Guaranteed success is a strong prediction; every time people come across the words “guarantee” and “success” together, there’s bound to be some skepticism.
But these five tactics are powerful. The super secret kind of powerful, and I’m about to expose them all. While you may have already heard of some of these tactics, others will be new.
But none of them matter if you don’t take action.
You’d think that something like taking action would be the first tactic. However, we are constantly taking action. Every day, we take a massive amount of action, but our results don’t always match up with our efforts.
Here’s how to make your actions translate into results:
#1: Get Into A Routine
A routine is something you follow without fail every single day (or at least on specific days of the week). Following a routine, or having no routine at all, can singlehandedly make the difference between success and failure.
I recently read The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy, and one of his stories about routine really struck home. Here’s how it went:
Golfer Jack Nicklaus was known for his famous pre-shot routine. During an important Majors tournament, Nicklaus was at the top of his game. A psychologist timed the golfer from the moment he pulled the club out of the bag until the moment he hit the ball.
For each shot from start to finish, the timing of his routine never varied by more than one second.
That same psychologist measured Greg Norman during his collapse in the 1996 Masters. As the game progressed, his pre-shot routine became faster and faster.
If you don’t know what you are doing when you wake up, and right before you go to bed, you’re in trouble. Establishing a routine during the bookends of your day will get you into a rhythm of success. What are you doing each morning and evening? And in what order?
I always read for an hour before I go to bed. Lately, I’ve been responding to emails for 15 minutes before I begin reading. I continue to build backwards to get more activities wrapped into my routine.
People don’t mess up because they give themselves many goals. They mess up because they give themselves many goals without designating which portions of the day they’ll start working on each individual goal.
Without a routine in place, you risk missing out on your biggest goals.
#2: Think About What You Can Do
I am having a great time in college. I’m making new friends, running, and doing new things. I recently started to play pool and found myself playing for several hours on any given day.
While doing homework and showing up to a practice aren’t a problem, I was losing significant time for my business.
One day, I had had enough. I decided that I wouldn’t play any pool for one day. With this mindset, I did get more done (but I still ended up playing some pool).
I was so focused on not playing pool that I didn’t think about what else I could do. So instead of thinking, “I can’t play pool,” I began to think, “I can go to the library for an hour each day.” Then I started going to the library and getting more of my work done.
The moment I shifted from “I can’t do X” to “I can do Y,” making the transition became easier. I still play pool at college, but now I spend at least an hour each day on campus working on my business.
It’s easier to fight off a bad habit if you focus on what you can do instead, rather than simply cutting off the bad habit.
Furthermore, if you think you can’t do something, you are right. Only devote your time and attention towards the goals that you can do. Every battle begins and ends within the mind.
#3: Increase Your Desire
The desire you have for your work is important. If you desire your work, you’ll have no problem putting in the hours. If you don’t desire your work, you’ll want to get through it as soon as possible.
Desire gets you across the finish line. A lack of desire encourages you to find any reason to stop short.
If you want to increase your desire, the simple act of writing your desire to achieve each goal will increase your likelihood of success. If you want to get 100 subscribers each day, write the following:
“I WILL GET 100 SUBSCRIBERS EACH DAY BY THE END OF X.”
The all caps is very important here. Not only that, but giving yourself a reasonable deadline will make you hone in your efforts to meet the deadline.
If you give yourself an unreasonable deadline, you’ll lose motivation when you don’t accomplish your goal. If you give yourself a reasonable, but more challenging, deadline, you’ll make daily progress until you accomplish your goal.
If you want to get back in touch with your niche, simply write, “I LOVE [NICHE NAME]” and you’ll come to believe it. If you write about your desire long enough, that desire will ignite in a powerful way.
#4: Read A Lot Of Books
Reading has had a big impact on my success. Reading the right books about your niche allows you to acquire new knowledge. Once you apply the right knowledge, you’ll get better results in any area you are pursuing.
Each month, I set a target for myself to read 10 books. That adds up to at least 120 books every year, which is far more than what most people read. I won’t go into detail about reading a lot of books because I discussed that in a previous post.
Regardless of what niche you’re in, reading personal development books will work wonders for you. Personal development books help you become the best you imaginable. Some focus on productivity while others focus on relationships, but they all focus on making you perform effectively and efficiently in anything that you do.
#5: Analyze Successful People
There’s always that one cool kid in school who everyone wants to emulate. Becoming cool meant hanging with that cool kid. In a similar way, to become successful, you have to hang out with people who are already successful.
This version of hanging out consists of you reading their content, watching their interviews, and consuming virtually every piece of content they were involved in.
By doing that, you’ll learn a lot about how these individuals became successful. You’ll learn from their habits and expertise. Remember, you’re only as good as the company you keep. If you want to become successful, start following the example of successful people now.
In Conclusion
It’s just as easy to fall short as it is to become successful. There are many people who work just as hard or harder than the world’s greatest innovators.
The difference between these two groups of people is how they devote their time and what goals they pursue and accomplish.
Success requires patience combined with a strong mindset. Once you have that mixture, and live by the five tactics, you’ve already won the battle. At that point, it’s just a matter of time before you inevitably walk into a goldmine.
Which of these tactics resonated with you the most? Have any tips on becoming successful? Sound off in the comments section below.
