Few people achieve success without trying. Unless you win the lottery or your company goes viral immediately, you must work hard. But I’m amazed at the sheer number of people who don’t have any plan at all for being successful.
That’s why I’m sharing my five main steps for planning your path to success. These are the same steps I followed, and they can work for absolutely anyone who wants to achieve great things.
Step #1 – Set Milestones Not Just Goals
The most common piece of advice I share is to have goals. However, goals can take a long time to reach. And if they’re especially ambitious it can be difficult to know how to get there. To keep you motivated and to provide further direction, I always recommend setting milestones instead of just goals. Milestones are markers that guide you along the way to success.
Step #2 – Get Rid of Your Bad Habits
Everyone has something that stops them from achieving what they want. It could be something as serious as drinking too much or something as minor as spending too much time on social media. I manage my time religiously, with the philosophy that every minute is a prisoner. That’s why I try to avoid opening multiple tabs and doing more than one thing at once.
Identify your bad habits and come up with a plan to eliminate them.
Step #3 – Learn from What Others Do
I’m a big advocate of everyone having a mentor of some kind. Find your inspiration and find someone who’s already achieved what you want to achieve. The key is to make sure you’re not making the same mistakes as those who came before you. Go out of your way to learn from what others have done. You’ll skip a lot of setbacks and accelerate your path to success.
Step #4 – Network All the Time
Networking should be a priority for you. This world is about who you know not what you know. Now whether that’s right or wrong, it happens. Get used to it. Network online and offline. Aim to build relationships with successful people. They’ll be able to open doors that you would never have encountered otherwise.
And leave your ego at the door. Don’t look for people who’re going to massage your ego. Look for people who’re going to tell you where your flaws are and what you can do about them.
Step #5 – Be Persistent in Your Pursuit of Greatness
This is the key to everything. You will always experience setbacks and there will always be situations where you want to give up. But if you’re persistent and relentless in your pursuit of greatness you’ll get there in the end. It’s not a race. There’s no rush to become successful fast. Only the final destination matters.
Last Word – The Key to Success
The key to success is ultimately having a strategy for getting to where you want to be. Use these tips to craft your strategy and start pushing right now.