Image by: Matt Cornock
By George Lamb
True success cannot be achieved by mindlessly acting in a particular direction (like most of the general population does). Developing a cogent, realistic plan that is the template for guiding you down the path toward your goals is a fundamental step needed in order to even consider becoming wealthy. Yea all that may sound cliche’, but it’s the honest truth. How can anyone construct a building, car or city without a blueprint? They can’t–well, they can, but the finished product will likely be as fruitless as a withered tree. Envisioning a worthy ideal gives us the motivation to strive for our goals relentlessly, and is essentially the blueprint we need in order to stay on track.
If you were to ask any wealthy entrepreneur how they managed to accrue their success, they would likely give you their take on how sacrificing (family events, personal time, and hobbies) in order to stay true their visual representation was a necessity. Having that visual representation is extremely important, not only to have something for you–or your company–to strive for, but also to give you an incentive to block out any unnecessary distractions that don’t contribute to your goals. In short, a visual representation can change everything. And in case you’ve been having trouble concocting one, here are a few effective ways you can do so.
#1) Document Your Ideas
Writing down your ideas is crucial to success in the sense that it gives you a physical component that you can use as your foundation to achieve your goals. The simple act of putting pen to paper is akin to planting the first seed to a tree which–hopefully–will eventually blossom into something wonderful. Keeping an idea obstructed by the unforgiving confines of the mind will prevent you from expanding on something that could equate to greater success. But if you simply document the content that lingers in your mind and work to expand on it or even combine it with other ideas, then it will have unlimited room for growth.
It is rare that any idea will will be ideal in it’s beginning stages, and even if it is it can always be touched upon for improvement. Jotting down the methods you will need to take in order to achieve your desired results and constructing a plan as to how you will reach that goal will, in a sense, resign you to the deed. It’s far easier to dismiss something that you haven’t obligated yourself to, but if you set a physical game-plan that is the blueprint to your success, you would be organizing your pathway to whatever goal that you feel will contribute to your success.
#2) Set a Strict Schedule
You’re probably sick of me going on about blueprints to success and all that jazz, but please bear with me as I bring the matter up once more. Yes documenting what’s in your mind is important for bringing your idea to life, but next step is even more crucial–creating and sticking by a strict schedule that you execute over a long period of time. Yea, that sounds pretty daunting, but often times your success will be dictated by how much time and energy you invest into achieving that worthy ideal.
Initially, changing your routine to accommodate this schedule will prove to be challenging. You’ve probably got other more urgent matters to attend to involving customers, colleagues and workplace operations, but that shouldn’t keep you from honing your craft by executing the small deeds on a regular basis which contribute to your blueprint. Even if the tasks you resign yourself to are small, it will, over a long period of time, accumulate to become a major asset to your entrepreneurial repertoire. Not only will whatever tasks you would have executed take form physically (perhaps by the increase of social media followers or data pertaining to your niche), but also internally and after a while you will find yourself becoming a machine programmed to reach whatever goal you set for yourself.
#3) Get Feedback from Colleagues
In some cases it may be counter productive to get an outsiders opinion on your grand plan, as objective views may tend to be decidedly critical to your idea. Getting negative feedback may discourage you from following through with your vision, but it is–no matter negative or positive–still necessary for the development of your operations. Yes it can be tough hearing that the plan you spent hours creating is nonsense, but this is exactly the reason why it’s an entrepreneurs duty to thicken his skin upon sticking his neck out there for the world to see.
Even if it’s unreasonable, feedback is always good because it gives you a wider range of angles to view things from. And the best part about feedback is the fact that it’s only feedback! No one is sticking a gun to your head and forcing you to change the plan that you personally think is genius; they are simply giving you they’re honest opinions about what they think about your ideas. Seeing as feedback can be absolutely free, this can be one of the most convenient methods to honing your craft. Get as much feedback as possible but always be sure to listen to your gut instinct for decisive answers.
Have you successfully achieved all your hopes and dreams by visualizing your goals and attacking head on? How about you give your fellow readers some much needed tips in the comments section below. We appreciate it!