A Vision for Success

FINDING BALANCE AND THRIVING IN THE MIDST OF CHANGE

We are all built from the ground up for balance. We all come equipped with elements of greatness. But along the way, change enters the situation.

You’ve seen it happen. Change alters your environment.
To adapt, you begin to do things differently, often away from your strengths.

Change will take us outside our 'genius zone', and reduce our effectiveness. Our distinctiveness gets diluted. We become bogged down. We wind up out of balance.

Yet, even in the midst of change, it’s important that you always see yourself succeeding.

You bring key gifts and strengths to the table. They are what enable your ultimate success. Your job is to leverage those gifts to your best advantage.

To maintain your balance in the midst of change and be effective in the work you do, it’s important that you understand three things:
1. Know who you are.
2. Know what you believe.
3. Know why you do what you do.

That knowledge will help you use your elements of greatness as they were designed. More about that in a moment, but first here’s my own story.

For years, I walked the walk and talked the talk, but couldn’t make it work. A number of years ago, after nearly three decades in corporate work, I was compelled to change, to start what was for me an entirely new line of work.

Should be exciting right, but my path to success seemed to stagnate, even take a downward turn. After a few changes, I landed with a different company as an independent agent.

For me to succeed, there were 10 things I had to accomplish, from promotion, to communication, to sales and finally… the paperwork.

Three of those 10 were my money-makers. The other seven were my profit killers. I had to spend more time doing the seven killers, tha
I did the more lucrative trio.
My equation failed to balance out.

What does it take today to accelerate to supersonic speed in the work you're doing? This is what I learned. You are the sole proprietor of your own personal business, whether you are an entrepreneur, or you work for someone else.

In either case, you are always the product. As a personal contractor, you put yourself out for hire. What is the value that you create? Do customers recognize your value? Does your employer?

What will it take for you to keep yourself balanced out, and achieve success? First and foremost, you must decide that what you do is your business, not your job, and there's a difference.

Your business requires your full attention, complete cooperation and total participation. Anything less and you have a hobby.

Where are you right now? Do you count yourself (and possibilities count) as an:
o Employee
o Self-employed
o Business Owner
o Investor

Whichever it is, to succeed from here, you will have to pay attention to four specific attributes that are essential to any kind of success.

1. Pay attention to the qualities that will make you successful. Here's five attributes of success!
o Embrace change
o Seek growth
o Don’t get bogged down in your BS*
o Simplify your decision-making
o Make bold and realistic choices
*Belief Systems, or your preconceived notions

You must be willing to change for the better; to release and let go of the things that no longer serve you; to adapt to complex circumstances.

2. Pay attention to maintaining your balance, and work actively to maintain it. The world will constantly throw you curve balls, and often enough, you will swing and miss. You must have good survival skills to keep things in order.

Balance the setbacks with real accomplishments, a positive outlook and firm stability. Oftentimes that will require you to think beyond your borders, and come up with outside-the-box solutions.

3. Pay attention to leveraging your strengths. To do the work you are intended to do, you must know who you are.
What are your strengths? Where do you succeed? How do you find fulfillment?

How can you leverage what you do best to your own advantage? You should have a good idea about your Identity (Hint: It’s not what you do.)

You must understand and have a clear idea about your:
o Mission, which has to do with your passion,
o Vision, which has to do with your purpose, and
o System, which has to do with your operating plan.

4. Pay attention to developing a powerful set of goals.
Don’t do Random. Everything you do should have a purpose.
Everything you do should connect with, or advance one of your major goals.

Your goal-setting should include at least four basic elements:
o Set a Goal for Your Success: Income? Clients? Assets Under Managment? Make it so big it has the power to pull you forward.
o Set a Goal for Awesome Recognition: What achievements do you want to reach? Not for yourself, but for the success of your enterprise.
o Set a Goal to Transcend your own Personal Issues. Too often, we can get in our own way. How are you blocking your own path to success?
o Set a Goal to Grow your list of Contacts. Who you know is a big solution to any limitation and opens the way to collaboration.

Know that you are your own brand. How do people know you and perceive you? You must be distinct, distinguished, and distinguishable.

You’ll want those you meet to trust you and trust what you do. You are, in effect, a brand unto yourself, whether you work for yourself, or for someone else.

You must wear the cloak of the position you hold, but more important you must portray the true person/true brand that you are.

Your purpose is to serve a specific customer or client. And they must perceive that you are able to solve their problems, or help them reach their dream.

Find your dedicated followers. You must find the customers who will want what you do. Locate those who need what you have. These are the people who belong to you.

They may have objections, but don’t think about how they might defeat you. These are people who most likely walk the same road you’ve already walked.They are just a few steps behind you on the path.

Think about how you can help them! For their sakes, and for yours! To do that, you must be authentic. They will know it when you are artificial. Develop relationships with these people, and they will always be your customers.

You now have the advantage. To know these things, you are ahead of the game. Others may be more talented or skillful. But if you put these things into practice, You will begin to operate more fully in your very own 'genius zone.'

And no one is better at that than you! You will even out-perform the talented who are not as prepared as you are.
The prepared who have a vision and a plan, will out-perform the talented who do not.

You will begin to exceed even your own expectations,
And you will aspire to the greatness only you can deliver.