office. Some even had thought of the interior design of the office, the location of their house and the brand of car they would own when they were successful. However, the one thing they had not thought about was how they would achieve this. To have a dream is not bad, but most people are not dreaming about their goals, but the benefits of their goals.
If someone says he or she wants to have a Mercedes or a BMW or a Bugatti or Ferrari that is at most a short term goal or a low aim. It is usually a joke to say you want a Toyota in life. Everybody will chide you for not being ambitious and setting low goals and the person may even pride himself to be practical. But neither side will usually ask how? The most important question in the whole equation, how? While a group of people believe that success is a lot of hard work and loads of luck, another group feels working smart not hard and having the right contacts not luck will bring success. Both sides are right to a certain degree.
Your goals whatever you define them to be - a big branded car, a home in the city's swankiest localities has to be backed up by a plan. So instead of arguing about ambitions and goals, plan how to get it done.
I had a colleague who wanted a corner office with some employees working for her. I thought she was pleasantly ambitious. Unfortunately she did not have a plan. One day she came up to me and introduced me to a young fellow as her fiance. I felt that she looked far more beautiful than he deserved but who was I to judge. Love is blind. She had met him in one of the events we used to organise. Some days later she informed me she had decided to get married to the guy. As a good friend I was happy for her at the same time raised some concerns about how they had just met and it was too early. I stopped myself for worrying too much. I thought it was probably because I felt the boy was not a match to my friend and that was preventing me for being happy for her. However, in the course of our discussions she said something so wild I almost fell out of my seat. She told me not to worry about her since she was actually marrying to get that corner office she dreamed about always. This guy had the means to get that for her. I was convinced she had lost her marbles and tried to reason with her. Now even more argumentatively. But she wouldn't hear of it. I am sorry to say that story did not end well and you can understand why.
This story illustrates that when you don't have a plan and grab at the first opportunity you believe is golden it could be a huge risk. If it doesn't work out, like in the case of my friend, but it could be worse when you have a degree of success but are stuck with something you do not enjoy or even hate doing.
So the first step you should take today is to plan. Write down the first thing that comes to your mind regarding your success. We have a long way to go. Write down what you wish you would love to do only if somebody pays for it. Sleeping is not an option but anything productive it could even be doodling. Sit back and take a long look at what you have written and ask yourself would you do that work day in and day out yet feel absolutely comfortable.
One thing to remember here is that whatever you choose you are bound to get bored. But mind you there are two types of bored. One is getting bored of something where you don't want to see or hear about it ever again. Like a person I knew. He wanted to be a car mechanic but a couple of months into the job he shuddered to even think about going back and one day he simply left the job never to return. So much so that the smell of petrol or grease made he sick. But the other kind of bored is that you need a break which can be easily solved by a small vacation in a nice attractive place paid by the money you earn doing what you like.
One more thing is that if you are doing what you like then it becomes so easy for you that it is like breathing you can do it in your sleep.
Once you have decided that what you've written is final, wrap the paper and put it near your bed. Handy. If you believe not then repeat the exercise. Go to sleep at night. After you are fresh take a look at the what you have written again. If you still believe you are willing to do that all your life. If you believe that every day you get up and are willing to go so that work with all your passion then You are ready to take the next step.
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