THE WRONG PICTURE OF SUCCESS

The problem for most people who want to be successful is not that they can't achieve success. The main obstacle for them is that they misunderstand success. One of the most common mistakes and one of the costliest is thinking that success is due to some genius, some magic, something or other which we do not possess. Here are several of the most common misconceptions about success.

• WEALTH: Probably the most common misunderstanding about success is that it's the same as having money. A lot of people believe that if they accumulate wealth, they will be successful. But wealth does not bring contentment or success. Wealth and what it brings are at best fleeting. Greek millionaire  Aristotle Onassis, who retained his wealth and died at a ripe old age, recognized that money isn't the same as success. He maintained that "after you reach a certain point, money becomes unimportant. What matters is success."
•  A SPECIAL FEELING: Another common misconception is that people have achieved success when they feel successful or happy. But trying to feel successful is probably even more difficult than trying to become wealthy. The continua search foe happiness is a primary reason that so many people are miserable. If you make happiness your goal, you are almost certainly destined to fail. You will be on continual roller coaster, changing from successful to unsuccessful with every mood change. Life is uncertain, and emotions aren't stable. Happiness simply cannot be relied upon as a measure of success.
• POWER: Power is usually recognized recognized as an excellent short-term antidepressant. This contains a lot of truth because power often gives the appearance of success, but even then, it's only temporary. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Power is a test of character. In the hands of a person of integrity, it is of tremendous benefit; in the hands of a tyrant, it causes terrible destruction. By itself, power is neither positive nor negative. And it is not the source of security or success. Besides, all dictators, even benevolent ones, eventually lose power.
• ACHIEVEMENT: Many people have what is called "destination disease." They believe that if they can arrive somewhere, attain a position, accomplish a goal, or have a relationship with the right person they will be successful. Simply achieving goals doesn't guarantee success or contentment. It is not reaching a destination. Success is a journey.

John  C. Maxwell...(Your Road Map For Success)

How to Expand Your Circle

Each of us has a natural circle of people we're comfortable with. Those people comprise our relational comfort zone. Perhaps you enjoy meeting people and already make it a practice to get out and connect with individuals outside of your circle. If that is the case, keep it up. The more broadly you connect with people, the greater your potential to influence and be positively influenced by others.
If you are not inclined to stretch yourself relationally, then think about this. people are like rubber bands. They are most valuable when they are stretched, not when they at rest. Your value as a leader will increase as you stretch and get out of your comfort zone relationships.
If you desire to expand your circle of acquaintances, all you need are a strategy and a will to do it. To expand your circle:

1. EXPAND BEYOND YOUR INNER CIRCLE: To get outside of your comfort zone, why not start with those in your comfort zone? Every friend you have has a friend you don't have. Begin with your inner-circle friends, and expand the pool. What businesses are your closest friends in? Try to know their friends and chances are they would just as much interest in meeting you. Be sure to touch base with your new contacts periodically so that you remain connected.
2. EXPAND BEYOND YOUR EXPERTISE: If you work in an organization of any size, one large enough to have multiple departments, then start by connecting with people in the other departments. It doesn't matter what kind of an organization you are in, when there is connection and understanding between departments, everyone wins.
3. EXPAND BEYOND YOUR STRENGTHS: If you are a creative type, go out of your way to meet people who are analytical. If you have a type-A personality, then learn to appreciate the strengths of people who are more laid back. It will broaden your experience and increase your appreciation for people.
4. EXPAND BEYOND YOUR PERSONAL PREJUDICE: What group of people do you find yourself disliking or mistrusting? Why do you hold such views? Has your vision be obscured by the actions of one or more individuals? The way to change your blanket likes and dislikes is to reach out to people of that group and try to find common ground with them. This may be the most difficult of all circles to break out of, but it is well worth doing.
5. EXPAND BEYOND YOUR ROUTINE: One of the greatest impediments of meeting new people is routine. We often go to the same places all the time. The same saloon, the same grocery stores, and restaurant. We employ the same providers of service. It's just easy. But sometimes we need to shake things up and try something new. It's all about getting outside of your comfort zone.

The whole point is that you can't wait for life to come to you. You need to initiate, invest, and do what's right when you don't feel like it, especially when it comes to cultivating relationships.

Completing the Leadership Loop

Many people who have difficulty leading people who are their peers have trouble because their approach is too short-sighted. They try to gain influence too quickly. Leading is not a one-time event; it's an ongoing process that takes time.
If you want to gain influence and credibility with people  working alongside you, then don't try to take short-cuts or cheat the process. Instead, learn to understand, practice, and complete the leadership circle with them.

