Want to Succeed at Your Life? Stay in Your Own Lane!

At any moment, you have a choice about who you are being. You are not limited in any way to the person you would like to become. You can change your entire life through the choices you make and the actions you boldly take to bring those choices to life.  As you align yourself to your authentic desires, goals, and dreams – a successful life starts to unfold.  Here are some ways to accelerate that unfolding:

• Bet on You: When you’re trying to make a significant change in your life, limit your consumption of listening to too many others, trying to copy other people’s ideas, or asking too many people for advice about your next steps. We do this when we’re feeling fearful or we’re not clear on what we want and asking everyone else or doing what someone else is doing seems simpler on the surface but, it often further complicates our situations and tends to push us into procrastination and feeling confused about our next steps.  It also tends to lead to poor decisions, which can have a negative ripple effect in our lives.  Remember, you are the CEO of your life, so know yourself and your strengths and start making decisions that align with your personal values.
• Get Clear on Your Big-Picture Vision: I shared various tips and strategies for mapping out a vision for yourself in my last blog. We all have 24 hours in our day. Research shows that we have anywhere between 20,000-70,000 thoughts per day and if you’re not careful, you will simply fall into a pattern of what’s known as busy brain.  As many as 98 percent of our thoughts today are the same as we had the day before! Talk about being on auto-pilot! That’s why having a vision to work from is so important to moving your life forward in the way you want. Gear each day to your bigger picture vision and tell yourself the truth about what you want your life to look like and go after it!
• Monitor Your Self-Talk: As much as 95% of those thousands of thoughts we’re having each day can be negative in nature, but we can retrain our brains.  Take time to observe yourself daily and hear the words you speak. Are phrases like I would do…if I had the time or someday when I have more time (or money or skills) I want to… sneaking into your conversations too often?  Begin using more words of commitment. For example, this is important to me, so I will… or I can take this next step now… or I may have thought that previously, but now I believe this to be true.
• Capture Your Goals: Once your vision is defined, list out the top three goals that you feel will move your vision forward.  For example, let’s say your Big Picture Vision is to write and publish a book.  Your top three goals could be as follows:
  1. Create a writing space in my home
  2. Hire a writing coach
  3. Set up a writing schedule that I am committed to adhering to

• Define Your Next Actions for each Goal: You Next Actions ARE the very next step you must take to move the goal forward. So, let’s break the first goal down into Next Actions.
  • Create a writing space in my home
  • Clear out room or corner this weekend
  • Order a desk online or purchase in store this weekend

The more time, energy, and commitment you put into your vision, goals, and next actions, the more you will see the positive results you desire.  Now that’s succeeding at your life!