Formula for success - Read it

A Column I wrote to gain the attention of anyone looking to succeed in anything from fitness gains to business building.

Source - http://www.passionforfitness.info/successstories/formula.html

Multiply 2,345 by 3.40089 and quickly pop out an answer. Odds are you can't do it. Now with a pad of paper and pencil write it down and figure it out. Odds are now you can come up with an answer. Why? Because you know the formula! If you know the formula then it really doesn't matter what the goal is.

You absolutely must have goals if you want to be successful. "There is a saying, show me a stock clerk with a goal and ill show you a stock clerk who will make history. Show me a person without a goal and I'll show you a stock clerk." You can choose to set goals and realize your potential or you can choose not to set them and understand that the consequences are not going to be good down the road. I bet you know a bunch of people who are going to do or are meaning to do a whole bunch of things. Goals do not care who has them.

The world famous Zig Ziglar has a formula for success that I will base this column off of.

Formula for success = you have to write your goals down, put a date on it, identify obstacles, identify people and groups you need to work with, identify what you need to know and thirst for that knowledge, develop a plan of action, write down "what's in it for me when I accomplish my goals" and work that plan every day! Now you have a formula! To those of you reading this information thinking to themselves, "Eh, I don't need to write anything down I have my goals in my head". Change your attitude or you will fail. You are already identifying yourself with a very large group of people who feel the same as you who consequently are still frustrated and wondering why "things" have not improved for them yet. Once you write down your goals they become more real, tangible.

Here is a breakdown of the rest of the formula:

Identify Obstacles - An independent person knows that success does not move in a linear progression. There are going to be setbacks. As long as overall progress occurs over time then you are fine. If you put on two pounds one week instead of loosing two pounds, if a person leaves your organization, if someone promises you they would show up at the meeting and doesn't show, don't get discouraged and over react. Just know ahead of time that being an independent person means you will indeed have set backs and it is at no fault of your own. Now if you cheated to frequently on your diet, or you did something to scare someone out of your organization that is different. Otherwise setbacks come with the territory of independence. The MAJOR problem with letting a setback turn you into a "Negative Nell" (especially if you are working in a team) is that your attitude will profoundly affect other people around you, turning a setback into something much worse.

Here is an example.. I was once working with a lady (We will call her "Jane") who was super friendly, cared about others, had goals etc etc... Unfortunately she had very thin skin and she failed to identify obstacles which ultimately lead to the collapse of her business. For whatever reason, there were a very small group of people (two people) who felt threatened by her early success in business so they decided to say some not so pleasant things about her which had absolutely no grounds. "Jane" got upset and couldn't understand why someone would say something bad about her because she is a nice person who never did anything bad to anyone. "Jane" felt that she needed to understand why. In her frustrations at failing to understand why anyone would speak badly of her, she began to cope by means of expressing herself negatively to her down line of team mates. She didn't really mean it, she was just upset and started telling everyone in her team things she did not mean as a way of coping. At first her team mates tried to cheer her up but "Jane" insisted on venting her frustrations in unacceptable ways. Well, sadly, everyone in her team decided they didn't need that so they all left. "Jane" had suddenly lost all of her early success and was back at ground zero. At this point "Jane" decides to quit her business all together and I never hear from her again. What happened here is very tragic and simple in concept. "Jane" didn't properly identify obstacles when she started building her business and when she met with any kind of friction she turned very negative which had a chain reaction throughout her entire down line literally causing her business to collapse and fail.

Identify people and groups you need to work with - Surround yourself with people who will nurture you and help you grow. Some people, with or without knowing, will hold you back from your dreams. In psychology there is a term, "Relational Illness". This means that some people make you sick! that's nothing new to any of us I am sure all of you know people like that. If you are trying to get in shape or build a business you need to carefully choose who you surround yourself with. Think about every relationship you have with another person and ask yourself, "What is this person doing to me?" Seriously look at your friends and family and filter out the toxicities in your life if you want to be successful. It is also a great idea to get involved in various groups or individuals to work with and learn with. Making those kinds of connections can be very educational and motivating so that you don't grow stale.

Identify what you need to know and thirst for that knowledge - Figure out all the things you need to learn and get the books, attend the seminars, talk to the people, do whatever it takes so that you know what to do. Do not be lazy in learning. Being dumb is really bad for success the two just don't mix. You should dedicate yourself to increasing your knowledge to some degree every single day. A stale brain typically makes for stale progress. Learning never stops.

Develop a plan of action, write down "what's in it for me when I accomplish my goals" and work that plan every day - Now that you have written down your goals, identified likely obstacles, Identified people and groups you need to work with, identified what you need to know it is now time to come up with a realistic plan and work that plan everyday! Every single day you should be doing at least one thing that brings you closer to your goals. Activity is important. Activity breeds happiness. I don't think there is a truly depressed person anywhere who has clear long term meaningful goals to work towards. Identifying "what's in it for me when I accomplish my goals" is important because it will give you purpose and passion. Purpose and Passion is what drives you to succeed so that you can experience all that is in it for you when you achieve your goals. When you are truly independent YOU create your own health and wealth and these fortunes all belong to YOU.

An amendment I like to make to the formula for success is to stay connected and reach out for help! Do not "go it alone". This is so true in building health or in building a business. I am a team BeachBody coach and have been since August of 2007. Some of my coaches do great things and others are still trying to get their business off the ground. One thing has been 100% constant and that is this... of all my coaches I never hear from, who don't stay connected, none of them are succeeding so far. Of all my coaches who reach out for help, who stay connected, are building a successful business. I don't want to claim it's impossible to succeed with a "go it alone" attitude but There has not been a single exception to this pattern and that is a point of FACT. If you want to succeed, not just in business building but in anything, it is of paramount importance that you reach out to people who are nurturing and stay connected.

If any of you are interested in building up your health, a team beachbody business, or both, I will help you.

Tom