1. CARING - Take an interest in people : You have to show people that you care about them by taking an interest in them. Many leaders are so action oriented and agenda driven that they don't make people a high enough priority. If that describes you, then you need to turn that around. It helps if you like people. If you're not a people person, that may be the first step you need to take. Look for value in every person. Put yourself in others' shoes. Find reasons to like them. You won't take an interest in people if deep down you care nothing about them. And if you care nothing about them, that flaws will always be a hindrance to your ability to lead people. 
2. LEARNING- Get to know people: Showing people that you care about them is always a good thing. take time to talk to your peers in the organization. Ask to hear their stories. Try to discover their best skills. Learn to appreciate their differences. Ask for their opinion on work related issues. And as much as you can, try to put yourself in their shoes.
3. APPRECIATING -Respect people: We tend to appreciate people who can do things we admire. That's only natural. But if we only appreciate people like ourselves, we're missing so much. We should strive to see others' unique experiences and skills as a resource and try to learn from them. If you treat you peers with respect, appreciating them for who they are, then they will be more likely to respect and listen to you.
4. CONTRIBUTING- Add value to people: Few things increase the credibility of leaders more than adding value to the people around them. That is especially true when they are neither obligated to do it nor likely to receive any kind of direct benefit from it. When you go out of your way to add value to your peers, they understand that you really want them to win with no hidden agenda of your own.
5. VERBALIZING-Affirm people:  Few things build a person like affirmation. If you want to influence your peers, become their best cheerleader. Praise their strengths. Acknowledge their accomplishments. Say positive things about them to your boss and peers. Sincerely compliment them at every opportunity, and someday you may have the opportunity to influence them.

6. LEADING- Influence people: After taking the previous five-steps, now and finally ready to start leading them your peers. The things you've done up to now have served to build your relationship with them, give you credibility, and display that your motives are good. With that kind of history, you will have earned the opportunity to influence them.

7. SUCCEEDING- Win with people: I believe that good leaders balance two very important motivations. The first is to fulfil their vision. All leaders have inside of them a dream, a vision they want to see come to fruition. For some it's modest; for others it's huge. The second motivation is to see them succeed. Great leaders don't use people so that can win. They lead people so that they all can win together. If that is truly your motivation, you can become the kind of person others want to follow they are beside, above, or below you in the organization hierarchy.

The wonderful thing about helping others succeed is that it earns you more opportunities to help an even greater number of people. Haven't you seen that in every area of life? A winning coach or business leader has a much easier time recruiting potential players than someone without a winning track record. Once leaders prove they can help make people's dreams come true, others seek them out so that they, too, can be helped to win. And that's what the cycle over again. If you help others succeed, additional people will come into your life whom you will have an opportunity to help succeed.

How to write a business plan

Anyone planning to set up in business should have a plan. It sounds obvious, but many small businesses come to grief quite quickly because the directors didn't spend enough time thinking through how they were going to run the operation.
Even if you plan to work alone making small widgets, it's important to cost things and work out how you're going to make any money.
After all, if you don't plan, how can you tell if things are going well or not?
The plan 
1. Aims and objectives: Any good business plan should set out clearly what you hope to achieve. An approximate financial target, global domination or just a determination to sell a particular product or service will do.

2. Quantify the opportunity: The business plan should also describe the opportunity. Have you spotted a gap in the market or realized that the only people providing a particular product or service are doing so very badly and you could do it better?

3. Sales and marketing strategy: What is your strategy for getting products or services to market? You need to spell out in some detail how you are going to make and sell your products. How will your customers find out about it – word of mouth or will you advertise or promote your business in some other way?

4. Financial detail: How will you pay yourself? How will the business be funded – how long will it take to reach profitability. These are all questions you must answer.
The plan needs to be reasonably comprehensive. If you're funding your business yourself, it is there mainly as a reference document for you, so you can check back and ensure you're achieving what you set out to do.
If you're relying on your bank, your business plan will have to be much more detailed and will need to include financial forecasts so you can predict how the business is likely to do and when your backers can expect to see a return on the money they have invested with you.
Sample business plans can be obtained from Business Links, the Federation of Small Business and most High Street banks. Alternatively, you may feel better if you consult your own business adviser or accountant.
Remember to shop around – banks make a lot of money out of small businesses and it's important that you get one who you feel comfortable with and who is going to help you not hinder you.

