Weekly Wisdom #3 – THE 4 STAGES OF
ULTIMATE SUCCESS (ROMA)
Laying the Foundation for Unlimited Success
#1 REASON – Your “Why” (70%) – THE LEGS OF THE TABLE
Think of Success as a nicely set table with a beautiful meal on it. Now, imagine pulling out one of the legs on the table, and then another leg… That is what your future success will look like if you don’t have a properly aligned “Why”. Not only will the table come crashing down, but so will the place settings and your meal. Consider your “Why” the foundation of your success.
Everyone wants to be successful… but the reason most people fail is that they likely have the belief that they want to be successful, but not a strong enough reason “Why” they want to be successful. For these individuals, when the going gets tough, they retreat back to where they came from, because they do not have a powerful enough reason “Why” they want to succeed. If your Why is not properly aligned with your goals and aspirations then you will most likely retreat towards your previous place of comfort as soon as your path towards success becomes bumpy.
Your retreat could involve going back to work where you hate your job, it could be going back towards your previous negative thinking, or finding yourself in even deeper debt… anything really.
When you have a strong “Why” that is aligned with your Ultimate Vision, it will serve as the driving factor that will keep you on track for the years to come. Taking the time to truly uncover your “Why – Your Driving Factor – is one of the most commonly overlooked practices in achieving success. It is the REASON why success is not an option for you, it is a MUST.
To see if your own personal WHY meets the test, ask yourself these questions:
- Why MUST you succeed at what you are doing?
- What is the factor that makes you want to get up early and tackle your next challenge?
- Why is Failure not an option?
- If things got tough, why must you push through the adversity to achieve your desired success?
If you cannot establish answers to these questions, then there is a good chance that your WHY is not aligned with your deepest desires of success. If thats the case, I suggest that you spend a significant amount of time uncovering the ultimate reason that you want you personally achieve success and establish your Why.
If these questions resonate with you and help deepen your understanding of your Why, then you are in a good place. Its time to move on towards your How.
#2 ORDER – Your “How” (20%) – THE TABLE TOP
Consider your Order the top of the table. Order is your plan-of-attack (your How). Order is an integral part of the table, and the meal (Ultimate Success) you are trying to have. However, the table top would be nothing without the legs. In fact, without the legs, it would be merely a piece of wood sitting on the floor… worthless.
As a rule, only focus and spend time on your ORDER (How) after you have aligned your REASON (Why).
There is a reason why 99% of businesses do NOT make it to the 10 year mark… That is because 99% of business owners dive right into their business plan, strategy, and growth-plan without properly developing their Why. What occurs is that individuals and companies begin to have an identity crisis when things get tough. They lose their direction which eventually results in the demise of the organization.
The organizations that develop their “Why” are the organizations that thrive and tend to build a cult-like following. Companies like Virgin, Tesla, Amazon and countless other companies who align with their vision with their Why, to achieve massive results.
Those same style of results can occur in your life… but not without your HOW being properly aligned with your WHY.
#3 MOMENTUM – Your Follow Through (9%) – THE PLACE SETTING
REASON AND ORDER are the most difficult parts of the 4 Stages of Ultimate Success. Once the “train starts moving” and there have been small victories, momentum is easy. However, momentum can easily be mismanaged. If you have not yet hit your ACHIEVEMENT, then do not consider a slight up-tick in momentum as a “win”. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done and you should resort back to your REASON often in order to help keep you on track.
Momentum can easily be considered your place setting at the table. You may have a nice meal, and eat it at the table, but if you have no plate to put your meal on, and no silverware to eat it with, then you will most likely not have the best experience possible.
#4 ACHIEVEMENT – Your Ultimate Success (1%) – THE MEAL
Achievement is the sexy part of Success that everyone loves to talk about. However, as you now know, this makes up the smallest part of your success journey. It’s easy to focus on the success that other individuals attain and admire them, but what we don’t see is the other 99% of the equation. We don’t see all the hard work and the struggles that it took to achieve that success.
Just keep that in mind.
When you have a table with strong legs, a sturdy top, and a beautiful place setting, its not hard to have a great meal. Enjoy and Celebrate the win, you earned it!
Best of Luck and See you Next week!
To Your Health, Wealth, & Happiness,
Draye
THE BOOK OF THE WEEK
-> Read this book (this week) <-
Lewis Howes’ – The School of Greatness
(Click the Image to buy a copy of the Book)
The book to read this coming week is: Lewis Howes’, The School of Greatness: A Real World Guide to Living Bigger, Loving Deeper & Leaving a Legacy.
This book has been flying off the shelf in recent weeks and has just recently made the New York Times Beet Seller List. I follow Lewis in a variety of different mediums like his Podcast, Periscope channel and Twitter. He offers a ton of great content and insights. This is definitely a read that I am looking forward about diving into.
Last Weeks Book Summary
Peter D. Johnston’s – Negotiating with Giants
(Click the Image to buy a copy of the Book)
Regardless of whether you own a business, you’re a stay at home mom, or you’re an employee; you are always negotiating. In fact, we are often in the middle of a negotiation and we don’t even know it. It may be a screaming kid who wants candy, a significant other who doesn’t see eye to eye, or countless other situations that occur in our day to day lives.
While the title “Negotiating with Giants” seems a little daunting, there were countless real world and practical insights that anyone can use to help persuade others to their way of thinking. If you can persuade others to your way of thinking you will have a much better chance of achieving the desired outcome that you are looking for.
One of the greatest insights that I learned from the book was the strategy to make yourself seem “Bigger” (or at least on the same playing field) as your opponent while at the same time making your negotiating opponent “Smaller” than they really are. Negotiation is all about creating a level playing field. If you are going up against someone who has more money, clout, or notoriety, then you must find a way to even the field in which you are playing. One of the greatest ways of doing this is to use thinking that is “Out of the Box” and does not follow traditional methods or norms. If you follow traditional rules, you should expect traditional results.
In this day and age there are a million different resources that you can use to help level your playing field… Just be creative, think of your ideal solution and then shift your way of thinking towards non-traditional methods that can help you achieve your own negotiating win.
Happy Negotiating!