5 Ways To Raise The Odds For Your Success

Written on December 6, 2007 by Tezza

Thursday’s weekly guide to Personal Growth from 4EvaYoung.com

Success can sometimes be an elusive and nonsensical word with different meanings for different people. The meanings may change over time or remain constant depending on where you are in life. Some might consider success from a materialistic or financial standpoint, others it might be more a measure of how much at peace and fulfilled they are with their life. Whatever your definition of success, it stands to reason that you would want to achieve the very best you can. To help you raise the odds for your success here are 5 simple strategies that can be easily integrated into your approach.

1. Success Begins When You Step Outside Your Comfort Zone
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” - TS Eliot

Success is synonymous to growth in ones life. As Jim Rohn says in his motivational speeches, “The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become.” Too often we are crippled by inaction and fear because we are too afraid to step beyond our current limits to experience what we could be instead of what we currently are. Once the seed is planted, fear is insidious and infects all areas of our lives. The effect can be destabilizing to our growth and often the imagined fears are so far removed from reality that if we ever step beyond those fears and look back they seem somewhat silly to begin with.

The hermit crabs very survival requires it to consistently break through it’s comfort zone in order to survive. The hermit crabs get their name because they live inside salvaged empty shells. Hermit crabs have soft abdomens so the shell provides protection from predators. As the hermit crab grow they require larger shells and in order for them to move into their new larger home they first must vacate their current shell. This period of transition opens the hermit crab to a small window where it no longer has any protection. If a hermit crab did not move into a larger fitting shell it would severely stunt it’s growth and face a greater likelihood of being eaten by predators.

So have a look at your life, what paradigms and half truths are you holding onto so tightly that you aren’t willing to take the step to reach for that larger shell that is necessary for your growth. Success is a never ending pursuit of growth, for without growth you will only be settling for that ill-fitting shell that dooms you to mediocrity and extinction.

2. Success Goes To Those Who Don’t Know When To Quit
“People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to.” - George E. Allen

Whoever told you that success was easy should have their heads examined. Nothing worthwhile doing in life is meant to be easy otherwise everybody would be doing it and it wouldn’t be all that remarkable then. Success is something we aspire to because it does require work, determination, and sacrifice. Ants are amazing creatures who have a can do philosophy. If you put a stick in the path of an ant it will climb over it, if you put a rock in it’s path it will walk around never missing a beat. Bury an ants nest with sand and before long they have opened up the hole again. Ants have never known the word “Quit”.

Ants are not the largest creatures on the planet, nor are they the fastest, smartest or even the strongest. Yet these tiny creatures have survived millions of years of evolution to colonize almost every landmass on Earth. If you haven’t been gifted with talent or ability don’t despair. Those who make it to the top and achieve success in their chosen field didn’t all come first in their class, weren’t all born with rich parents or have opportunities thrust upon them. Those who achieve excellence did so because they were willing to pursue their chosen field no matter the obstacles they confronted and refused to quit.

3. Success Is A Quest To Gain Mastery
“All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a second, a third, and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line. Many a man has taken the first step. With every additional step you enhance immensely the value of your first.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Experts suggest that nearly 80% of New Year Resolutions are never seen through to completion. You almost certainly know someone who has set themselves a goal to lose weight or get fit. They might take commendable action thanks to initial momentum but it rarely continues for any length of time. In the modern world with all the information overload we get daily we are prone to short term expectations. We expect results quickly and with little effort otherwise we just throw in the towel.

This is great news for anyone who wants to achieve success because if only you can stick at it long enough to achieve mastery most of your competition will have already fallen off the wayside from boredom or went on to start another pursuit as they weren’t seeing enough results. If you want to see this in action take up any new sport, hobby or course of study. The beginner classes are always full to the brim with excited and bright eyed enthusiasts but by the time you make it to the intermediate and advanced levels the class sizes start to become very small.

The thing about mastery is that you don’t have to do many things great, you just have to do a few things great. The catch is that the few things you do great must be relevant to producing great results. It is about internalizing the fundamentals to a high standard rather than just learning many things. For most fields have a look at those who are at the top, find out what got them there. In your research you’ll generally find a half dozen things that generally separates the great from the good.

Think about that for a second, a half dozen things done to a high standard can mean the difference between good and great. Jim Collins has a great analogy he uses about a hedgehog and the fox. “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” When the hedgehog is attacked by the fox it curls down to expose it pointed spines to ward of the fox. The fox might try all different manner of attacks but if the hedgehog just keeps doing the one thing it does well, namely roll up in a ball and expose it’s spines then the fox will eventually be outwitted. The moral is in your quest to become successful, attain mastery by refining certain fundamental skills of your craft and do it at a tremendously high level. Everyone else is trying to be a jack off all trades.

4. Success Involves Taking Consistent And Measurable Action
“Success seems to be connected with action. Successful men keep moving…” - Conrad Hilton

Without action all you have is good intentions and a dream. Not many people ever became successful purely because of a good intention or dream, I sure don’t know anyone. In order for a dream to have life you must take action. Action breathes something magical to any dream where it’s almost like the universe shifts to avail you of people, events and resources to help make your dream become a reality. If you have ever been in the pursuit of a dream then you will know what I mean. Taking action has this ability to bring opportunities to you that would never have existed had you not made that step of faith.

Beyond just taking action it needs to also be measurable so that you know whether you are moving towards the realization of your dream or not. You need to be able to achieve your dreams in a timely manner. By making each step measurable you know whether you are on track or off track so that you can adjust your approach or make changes to your plan. Imagine if you got on a flight to an overseas destination and the pilot had no plan on how to get there and he didn’t have a time line on when arrival was expected. If this sounds ridiculous to you why would you knowingly fly blind when it comes to your own dreams.

5. Success Comes To Those Who Are Persistent In The Face Off All Adversity
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan, ‘press on’ has solved, and always will solve, the problems of the human race.” - Calvin Coolidge

Some of the greatest achievements and advances of man kind can be attributed solely to those rare men and women who despite all adversity “pressed on” and persisted. Persistence is one of those qualities that is uniquely attributed to almost all the great men and women that have made history. Studying the lives of those who succeeded through persistence is a great way to inspire it in your life. Study the likes of Lance Armstrong, Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs just to name a few. Persistence is a skill and trait that anyone can learn. It requires no special talent, gift or education. There is no price of entry and it takes surprisingly little time and effort to create this habit in your life.

The first step to cultivating an enduring habit of persistence is to determine a strong enough “why” in what you are doing. The “why” gives you the motivation and the stronger the reason “why” the more likely you will continue to persist no matter the difficulties. Determine to see things through to completion. Be that person who with ferocious determination masters his craft, who settles for nothing less than excellence and will persist through hell and back to make this world better for it.

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