How To Create Predictable Success

Success is predictable. It is indicated by the actions you take on a daily basis. If you take the right actions and do them consistently then there is no reason why you shouldn’t be successful.

“But what actions are appropriate to ensure that success is inevitable?”

A very small portion of success is determined by the difficulty of the task you want to accomplish. The majority is determined by a set of actions you can take to replicate success with any goal.

Here is a list of actions that you can take to create predictable success with any goal.

Write Down Your Goals

Simply writing down a goal increases the odds of it happening by 15 to 30 percent.

In many mentoring sessions the first thing I discuss with my mentee is their list of goals. Not surprisingly, 90 percent of them do not have a single goal written down. Most don’t even have a schedule or a to-do list for the week.

This is where we will begin. You must write down your goals.

Writing down a goal is not enough. Your goal must be crystal clear in defining what you want to accomplish. It’s not enough to say you want to get a job after graduating college. You should articulate what type of work you want, who you want to work for (or work for yourself), where you want to work, how much you want to make, how many hours you want to work, etc.

Your goals should cover the Five W’s (who, what, when, where, why).

Put A Number On It

Next you need to attach a number to your goal. Success is much more likely when it can be quantified. This goes along with writing detailed goals that we just talked about.

When you attach a number to something you make it much more real. For example your goal should not to “give back to the community.” Your goal should be to give 100 hours of your time to mentoring troubled youth in your community.

With a vague goal of “giving back.” You have not identified what success looks like. By giving 100 hours of your time you can track your progress towards your goal in number of hours volunteered.

It is much easier to stay motivated if you have a goal with a number attached to it. You can actually see progress being made towards that goal and how much longer it will take to succeed.

Always, always, always attach a number to your goal. Without a number, it is almost impossible to determine how you will succeed or when you have succeeded.

Schedule Time

Most people waste nearly four hours per day getting motivated to do a task. (First is the coffee stop, then chatting, and then checking the net, then checking social media…).

The main reason people fail to accomplish their goals is because they don’t schedule time for them. Goals get lost in the noise of daily life.

To correct this all you have to do is get comfortable using a calendar or task list. Scheduling time is different for everyone and some people need multiple reminders while some only need one. Find a scheduling system that works for you and set aside time to accomplish your goals.

The only way to predict success is to treat goal time as untouchable. Nothing (except a tragic emergency) should interfere with this time no matter what.

Create Accountability

Even with written goals and scheduled time, many times we fall short of success. The reason is that if we fail on our personal goals, often no one knows about it. Most of us can live with laziness or quitting if no one knows we gave up.

To ensure success you need to create a system of accountability. The best system of accountability is some form of progress reporting to someone.

Remember grade school when you were getting ready to get your report card? I’ll bet that you were more worried about what your parents would say if you got a bad grade then you were about getting a bad grade.

Progress reporting is the same in real life. Most of us hate to be seen as quitters or failures. To ensure success, find a person to hold you accountable for achieving your goals and create a progress reporting system with them.

Study Successful People

Why waste hours of your life trying to reinvent the wheel. Chances are people have already accomplished what you are trying to accomplish in some capacity. The unfortunate fact is most people are too proud or too afraid to ask for help. As a result, they suffer, struggle and are likely to fail.

If you want to create predictable success you need to study successful people. Put your pride and fear away and start learning.

You can learn from others by reading about their success, mimicking their actions, and following them. But if you want to get to the next level faster you need to reach out to them and establish a mentoring relationship.

Don’t be afraid of successful people. They are just people. They were like you once just starting out and learning. My experience has been that successful people are ready and willing to help you succeed. All it takes is a personalized phone call or email geared towards offering how you can be of service to them. Establish a relationship and they will be in your corner all the way to the finish.

Create a System

Once you have set your goals, established a schedule, have someone to report to and have a mentor…you are ready to create a system. Success is determined by your ability to create a system of activities that you can do on a daily basis that will lead you to your goal.

This is where you will spend the majority of your time with research, trial and error. Remember that you can fail multiple times in your pursuit of success. The only time you are a “failure” is when you quit.

Creating a system of actions will be based on what kind of goal you want to achieve. If this is something you need help with, reach out to me and we can chat more about what your goal is and what kind of system would be best to help you reach that goal.

Once you have a system in place…work it relentlessly!

Inject Inspiration Daily

On the road to success, people often get burnt out two or three steps away from the finish line. Inspiration is recommended daily. I believe the only reason I have achieved my goals is because I get myself inspired on a daily basis.

Find out what inspires you. It could be reading this blog, reading personal development books or watching inspirational videos on YouTube.

Success is a series of peaks and valleys. You will have highs and lows. Reaching the summit is an uphill climb that requires extreme motivation.

Succeed

This is the finish. If you have taken care of everything I have mentioned in this article you should have no reason why you haven’t succeed. What matters most is to keep hustling and never quit. You will get there!

Thanks for reading!

-Aaron Madonna

 

 

 

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