We’re already in the beginning of spring – can you believe it? Now that we’re almost four months into the year, I was wondering how you feel about what you’ve accomplished so far in 2016.
Do you feel like you’re on track with your goals – or do you feel that despite your best intentions, you’re falling further and further behind?
If you’re feeling like you’re stuck in the mud and your momentum has slowed to a crawl, here are six tips on how to rejuvenate your success plan for 2016 and put some fresh “spring” in your step – so you can get back on solid ground and keep moving forward toward your goals!
1. Check your expectations
When we admire someone’s success, we tend to focus on the end result and overlook the time and effort it took to get there. This can cultivate unrealistic expectations and lead to the idea that overnight success is possible.
But the thing is:
Overnight success is a myth. @JackCanfield (Click to Tweet!)
REAL success typically follows a series of small events and achievements that can seem to take an eternity, include a number of disappointments along the way, and challenge you to the core: your stamina, courage, integrity, and even your willingness to keep going.
So if you’re feeling particularly challenged right now, don’t worry! It’s all part of the process. The important thing is to learn the lessons you need to learn and keep moving forward.
2. Focus on what is working – NOT on what isn’t working
When you’re frustrated because you’re not progressing as quickly as you’d hoped, it can be easy to focus on the negative instead of the positive.
You may even find yourself entertaining self-destructive thoughts like “I’m not good enough,” “It will never work,” or “Something must be wrong with me.”
But one of the great laws of the Universe is, you get more of what you focus on. So if you pay more attention to the things that aren’t working, you’ll encounter more negative experiences, people, and results. And there’s not much success in that!
On the flip side, if you focus on what IS working, you will be able to see where you’re getting the best results for your efforts, and will start identifying new ways to get even better results!
3. Keep a written record of success
Humans have a built-in negativity bias. It’s an evolutionary thing – it helped us stay alert to danger back in the prehistoric days when everything was out to kill us!
In modern times, this negativity bias causes us to feel and remember the bad things much more powerfully than we feel and remember the good things. It really helps to have a written record of what’s working so you can keep track of your positive achievements and remember them at the end of the day.
That’s why I recommend you keep a daily success journal. It’s a great way to focus your attention on the positive and continually stay on track with your vision for your ideal life.
Spend a few minutes each morning writing a list of what you’re grateful for in your life. Then, at the end of the day, write some notes on what went right that day. Be sure to write down everything, no matter how small it may seem. When you train yourself to recognize and acknowledge your own achievements, you are guaranteed to attract even more success into your life.
4. Use meditation to cultivate a positive mindset
Meditation can be a powerful tool to help you find solutions to problems and shift your attitude so you can attract success sooner rather than later.
Meditation shuts down your judgmental, highly critical brain and allows your unconscious mind to take over – so you can enter a deeper state of inner peace and joy and tap into a higher level of creativity that will help usher in the results you want.
(NOTE: If you’re new to meditation or if you’ve struggled when meditating on your own, Awakening Power is a step-by-step guided visualization and meditation program that will provide you with a deeply satisfying experience.)
5. Remember the rule of 5
My favorite way to get more done every day is to follow the Rule of Five. Here’s how it works: every day, identify five specific things you will accomplish to get closer to your goal – then don’t call it quits for the day until you cross each one off your list.
Not only will this give you a proven structure to ensure you get more accomplished every day, it will also give you a clear sense of what’s actually achievable in a day – and you can round up your goals or scale them back so they help you move forward consistently without exhausting yourself by working until midnight every night.
6. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and take BIG action
Let’s say you’re doing ALL these things, but you still aren’t happy with your results…
Here’s a question to consider: have you taken any BIG ACTION to launch yourself out of your current situation and closer to the life of your dreams?
You may be taking action – but it might be the same kind of action you’ve ALWAYS taken. If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting the same results you’ve always gotten.
If you want to create a new life for yourself, you have to practice some new behaviors. Shake things up a bit and see if you can take new actions or modify existing ones. And don’t be afraid to do something BIG.
Finally, I want to remind you to be patient with yourself.
It’s natural to underestimate how long a certain goal can take, especially if it’s a big one.
When I set my goal to become a millionaire the year was 1983. How long did it take me to reach that goal? Eleven years. That’s how long it took for me to build up my career as a professional speaker, come up with the idea for Chicken Soup for the Soul, write the book, get it published, and promote it before it finally rocketed to the top of the bestseller lists.
That’s a lot of patience for someone who initially wanted overnight success!
So, yes, patience is a virtue. But keep at it, and in no time, you’ll be only one week, or one day away from your ultimate success.
Remember… stay positive, be grateful, reflect on what IS working – and continue to take ACTION!
As the beloved originator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series, Jack Canfield fostered the emergence of inspirational anthologies as a genre—and watched it grow to a billion dollar market. As the driving force behind the development and delivery of over 100 million books sold through the Chicken Soup for the Soul® franchise, Jack Canfield is uniquely qualified to talk about success. Jack is America’s #1 Success Coach and wrote the life-changing book The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be and Jack speaks around the world on this subject. Check out his newest book The 30-Day Sobriety Solution: How to Cut Back or Quit Drinking in the Privacy of Your Own Home. Follow Jack at www.jackcanfield.com and sign up for his free resources today!
Image courtesy of Chris Meyers.
