I love handy memory tricks, life hacks, formulas that are pithy and useful. I love anything that helps me succeed, and that’s what I’m sharing today.
You can create a formula for success for almost any task that’s effort based, using the steps here. I specify “effort-based” because I’m not referring to the success of winning the lottery, random good fortune, or some chance occurrence you can’t predict or influence.
Like many easy-to-remember formulas, this one features alliteration, and builds in an orderly fashion that makes intuitive sense.
Here you go…easy to share and teach. Feel free to borrow if you’d like.
Aspire: the first step toward success is knowing what you’re aiming for. What do you want to do, create, sell, share, write, become, change, have, find…or the opposite…what do you want to stop doing, give up, limit, etc. You have to name your goal in order to design your plan.
Attempt: when you know what you want to accomplish, give it a shot. Go ahead and try your best ideas. Follow your instincts, use your talents, your resources, give it your all. Do the work to make your dream come true.
Assess: After you do the initial work and have something to review / inspect / critique, look closely at what you’ve achieved. Are you there yet? Did you do all you set out to do? Did you fulfill your vision?
Adapt: Most likely, as you assess, you’ll see things you want to change. Whether large or small, few first attempts are everything they could be. That’s ok. You can learn a lot from the first attempts at anything, and few things in life are one-shot deals. What can you edit, adjust, clean up, revise, or replace to bring your result closer to your vision? This isn’t necessarily about perfection, but it is about making your work better and better, over time, and with experience.
Achieve: This is the final step, and the one that means you’ve accomplished the work you set out to complete. Achievement doesn’t have to mean an ending. It may be only a step in a larger process, or it may be a unique milestone in your life. Regardless, when you believe you’ve completed the work / vision you started with, it’s time to acknowledge your success, ensure that it can continue, (if it’s the type of accomplishment that should continue, like setting up a thriving business), or mark the moment if it’s a one time event (like writing your first novel or bringing an invention to market).
The five A’s of Accomplishment are broad categories for many small and detailed processes, but they give an overview of what makes each of us successful. Step by step, brick by brick, we build dreams, fulfill goals, and move through life.
What’s your goal today? What do you aspire to do next?
Happy dreaming! I’d love to hear what you’re putting into your formula for success! Please share in the comments.
Here’s what I’m working on: I’m creating a new online course, based on the book I wrote earlier this year. More about that in coming posts, but that’s my new goal in a nutshell. So there you go…my dream’s out there. What about you?
~ Sheila