How to structure a business plan
The following subject headings should help guide you through the process:
1. Summary – objectives, aims or even a 'mission statement'.
2. Company outline – history of ownership, structure, how you got where you are now.
3. Products – description, analysis of competitors, future plans and product development.
4. Market analysis – market needs, trends, who's who and how do you compare with them.
5. Strategy: sales and marketing plans, production plans, how to maintain competitive edge.
6. Management summary – organizational structure, who's who and who does what.
7. Finances – funding, assumptions you are making, projected revenues, profit & loss account, cash flow, balance sheet.
Other help
Small business packs produced by your bank will tell you how to draw up your plan, and give you tips about what the bank will want to see.

WINNING ATTITUDE

 The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.

1. Passion - All truly successful people such as Leonard Omofomah have a driving force within them that sets them apart from others. A desire, an energy that gives them the fuel to reach their true potential.  This force is a part of them 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  It never subsides.  Their total existence is sustained for the fulfillment of their goals.  The passion within this individual to achieve has been so deeply implanted, that their mental power is driven by this force and will not let them do anything other than achieve.

2. Belief - "They can because they think they can"-Virgil. If you do not believe you can you are telling yourself you want it, but it is truly not obtainable. The truth of life is that man's limits are self-imposed by what the mind is given to believe.  If you expand your belief of your own abilities, you will also expand your true realm of accomplishment.

3. Strategy - A strategy is your game plan of life.  The road map you will use to accomplish your goals, ambitions and desires.  Just to believe you can earn $100,000 a year is not enough, you must design a strategy that gives your life direction and navigates you toward success.  The key to strategy is to design a proper strategy to achieve your success without the detours of life, to find the shortest distance between two points.

4. Clarity of Values - Man must first determine which things in life are most valuable to him.  He must determine his feeling about such things as patriotism, pride, love, freedom, excellence, ownership and tolerance.  These are values in society, the moral, ethical and fundamental judgments that we, as individuals, deem important.  Without a clear system of values for ourselves, it is impossible to believe in something with a passion that has no value to us.  Once we have established our individual value system we are then able to determine how we can achieve success based on our priority of values.  What must we five up in one hand to accomplish what we desire on the other.  Without a value system we can never move forward for we may be trading without increasing our potential for success.

5.   Energy - Without the physical vitality to take action,
nothing would ever come of our system to this point.  The passion could build, our belief of accomplishment could be overwhelming, we could have the best strategy or map to achieve the ultimate value for our own life, but if not for taking the first step, nothing could ever be accomplished.  Great success cannot be separated from physical, spiritual and mental energy that allows us, compels us, to accomplish the most with what we have to work with.  Physical energy comes from the strength of the body itself fueled by our intake of nourishment.  It is therefore important that we fuel our engine with premium fuel (good eating habits), not low grade regular (junk food).  Our spiritual and intellectual energy evolves from our environment and it is therefore important that we assess our own personal environment to maximize the energy that we can obtain.

6.  Bonding Power - We have all known people that have exhibited the ability to get along with anyone and everyone.  The ability to be a chameleon is truly the ability to connect with and bond with others.  It’s the ability to build rapport and being able to deal with others. To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.  To be able to understand the...

7. Mastery of Communication - To take charge and run your own mind.  To learn the techniques of NLP and no longer allow our mind to run our lives, but rather take charge of our own mental abilities and cause them to work for our own accomplishment of success.
 There is only one Success - to be able to spend your life in your own way.

What about your goals?

There are many different methods to use in setting up your goals.  One of which you probably heard about are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) goals. I tend to have a problem with the interpretation of this method because I believe that what we can attain and what is realistic to one person, may not be to someone else. After all, the saying by Henry Ford goes, “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t, you’re right.”  In other words, I believe the SMART method implies that we have limits. I’m not going to tell you what’s attainable and realistic for you.  Obviously that’s up to you to decide.  I believe that things that we think may not be possible can be.  I’m not saying that we can fly or jump over buildings, what I am saying, is that we can stretch ourselves past the point of what we currently believe we can have or do.  If someone says, “One day I would love to travel overseas to Australia,” but another person says, “I’ll never have the money to travel overseas to Australia,” who do you think has the advantage?  It’s obvious.

One more thing before you start - DREAM BIG!

1.  Create a master list of at least 10 goals in the following areas: Health, Career, Financial, Family & Spiritual, Leisure, Things, Contribution and Educational (you can put as many as you desire if you like for each category)


2.  Order them in the following way: Goals to be achieved in the short term (1-26 weeks) Goals to be achieved in a more distant term (1 year - 3 years) Goals to be achieved later in life (4 - 10 years). And Goals to be achieved much later in life (over 10 years).


