10 Steps to Success

By dougnau on Dec 4, 2007 in Life Coaching, Success

How would it be if there were ten simple steps that guarantee success? Would you believe it? The following article is an introduction to the ten steps of success, each of which is discussed thoroughly in additional blog entries. As a coach, this is a model which I’ve embraced in working with clients and has produced results time and time again. If you are a coach looking for a structured model to follow, or an individual looking for a tested approach to having success I suggest you read this overview first, then read each of the ten steps in order.

Defining Success

Before discussing the ten steps of success, firstly lets define what success is. Dictionary.com defines it as:

the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.
the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.
a successful performance or achievement: The play was an instant success.
a person or thing that is successful: She was a great success on the talk show.

The definitions give a very vague description of what success is and leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Specifically, your definition for success may be completely different from my definition! I might consider it a success to run in a 5k, while someone else might only consider it a success if they rank in the top 3 in the event. As you see, being successful is completely dependent on our perception of the definition of success.

Maria Nemeth, the founder of the Academy for Coaching Excellence and a mentor of mine defines success as:

“Doing what you said you would do with clarity, focus, ease and grace”

This is a very empowering definition. I’ll explore it a bit more here. Firstly it does not have any preconception that achievement is measured by anyone else other than yourself. While your own personal measures of success might be influenced by the outside world, the only one judging success in this definition is yourself. Secondly, a completion of an endeavor is only a success if we do so without struggle and angst. The way we do what we said we would do is just as important as the fact that we did or did not do it. For example, if my goal is to make a million dollars and I do it by robbing a bank, that is not a success.

The Ten Steps to Success

Now that we know what success is, we can define the ten steps to achieving it. Here they are listed in as much of a chronological order as possible:

Welcome success
Provide value to the world
Develop a vision
Set Goals
Take Action
Understand time horizons
Enroll support
Clear energy leaks
Actively Learn, evolve, and grow
Acknowledge and celebrate success

Ten Steps Summarized

Without digging into each of the ten steps specifically (that’s done on each individual blog post), let me summarize a general approach to being successful that reflects the ten steps above.

Before one can be successful they first must be a person that invites success. Ask yourself if you are willing to make the sacrifices that will be required to attain success as you are personally defining it. In doing so, make sure that you know that you can do this in a manner that exhibits clarity, focus, ease and grace. Welcoming success means giving up all of the stories of defeat in the past, you must be ready to put that behind you and focus clearly on the present and future.

Being clear of your goals is obviously a huge component that enables you to be successful. If you are not clear on your goals, then there would be no way to know if you attain success as there is no measurable outcome to compare to. Goal setting is huge, and its only a small part of being clear. Goals are a subset of a vision. In business there are growth visions, in your personal life you should also have a vision. Having a goal is great, but how does that goal fit in with what you envision your life to look like? Our vision of life should be one which provides value to the world. We provide value in a way that the world is a better place because of your presence. Its a world in which you both contribute and receive as well.

Success is typically a big word. We measure it by the ‘big things’ in life, not the day to day activities. When challenged with a big goal, a big vision, success often is on a time horizon that we measure far out into the future. Understand your time horizon and focus on small sweet steps that bring us towards that vision. Success is truly in these small sweet steps and exists not only in the future but also in the moment.

If you are looking to accomplish a big goal, see where you can enroll support. Understand that support is both giving and receiving, and that we all do better with a partner (or many). The lone ranger often fails - enrolling the appropriate support of other people and other systems can have a profound impact on our likelihood of success. Ask yourself where you need support.

Support often comes for actions that directly impact your goals, and often where they indirectly do. Do you have any indirectly related areas you are leaking energy? Are you wasting money in places that do not provide any satisfaction, are you spending time on things that don’t provide value, do you spend lots of mental effort thinking about a task that will only take minutes to do? Clean up these energy leaks to clear the path towards your vision.

Finally, a success approach involves our capacity to continually learn. Do we scoff at others ideas, do we shoo away possibilities, does our ego and need to be right effect our ability to evolve with the opportunities available to us? Take all successes as a learning opportunity. Take all mistakes as a learning opportunity. Each of these is simply feedback, the extent to which our feelings and emotions are intertwined with this feedback is a good measure of our likelihood to continue on the road to success.

We take this feedback and grow. This learning is the foundation for our next stage of development and as we approach our goals we have a recognition that success is in the journey not only the final result. Acknowledge yourself (and others) for a job well done and celebrate your success each and every day. Embrace an attitude of accomplishment and it will feed on itself throughout your life.

Be Well