Motivation to Success!

Today is the first day of Lent here. For a lot of people that equals the first day of a 40 day ‘giving up things’ period. Traditional ‘culprits’ are alcohol, cigarettes, sweets, chocolates, television. Personally I will try to give up on judging people. Not for 40 days, for good. It won’t be easy but I will do my best.

Anyway as usual I digress (maybe I should give that up as well)J. I just wanted to briefly point out one thing to look out for when ‘giving up things’. As with most stuff when you remove something it leaves a void or vacuum behind. The question is what are you going to do with that void? You are used to have that pint, sweet, cigarette, TV soap at certain times during the day. Now that you decided to give them up, you created a vacuum or void. What are you going to do with that time?

If you don’t think about this you might have an extra glass of wine instead of the sweets whilst you didn’t want to have an extra glass of wine to start with. So that void has been filled with something you didn’t want to, negating the good you thought it was going to do.

Instead think about what you really like doing and is good for you and replace the free time with it. Instead of watching the TV, go for a walk. Instead of the sweets have a fruit salad. Instead of going to the pub, go support your local sports club (that’s one for the armchair fans who after this rant I will no longer judge on it J).

Filling the void purposefully with positive things you like enhances the chance of you sticking with it after the 40 days have past. And if not then you had fun doing it instead of feeling it was a chore.

Enjoy your 40 day transformation. Enjoy your new found habit. Have a great Lent!!

Patrick Mercie – 4ward 2 Success – 25/02/2009

Most of the conversations I have with friends, colleagues, acquaintances or clients have one common theme running through them. At some time the conversation turns to wanting to get rid of, replace, improve, renew with more vigour or add something to their lives or some aspects of it.

In other words they want to better themselves or be more successful as a person. The other common denominator is that although the desire to change is there, action very rarely follows that desire. Inaction leads to every day being similar to the one before and that’s how we get stuck in a rut. We become comfortable being uncomfortable.

In this article I want to analyse and expose the results of our inaction. Then I want to show how thought out and organised action, through a joyful and sometimes painful journey, will lead to success. And that continuous action will make you a successful person!! Want to be seen as successful? Read on!

So you want to get rid of, replace, improve, renew with more vigour or add something to your life. This means you have thought about it. What are you doing with those thoughts? You can leave them as company for all the other good intentions you have. What will that lead to? Will it enhance your self belief? Will you feel more or less frustrated? As a result of this frustration inertia usually sets in. And inertia leads to more frustration so now you are stuck in a vicious circle.

You could also act impulsively on that particular thought. Start doing something about it without forethought. Plunge head first into it. You may succeed this way as a one off. What are the dangers of this way? If you meet a difficulty or come across a hard patch you are without a fallback or plan b and you may quit. This leads to frustration and can prevent you from ever acting on thoughts again bringing you back into the vicious circle discussed above.

You could take your thought and dissect it. Break it down into manageable chunks. Take the 4 step approach used by us at 4ward 2 Success. Write it down.

1- Where am I in relation to my thought? Be honest with yourself and then accept yourself for being there right now! It is OK to be there at that moment in time.

2- Where do I want to be? What is my goal? Be specific, use numbers, dates something measurable.

3- What do I need to do to get there? Plan out all the steps you need to take to get to number 2. Break it down as much as you can. Give yourself small targets and celebrate them.

4- What can prevent me from getting there? Identify the possible difficulties you may encounter and work out strategies to deal with them now or when they occur. This is an essential part of the journey and should be taken seriously.

After you did all this prep work make sure you enjoy the journey. It won’t be all rose petals and there may be a painful patch along the road to success. To balance it all make the journey as much fun as possible and enjoy it. Congratulate yourself on achievements and treat yourself.

And yes you do deserve success!! You are good enough!! And you are the master of your own destiny!! Enjoy your success!!!

Patrick Mercie – 4ward 2 Success – 18/02/2009