• Definite success for yourself.

This is a very crucial step, you have to know exactly what success means to you. It is not the same for everyone, therefore you should not live by someone else’s standards neither should you abide by societal norms regarding this subject. Many are the people who look only at material belongings like cars, houses and many other mundane stuff as signs of success. Even though there is no denying that those things have the power of improving the quality of your life, they are just part and parcel of what real success is. Real success should encompass your entire life and every aspect of it. Real success should give you a true sense of fulfillment and satisfaction, whatever that means to you, you be the judge.

• Eliminate the fear of failure.

Franklin D Rooselvelt said in his 1933 Inaugural address that “there is nothing to fear but fear itself” and I believe he is absolutely right. However many people let the fear of failure cripple all their dreams by not even trying. Most of the time our fears turn out not to be real once we decide to act. There is a story, that I read recently, about a young man who every day when he came from school, as he reached a certain block in his neighborhood, there was a dog that would chase him, and that dog would start after him barking and the young fellow would run. One day he mustered all his courage and he said to himself “if the dog comes here today I will take a brick of cement and bast him on the head”. Sure enough as soon as he got near the same spot, the dog started to bark and chase him  and the young man took off but soon he remembered his decision and stopped, saw a brick and grabbed it, as the dog came closer he realized that the dog did not have any teeth, he put down the brick and said “get out of my way”. Just like that young man, most of us spend our life running from things that do not have any “teeth” to do us any harm” What we don’t know is that once we decide to take on something we were afraid of, the fear disappears.

• Make the decision to success.

Any great achievement you would ever see in your life would have to start with a firm decision. In order to be gratified with a certain level of success, you should turn your “should” into must”. “I should do something” lacks the urgency you will find in “I must do something” Failure does not happen overnight and neither does success. Success comes through the daily decisions, the daily disciplines repeated over time, as Jeff Olson would have in The Slight Edge. The compounding effect of your daily commitment to succeed will make it a reality.

• Raise your standards

Settling down is your worst enemy when it comes to success. Don’t get me wrong! You should be content with what have but there is nothing wrong with wanting more, because that can be your source of growth. As a famous speaker once said, “you are either climbing or sliding, there are no plateaus”. You are either growing or dying. Raising your standards will allow you to set new kinds of goal that will stretch you. If you are in business, your can raise your standard from wanting stratified customers to gaining loyal customers by raising quality across the board. Loyal customers will guarantee you long term business success.

• Take consistent action

Earlier we talked about daily disciplines repeated over time, that’s exactly what consistency is all about. We all know that taking action is an important step towards success, but it is not enough, you will have to repeat the action or actions over and over again to see any significant results. One term that you should be familiarize yourself with is CANI (read just like when you are asking the question “Can I do this?”), it is coined by Anthony Robbins and stands for Constant And Never ending Improvement. Committing to constant and never ending improvement is a sure way to success. The people who enjoy great success in their fields are the ones who do the same things over and over again, improving theirs skills.