Can these six basic steps be these key to succeeding in your career?
Succeeding is really simple. There are really only 6 things you need to do.
- Make a decision to achieve something, sometimes called setting a goal
- Make a plan for how you’re going to do it
- Execute the plan
- Review the results
- Modify the plan, and execute until you succeed.
The reason we don’t succeed is that we don’t do any one (or more) of these stages properly. Problems that can go wrong at each stage.
- Make the decision
People are very familiar with setting goals but all too often these are just idea ideas. A goal doesn’t stand any real chance of success until you’ve fully completely and 100% decided that you’re going to achieve that goal and you won’t stop until you do.
The word “decide” means to cut off from other options. So remove all thoughts and options of NOT achieving the goal
- Plan
Where people go wrong here is they either don’t ‘have a plan, or they try to make their decisions / set their goals based on the plan they already have. If you don’t have any real plan and just jump into action all too often it will end in disaster.
The other mistake people make is that they decide what goals to set based on what they know is possible from the plan they have used before. Now this isn’t always a bad thing but if you don’t have a plan it can stop you deciding to do something. Most significant achievements start out with someone deciding to do something but not really knowing HOW they are going to achieve it. There seems to be something magical about making the decision that has the plan appear. Just remember to decide first THEN plan, not the other way round.
- Execute the plan
We all know the bloke down the pub who says they’re going to start a business, go travelling, learn to play an instrument, write a book etc., but next year they’re still no further forward. Chances are they have fallen down in the execution stage. Procrastination is a big issue for many people. One way round this is to break the steps down into very small manageable tasks. For example if you want to write a book a first step might be to read a book on how to write a book. Or to decide to write 30 minutes every day.
- Review the results
This stage is crucial because whenever you take action you either get the results you WANT or you get something else. Either way it’s all good feedback. It’s important at this stage not to think that you have “failed” you just haven’t succeeded yet.
Review your plan and your actions. What worked? What didn’t work? What will you do differently next time? Then re-commit to your goal, revise and remake your plan and get back into action.
Make sure you review your plan and its implementation. Just diving straight back in will only lead to the same results. Consider getting a mentor or coach, or advice from someone who has done what you’re trying to do.
- Repeat until you succeed.
Don’t give up if you don’t succeed first time. Edison took thousands of tries before he invented the light bulb. Luckily for us he kept trying till he did work it out.
Dr. Lisa Turner is a personal transformation coach and trainer who helps people to become the best version of themselves. To find out more visit www.psycademy.co.uk