3.  Notice the sequence or order of the goals.  You wouldn’t put train to run at the Olympics as a 4-10 year goal and running it as a 1 year goal.  Some things will likely have to happen before others
4.  Write a descriptive paragraph of why you desire to have the top three goals in each area you wrote down:  Make sure that your emotions are positively stirred up by this.  Also, you should keep in mind what has kept you from getting your goals in the past.  Maybe it was a limiting belief, a fear, some association to pain that you may have linked up to it.  In any case, I believe that if you really desire your goals, you can find a way to manifest them.
5.  Practice “The Secret” or Law of Attraction: I believe in the idea of the “Law of Attraction,” because I have received results time and time again from focusing on the positive side of what I want to manifest.  The core of the Law of Attraction and getting what we want can be summed up as follows:

- Decide you want something specific that you strongly desire.
- Ask for it in the best way you know and strongly believe that you can get it.
- Try to vividly visualize the thing you want the best way possible with deep emotion.
- Always be grateful for all the things you have in your life past, present and future.
- Be thankful for it has been received; expect that you have it.

Remember to always ask for things in the positive.  For example “I don’t want to fight anymore” should come across as “I want a peaceful resolution to this problem”….get the picture? Whether this system works or not is up to you to decide or believe.  I for one have found that it does keep me extremely confident, motivated and in a general good mood.  I have eliminated a lot of negativity from my life and thus have become a lot happier.  That in itself to me has been worth it.

Are you ready to create the life that you want now? Just think about how you can change your life in a positive way. Create the life you have always dreamed of! It's a choice that only you can make. You decide where to take your life. Goals are the way to shaping yourself and your surroundings. One piece of advice I would give you, is decide to make learning new things one of your goals. Become a lifetime learner of the things that can empower you and drive your success!

The Journey Begins:

What does it take in our everyday lives to be successful?  In order to evaluate this question it is first necessary to understand what "success" is and what all-successful people have in common.  It is probably safe to assume that anyone reading this article wants to be successful.  However, only 5% of the population will ever reach their potential for all activities, 95% of the people will never truly be successful.  By definition, success is the realization of a worthy deal.  Success is different for every individual. Whatever it may be for you, there are 5 characteristics that you must have in common with other successful people in order to achieve true success.
GOALS are the single most important factor in achieving success. Without a realistic goal, how will you ever know when you have reached your success level?  All successful people set goals.  All goals must be realistic, short term, measurable and obtainable within the bounds of your own perception.  As time passes, your goals can always be adjusted upward to reach your ultimate goal of success. All successful people constantly set goals, re-evaluate their goals and scale them upward toward even greater accomplishments.


A POSITIVE ATTITUDE is the second factor that successful people have in common.  I have never met a truly successful person who I would consider a "self made" success that did not have a positive attitude.  These people relate to the world on a positive basis.  They always look for the "can do" not the "can not do" side of every situation.  “If you think you can or if you think you can't, you're right."  All successful people truly believe not only in themselves, but in the reality of their goals.  A positive attitude is contagious and when it is sincere, the people with whom you come in contact will relate to you and your activities with a vitality and positive attitude that causes a winning, successful environment.


THE TRUTH is always best to deal with for several reasons, not the least important of which is that it is always the easiest to remember.  If you are going to be successful, you will not have time, energy and ability to remember untruths, or lies that you have told people.  This consumes valuable energy and detracts from the power needed to run a successful life.  The truth is easy to remember and generally, in the long term, easier to deal with.  True winners are always ready to face the truth in situations and handle things as they deal with them on a timely basis and then proceed to get on with the business of running a successful, prosperous life.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT  in today's society have become extremely important to all major corporations.  This is where all new products and ideas evolve. Successful individuals have always understood this principal on a personal level and they constantly strive to improve their own abilities through such methods as formal educational systems, seminars, reading books, listening to ideas the thoughts of others, and in any manner that presents itself to them.  Successful people truly believe they can improve themselves and constantly strive to seek methods and means that will help them accomplish this task.  They also know that there is a price to pay for this success and the return on investment is sometimes great and sometimes small, but that the return without the investment is always the same "0".
Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it.
Man's ability over all other creatures on this Earth is the ability to think.  All successful people use this talent to improve their lives and control their own destiny. Only you can take the initial step toward the unleashing of the power within your own mind.  The power is awesome and at times can be frightening.  However, man has abilities of the mind that many people can not or would not believe.

why not start your journey now. You can make it.