Saturday, August 16, 2008

YOUTH AND SUCCESS

Everyone wants success. Some people spend their every waking moment pursuing it, to the detriment of all else. For others, attaining success seems impossible. They conclude that it is destined for a select few. The rest of us are to remain “content with such things as we have”. Having it all is not “in our stars”. However, the above assumptions couldn’t be further from the truth. When you strive for success with the wrong assumptions, you will never reach it.It’s like traveling somewhere with the wrong map.Zig Ziglar says that, “Success is a process, not an event,” “a journey, not a destination.”Jim Rohn describes it as “…a condition that must be attracted not pursued.”Do you see the pattern?a process, not an event.”“…a journey, not a destination.”“…a condition that must be attracted not pursued.You can’t hurry success, catch it, or find it by chance. You can’t inherit it, gate-crash on it, or take it from some one else.Success is something you must work hard and long to earn, for yourself. It has a price, sometimes a very high one. And most people aren’t really and truly ready to pay that price, to do what success demands.If success has eluded you so far, perhaps you should try changing your assumptions.You need to accept(1) You must go through a growing process, which will require time and patience, in order to achieve success. There are no short cuts. Anything else is a temporary illusion.Success that will remain with you, and bring you joy rather than sorrow, requires a learning process, a time to grow out of old habits and into new ones, a time to learn what works and what doesn’t.And you must pay your dues, in full, in advance!So don’t be in a hurry.(2) You will need to acquire traits and skills that attract it.What does success mean to you? Identify, in specific terms, what you regard as success. What traits or skills will you need to achieve this goal? Set clear, written goals.Devise plans to acquire the needed traits and skills. Learn to do what you need to do, to get where you want to go.
What kinds of people have what you want? What do they do, or not do, that helps them get and keep it?
If you do what they do and avoid what they avoid, there’s a good chance that you will end up with what they have.
Find 2 or 3 people who have what you want. Write down the habits that have made them successful and resolve to copy them.
Starting now!
This is called mentoring, learning from others who have arrived where you want to go.Mentoring can cut out the heart-aches of trial and error. A mentor can keep you focused and on track

The Role of Self Confidence in Success

If you look at successful people, you will usually find that that they have great self confidence. That self assurance may have come as a result of their success, but often, a degree of confidence in one's own ability is present before the road to success even commences. Once out on that open road, then success and self confidence may ride in tandem, each providing the fuel for the other's journey.
Being an assured and confident person has many benefits, in personal lives as well as in employment, career development and business. Whatever your aims and ambitions in life may be, building your self confidence will play an important role in achieving success and overcoming any fears or crises of confidence you may have along the way.
The fertile ground from which confidence can grow and flourish is a positive attitude. Somebody who is swamped with negative thoughts is hampering their self in succeeding at whatever it is they may be doing or aiming for in the future. On the other hand, positive thinking can provide a regular boost to your progress, there to help you overcome difficult periods when succeeding may seem far away, and to accelerate your achievements when there seems to be no stopping you.
While success and self confidence can be mutually supportive, there is no guarantee that one will lead to the other. Self confidence can be misplaced sometimes, especially in egocentric people. Such people may display a high level of confidence which, if examined, is a mix of arrogance and self deceit. Such a mix of personality traits, while masquerading as self confidence, will not necessarily lead to success, and in many cases will hamper it.
It can also be true that somebody who is not naturally self confident, can suddenly achieve what is perceived as a big success. Instead of revelling in the glory of their achievement, shyness and a crisis of confidence can affect some people, and may force them to hide from the basking glory of their success.
Generally speaking, though, confidence and success exist in a progressive harmony. If you can work on steadily improving your confidence, you can do so knowing that over the years that growing assurance and self belief will be a strong support on each step up the ladder of success.
Even somebody with a low self esteem or suffers from shyness has the potential to reach the level of success that they dream of, in whatever field, or part of their personal life, it may be. So long as they keep their ambitions and their inhibitions in perspective, and are prepared to work towards their goals alongside overcoming their problems of lack of confidence, then succeeding in the long term is very much within the bounds of possibility.
Whether you are naturally self assured or not, it is important that you develop a harmonious relationship between your confidence levels and the route to success you are taking. If they are not synchronized and in harmony, then overconfidence may eventually unhinge your progress, or lack of confidence may lead to a fall just as you have reached the top of the ladder.

Communication Skills - A Vehicle On The Road to Success

From the moment of birth, babies are learning how to communicate, building on their innate ability to communicate to their mother through crying. Thereafter, throughout life, a person's development and progress relies on communication of one form or another, either communicating to or receiving communication from others. Communication skills are a very important asset to help any person on the road to success.
Being able to communicate is essential to all creatures in nature, and the human species is no different in that respect. Of course, we regard human communication as far more complex and sophisticated than that of other species. There are many avenues and means of communication that we, as a species, use. However, for the purpose of this article we will focus on interpersonal communication skills, as it is those skills that may be critical to success in many fields of endeavour.
It is no coincidence that most large companies and organisations will include communication skills in their training programme for their staff's career development. For most businesses and non-profit organisations, their long term success and efficiency will receive a valuable contribution from employees with good communication skills. For those who need specific types of communication skills, such as public speaking, special training courses may be arranged internally, contracted out, or the employee sent on an outside course.
Few in business would argue that the better your communication skills, the more success you are likely to experience, and the more your career is likely to flourish in the future. There are, of course, more factors in achieving success than communication skills, but their potential contribution is undoubted.
The Benefits of Good Communication Skills
The potential benefits of good communication skills are too many and various to go into here; they could even save your life at some point in the future, win the heart of your dream partner, or save your marriage.
In business, though, some of the main benefits of developing your communication skills are:
Managing Your Staff
Staff management involves constant and effective, two way, communication. If you are not capable of communicating with those under your control, then your management ability will be constrained, and may even be damaging to staff morale. Being able to communicate effectively will come into play when delegating to, encouraging, understanding, and training staff, amongst other things.Good communications with your staff can help you with their motivation, whether directly or through encouraging their self motivation, or both. In short, being able to communicate effectively will make you a better manager.