- Being successful (usually) doesn't happen by accident...
Whether success to you means money, doing well at work or simply being happy, if you’re not satisfied with your progress in one or all of these areas, there are steps you can take to improve. Being successful is partly a matter of luck and talent and partly a matter of how you approach things in life to create opportunities.
Creative Problem Solving
When you run into a problem, how do you respond? Do you tend to brainstorm many different ways to solve it, or do you get stuck on just one or two solutions and give up if they don’t work? If you’re like most people, you do the latter, but in order to truly be successful, you need to do the former. Always explore creative solutions to issues, and don’t assume that solutions aren’t possible unless you have confirmation of that fact.
Here’s an example of how you might approach a problem in this way. Let’s say you are due to have knee surgery and you’ll be unable to walk for a while. You live in a two-story house, so what’s the solution? How will you recover if your bedroom and bathroom are upstairs? You might assume that it just won’t be possible and that you’ll need to stay with a family member whose house is all on one floor until you recover.
However, if you brainstorm, it might occur to you that you could have a home lift installed. This might seem like a drastic solution, but you’d never have to worry about mobility issues in your home again, even as you get older. It could also increase the property value of your home. You can take a look at home lifts comparison experts to see what is available. In general, having one installed is generally easier and less costly than people expect. As this demonstrates, creative problem solving can often provide solutions that have additional benefits for you.
Aggressive Goal Setting
If you were in school or business, and working on a project, you would certainly prepare your project for success by taking things step by step and making sure each element was to your liking before submission. You can use the same approach when setting personal goals. It can be hard to track your progress if you don’t have any goals. Goals give you a concrete measure of how you are doing. Your goals can be personal or professional in nature, but they should be specific.
For example, maybe you want to express yourself creatively more. This is a vague kind of goal to set. A better way to frame it would be to choose a specific form of expression, like writing three poems or painting three pictures in a certain time frame. Set goals of different lengths so that you are always working toward some shorter and some longer-term aims.
Creating Habits
Unfortunately, it can be all too easy to write down a list of the things you hope to do and then set it aside. The only way to reach those goals is through habits that you cultivate every day. Doing a little painting daily will help you reach that aim of producing three pictures. Whatever it is that you want to achieve, think about what you need to do on a daily basis to succeed at it. Then make that habit non-negotiable in the same way that eating, sleeping, showering, brushing your teeth and showing up at work are.