How Bad Do You Want Success?

How Bad Do You Want Success?

I don’t mean how much you wish you were successful. I mean how much are you willing to work at it to make it a reality? I’ve talked before about whether or not “good enough” is good enough, but this time I want to discuss how to find the drive to want success – and want it bad!

The concepts behind this are simple, but doing the work can be hard. That’s why so many people haven’t found all of the success they could have. In order to identify what it takes, you have to ask yourself a few questions:

• What level of success do I have right now?
• How do I want this to change?
• What’s holding me back from improving my success?

What Level Of Success Do I Have Right Now?

It’s hard to start thinking about your future success if you haven’t even thought about where you are currently. This should consider your personal and your business lives because the two are symbiotic. You can’t truly find success in life if you aren’t successful in your business endeavors.

Is your personal life where you want it to be? It’s important to think about what you want for yourself and your loved ones. Thinking about making sure you have money for your own retirement, tuition arranged for your children’s college funds, and family vacations are all ideas to consider.

Planning investments, buying a home or vehicle, and other large expenditures all reflect what you are doing with your personal life. It’s important to be able to have fun and enjoy the fruits of your labor. It’s also important to hold onto those ideas that you envision even if they seem beyond your reach right now.

As far as business success goes, it’s generally a little easier to quantify. Consider your position at your current job, your salary, your benefits package, and your overall happiness doing what you are currently doing.

You might be surprised how close you are to potential growth and success at your job. When’s the last time you asked for a raise? Are you being overlooked for promotions? If you find yourself feeling restless at work because you know you can do more and you provide value to your employer, you are probably ready for new challenges and new opportunities for success.

How Do I Want This To Change?

Once you know where you stand, it’s important to start looking at what you want. It’s important to think big here because you should never limit yourself to where you are now.

Start looking at what you already have and see what you could see doing better with. Do you have enough saved up for your kid to go to a local college? Maybe set a goal to get enough for them to attend Ivy League or an international school.

Think about your retirement plans as well. If you think you have enough saved up for retirement, maybe you can plan for an extra cruise or vacation to Hawaii every year. Along those same lines, consider paying off any debt that might be left behind when you retire. Mortgages, auto loans, property loans and more can be a hassle later in life, so after you have your primary investments covered, consider looking at second properties or vacation homes that you can share with your family!

What’s Holding Me Back From Improving My Success

This is the real kicker. You want to make sure you are being consistent in your life and career and building toward a goal. If you ever find yourself without a goal in mind, you need to start deciding if you have everything you want and need in life.

When you start looking at what’s holding you back, don’t think of it as looking for problems. It might not be a “problem” that is keeping you from reaching your potential! Sometimes we just get comfortable, or we work so hard at getting our footing that we forget how long we have been in the same situation.

You could be held back by a fear of change, a sense of loyalty to a company or a manager at work. But what I think you will find most likely is that the only thing holding you back from reaching your best self is often yourself.

I can tell you from experience how life can seem to hold you back from success. What’s more, I wrote a whole book about what was holding me back, The Upside of Fear. Take it from me, identifying what’s holding you back is the first major step toward improving your lot in life, finding new success, and overcoming whatever is holding you back. But you have to want it bad enough!

I Want More Success, Weldon! How Do I Get it?

Start working NOW if you want to see improvements in your life and business. Read up on your job, look into education to do more at work, take financial planning advice, and start doing something!

You definitely don’t have to go through the process alone. I offer online learning opportunities that you can work on at your own pace on your own time, just for example. You can also always pick up my New York Times Bestselling The Power of Consistency if you want a good place to start on organizing your future for greater success.

At the end of the day, by deciding you want to make things better, you’ve taken the first steps toward a greater you. I’m honored to be a part of that journey.