If you want to be successful in anything, belief in your own ability is important – but it’s never enough on its own.
Yesterday, in the first part of this post, we talked about the first two elements of success – the importance of capabilities and beliefs in helping you get what you want.
But the truth is, if you want success in anything, the outcome needs to be something you want. In other words, it has to fit with your values.
Element 3: Values
Your values determine how you spend your time – obviously you’d prefer to spend time doing things that are important to you. If your values mean that being a great tennis player is important to you, then you can do it (provided you have – or can develop – the capability and belief).
But if it’s not important to you, you won’t make the commitment needed even if you have the skills. Therefore you are more likely to be successful in business if you choose an area that is important to you and ideally which you are passionate about.
That will help you face the hard work and challenges that are inevitably part of running a successful business.
These questions will help you determine how well your values are supporting you in achieving the success that you are seeking.
- Think about what’s important to you in your business. What are you willing to sacrifice for its success?
- What are you passionate about and how does it support your business?
- Would your passions be better applied to doing something else?
Element 4: Identity
So you have the capability, the self-belief and the success you want is in line with your personal values.
So why aren’t you getting the results that you want?
The thing is you need to be able to think, “I am a champion tennis player,” if you want to be one.
You need to be ready and willing to act ‘as if’ you already are what you want to be.
In business, the secret is seeing yourself as an expert offering solutions that other people will value. However, it’s important to recognize that nobody is going to come along and appoint you as an expert.
There’s an interesting concept called the “Leap Frog Theory,” which comes from a book called Winning through Intimidation by Robert Ringer.
The concept is that if you have the knowledge, and you’re willing to go out and tell people you’ve got that knowledge, you could easily “leap over” the people in the middle who are hesitant to talk about their expertise. You can position yourself as one of the experts.
The real thing is – you probably don’t need to learn more in order to position yourself as an expert. Of course, you should continue to learn new material. But don’t wait for that “one more thing” you think you need to know if you want to be seen as an expert.
You have to recognize yourself as an expert, and be willing to go out and confidently position yourself as one. You have to appreciate the value you’re delivering to your clients. You’ll probably find that they rate your expertise more highly than you do yourself.
Even if you have doubts, perception is everything and the secret is to behave with confidence – can you at least pretend you think you’re an expert? Others will be convinced and you might just start to believe it too.
The trouble is that most business owners are so close to what they do on a daily basis that they don’t realize how much they already know.
As soon as you recognize that in yourself, you might be surprised to discover that others see you in that way too.
- On a scale of 1 – 100, how much do you see yourself as an expert?
- What 3 steps can you take now to improve that score?
Success checklist
So consider these questions to determine your chance of success.
- Do you have the key skills and capabilities you need to succeed in your business?
- Do you believe that these capabilities will help make you successful?
- Is success in this important enough to you to make you do what will be required?
- Can you behave as if you are already successful?
If you’re not getting the results you want, it’s useful to identify which of these levels is your weakest so that you can address it.
When you have all four elements working together, you already have the success you are looking for.
For more on the secrets of success and how to achieve it quickly, check out Success Mindset Power
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“Is success in this important enough to you to make you do what will be required” is the MOST important point you make. Believing without taking action is not a means to success in my book.
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