Inspiration: 10 Clues To Success

I don’t need to be a gypsy fortune teller to tell your fortune. I can tell with a 95% certainty whether or not a person is (or is going to be) successful. All I need is 20 minutes of conversation or a few email interactions and I know. It is easy to do. You can do it too. Yes! You can actually predict whether or not someone will have the success they say they want. Better yet, you can tell if you are going to be a success OR not.

The best part about checking to see if you will be a success is that you don’t have to ‘beat around the bush’ in a conversation to discover the clues, as you would normally have to do with another person. The worst part about checking in with yourself is that you will run up against an outright liar. Yes, you will attempt to deceive yourself. Now that you are forewarned about that, you can watch out for your attempts to obscure (or divert yourself from) the truth about yourself.

So, if you want to predict the future of anyone, including yourself, here are the ten most critical clues that you will need to uncover and clarify: 1) Attitude, 2) Intention, 3) Purpose, 4) Passion, 5) Plan, 6) Resolve, 7) Responsibility, 8) Words, 9) Actions and 10) Peers. Let’s take a closer look at each.

1. Attitude: There is a winner’s attitude and there is a loser’s attitude. Most people have a mix of the two. A winner’s attitude is characterized by high self-esteem, a positive outlook on life, a general feeling of gratitude, a sense of great personal destiny, a willingness to learn and the will to do what is necessary. Losers have poor self-esteem, a negative (they say realistic) outlook on life, a general feeling of resentment about the trials and tribulations of life, a sense of impending negative fate, a stubbornness about what they ‘know’, and lousy will-power or self-discipline.
2. Intention: As a general rule, things done with intent, produce intended results and things done without specific intent produce unintended results.It is my experience that most people think, say and do most things in life without any conscious and specific intent.I like to ask people (and especially myself) the following clarifying questions: what is your intent in holding that belief?; what is your intent in thinking that way?; what is your intent in doing what you do? Most can’t answer. Winners can.More importantly, winners are always asking themselves, “what is my intended result for this chosen action, thought or way of being?”
3. Purpose: This is so simple it is almost ludicrous… a life without a defined and stated purpose is a life of no purpose and no meaning.Winners have a purpose. Losers do not. Winners live a life of purpose and ‘on purpose’. Losers live accidentally; victims of circumstance instead of creators of circumstance.The sooner you write down the succinct and true purpose of your life, the sooner you will discover success, happiness and personal fulfillment. Important caveat: your purpose does have to be altruistic or measure up to anyone’s standards except your own.It can be entirely selfish.
4. Passion:Passion is that fuel that drives you. Passion is also what attracts to you the people and resources that you need to achieve your success. Passion is magnetic. Desire is the metaphysical equivalent of gravity. It draws to you the elements that you need to succeed. Passionate people attract followers and supporters.Winners are passionate!
5. Plan: You’ve heard before. You’ve read it many times. Every personal empowerment teacher says it… You must have specific and written goals and a step-by-step plan to enact those goals. Every business needs a business plan. Your life needs a plan. You must create it. As Ben Franklin pointed out, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”Winners have a game plan. Losers are spectators and armchair quarterbacks. Do you have written goals? Do you have a specific game plan?
6. Resolve: It is persistence that creates winners. It takes resolve to reach the top. There will be obstacles in your path and impediments to your success. Losers allow themselves to be defeated by these barriers. Winners use them to build up strength and/or to learn a better way to do something. I see it all the time… people quit just before the finish line. They lose focus and direction.Winners persist. Losers desist.
7. Responsibility: Ask yourself this question, “Why don’t I have all the prosperity, happiness, success and fulfillment that I desire?”If you blame any condition, circumstance, event, person or external thing, then you are a loser. Winners accept responsibility. Losers assess blame. Step up to the plate and accept responsibility for your life and you will become the winner that you desire to be in your secret heartfelt moments. The wonderful part about accepting responsibility for your failures is that you also get to accept responsibility for your successes. You don’t have to say that you were lucky or blessed or had the right breaks… you can say, “I did this.”
8. Words: The words you speak and the way you speak them tell a lot about you. They tell the world what you believe, what you think, where you have been, who you hang around with and where you are likely to end up. Below average people talk about other people; average people talk about events and circumstances. above average people (winners) talk about ideas and ideals (especially their own). Winners say what they mean and mean what they say. Losers say what they think will please others or repeat what they have been told.
9. Actions: And yes, actions speak louder than words. The things you do are a reflection of your character. Most people tend to do what most others do, in some sort of willful ignorance of the plain fact that most people live mediocre lives and never achieve the success they had idealized for themselves. Actions produces results. If you want uncommon results, you must undertake to act uncommonly on purpose, with intent, with responsibility, with persistence, with resolve, with passion and according to your plan. Do what you love. Do what you will.
10. Peers: Birds of a feather do flock together. If you want to be a winner, hang out with winners. Create your own ‘mastermind group’. Try to be involved with people who are smarter than you, more successful than you, have greater aspirations than you. If you can’t do it in person, read their books or read their biographies or visit their websites. Losers like to hang around with other losers, not just because misery loves company, but because their self-esteem is not threatened by comparison to their peers. If you can find the way to love yourself enough to always have a high level of self-esteem, then you won’t need to compare yourself to others. Winners believe in themselves. Losers believe in the world around them.

So now you know my secret to be able to predict the future. All I need to know about a person is: 1) who they hang around with, 2) what they do day-to-day, 3) the way they speak and what they say, 4) whether or not they assume responsibility or assess blame, 5) whether or not they have the resolve (the stick-to-it-tive-ness) to overcome obstacles, 6) if they have a plan to live by, 7) a passion for life and their plans, 8) a self designed purpose to live for, 9) if they act intentionally or in reaction, and 10) what their overall attitude is to life and their part in it.

Now that you know, you don’t need me, or some gypsy tea leaf reader, to predict your future.

The GREAT good news is that, if you discover, through this self-analysis, that you do not have these 10 necessary characteristics of winners, you can change the way you are and the things you do. So there it is… your destiny is yours, by design or by default. It is up to you.