7 Ways Of Claiming Your Success

You will agree with me that this is one of the hardest blocks to pass – just lifting your leg off the ground and getting it done. Most People spend much time mark-timing in the quagmire of excuses. “I will do it tomorrow” or “today I don’t feel like doing it,” becomes the order of the day and before you realize it, a day is gone…a week…month and then years!

One of my friends has been idle for months now after the completion of her Journalism course at the Kenya polytechnic and when I asked her why she’s sleeping on her talent, she was quick to reply, “But I don’t have a camera!” “Then why don’t you start off by giving these media houses news tip-offs or perhaps pitch news ideas to them?” I asked and all she could give was a blank stare though her lips twitched as though she was about to say something. Below are few tips that can help you take off the ground.

1.Discover yourself
Discover the love of your heart. What you enjoy doing. It doesn’t matter whether it’s writing, acting or whatever that could be. You will only go far by doing what you enjoy the most.

2. Become an Expert
Someone once said that to become an expert, You only have to know slightly above the average person. You don’t need to spend years of your life searching for all those degrees, they are not the ones that will make you an expert – after all you won’t face life with all those crowns on your head when your head is empty. There are so many ways of getting enough information about your interest. Say for example you’re interested in fashion, subscribe to all those newsletters, blogs and magazine that talk about fashion. Watch or listen to informative interviews on the same. Talk to people already in the industry, get to know how they come up with different designs and the like.

3. Find Your own way of doing it
Creating “blind competition” won’t land you any where far from disappointments. Rob once said, “there is enough wealth for each and every one in this world all you need to do is to find your own unique way of tapping into your share.” Forcing yourself in another person’s shoe and blaming him if it all fails won’t give you success. Simply because the Mama Sukuma in your hood commands a huge base of customers does not mean you too will do the same automatically if you plant your own kiosk. If sukumawiki is not your thing then don’t even dream of doing it. Similarly if your interest is dancing and every one is doing it, then don’t create that “blind competition” by doing it exactly the same way. Find your own way of doing it that will make you stand out.

4. Make a plan
Words such as “I will one day do this or that” only kill your subconscious. Sit down and get it done. Make your feature plans, where you want to be in five or so years then break it down to what you will be doing daily that will contribute to achievement of your long term goals and make sure you do exactly that. For instance, say you are a writer; using words like I will one day write a novel before I die is not the right track to go. Saying “I want to complete a 60,000-word novel in two months” is a good long term goal but it’s not enough. You have to break it down further in bits that will help you reach your main goal and that could be writing 1000-words a day that will give you 60,000-words in sixty days. Still this is not enough. Make sure you discipline yourself to be writing the 1000-words daily – Hope you’re getting the point.

5. Go against the current
If you are really convinced that your idea is good, don’t listen to people. Most of them are afraid of change. They want to maintain the statusquo and will shoot down anything they think might make you better than them. This is not to say that you should not seek for advice but learn to sample good ideas with the ill-intended ideas.

6. Drop all the Pretenders
I’m sure if you look around you will find yourself surrounded by a bunch of friends – and let me assure you not all are really your friends. Most of them are out to frustrate you from achieving your success and they are determined. They will try all means possible to show you how what you want to try is impossible and if you go a head and prove them wrong, they will still find excuses to prove you faked your way to success; If you did not buy your way to success, then you rolled your pants for the boss! you know such kind of things? These are not the right people to move around with, ditch them and move on. The won’t help you. Find the right people to work with. People who will give you honest opinion.

7. Be ahead of the game
As the time goes, technology grows and so are your clients. Sticking to your old ways of doing things will only leave you behind the game. You clients, however loyal they could be, will not stick to you with your old ways, they will move on; so learn to move along with them. If you are for example in the fashion industry, study the new designs and how you can use the ever growing technology to improve your business. It’s only by this that you will keep your customers hooked to you.

I hope the above tips will help you claim you success. They are not exhausted and would add some if I come across, So good luck.

Photo courtesy of laverrue.