10 Great Tips for Successin Both Life and Business

10 Great Tips for Successin Both Life and Business

Sometimes what helps us to be
successful in our professional lives
is not such a great idea in our
personal lives — competition is a
quality that comes to mind. At the
same time, we all have a limited
amount of time each day to do the
things that we want to do.
So for the sake of saving time and
energy, I’m sharing a list of tips that
will help you be successful in both
life and in business.

1. Add Value
No matter what you do and where
you go, you can’t go wrong with
adding value. Simply put value is
anything that people are willing to
pay for. In your professional life, the
more value you can offer the more
money you can make. In your
personal life, more value translates
to closer relationships and strong
personal growth. The best way to
add value is to find the intersection
between what people are willing to
pay for and what service or product
you can offer that is aligned with
your values, strengths and goals.
How are you adding value to your
employers and loved ones today?
What can you do to increase your
ability to add value?

2. Follow Your Passion
Reading numerous biographies on
great people and from my own
personal observations and
encounters, I’ve realized that those
who achieve greatness professional
and personally follow their passion.
The reason why great people are few
and far in-between is because most
people don’t even know what their
passion is. For those that do figure
out their passion, most of them
don’t follow their passion
consistently. This is one of the main
reasons why people don’t reach
their goals .
Do you know what your passion is?
If not, what are you going to do to
find out? If you do know what you
passion is, are you following it?

3. Be Extraordinary
If you do the same thing as everyone
else, it’s hard to be successful. It is
important to find the edge and then
push past it. That is how you
become noticed and get what you
want. Whether it is money,
meaningful relationships and/or a
sense of personal accomplishment,
the extraordinary person attracts
them all.
How are you extraordinary? If you
feel just ordinary, what are you
going to do to become
extraordinary? For those who don’t
know, you may want to check out
articles on my blog and also How to
go from Ordinary to Extraordinary.

4. Start Now
There are many factors that go into
become a success in both your
professional and personal life but
the one factor that is required is
taking action. Most people miss out
on reaching their full potential
because they never start. They are
always preparing, planning and
waiting for the best time to start. If I
waited until I was ready, I would not
have a coaching practice, a website,
a blog, a workshop, etc. The stars
rarely align and you will never be
completely ready so just start now
and adjust along the way.
Are you waiting for something
before you start? What is your
planning to doing ratio? What’s
really the worse thing that can
happen if you got started right now?
If you are someone that’s just been
waiting, stop reading this post and
get started on what you have been
wanting to do. This article will still
be here when you get back.

5. Hunt for Good Mentors
People who “make it” usually credit
their success to a mentor or a group
of mentors who really helped guide
them to get to where they are.
Mentors have gone down the road
that you want to travel and can
guide you to get to your destination
faster than if you went at it alone. If
you want to be healthy, you would
find a mentor who is already
healthy. If you want to be rich, then
you have to find someone who is
already rich. What surprises me is
how rarely people engage in
mentoring relationships and those
who do usually find mentors in only
one aspect of their lives. If you want
to be successful, be active about
finding mentors that will help you
achieve what you want. Jeff Goins
has a nice short article on finding
mentors.
Do you have a mentor in your life
now? If not, ask yourself what
barriers are preventing you from
finding or establishing a mentoring
relationship? If you do have a
mentor, do you have one for the
different aspects of your life
(financial, health, professional,
personal, spiritual, relationships,
parenting etc.)?

6. Build a Support Group
While mentors serve as a guide with
whom you review your past actions
and plan your next steps, a support
group are your companions that
help you with during the actual
execution of your plan. This may be
in the form of a mastermind
group or accountability partner
where you keep each other
accountable for your goals and to
help each other deal with situations
that may arise while you are on your
journeys. It is extremely helpful to
have someone you know that is
willing to listen to your frustrations
and self doubt and to encourage
you and remind you of how far
you’ve already come.
Who is in your support group?

7. Personally Know Your
Finances
Numbers scare a lot of people. Start
talking about assets, liabilities and
net worth and people’s eyes just
glaze over. If you are one of these
people who run away from
numbers, please stop running
because you are hurting yourself. If
you want to be financially
independent, you need to know how
to keep score. If you have your own
business or want to successfully
invest, finances tell you how well you
are doing and reveal the health of a
business. If you don’t understand
finances, you have to learn. It’s easy
once you get over the limiting belief
that you are no good at numbers.
For those interested in learning
more, you may want to check out
these personal finance resources.
Do you know you net worth? If you
are bad at numbers, what
specifically makes you believe that?
How can you improve your financial
intelligence?

8. Get Help
I have a tendency to try to do
everything myself and in some ways
it is good and in many ways it is
bad. It is important to know and
understand all aspects of your life
and business but that does not
mean having to do all the tasks
involved in maximizing your
potential in those areas. It is true
that we can always learn new things
and become competent in them but
what is also true is that we are only
given 24 hours each day and to live
full lives, it is more effective to do
what we do best and to outsource
tasks that we’re not good at to
people who excel at
them. Delegating effectively takes
trust and the ability to clearly
communicate what you want. For
those that want to outsource, Elance
is a nice way to find some quality
freelancers.
How are you spending your time? Is
it doing things you are awesome at?
If not, what are you doing that you
can outsource or delegate so you
can devote more time doing what
you’re great at? What’s stopping you
from outsourcing or delegating?

9. Learn Sales
Many people cringe when they hear
the word sales. “I would never be in
sales, that’s a sleazy job.” It is
exactly this type of thinking that
stops people from being their best.
Sales is nothing more than
persuading someone of something .
When you are looking to get a date,
you are selling. When you are
interviewing for a job, you are
selling. When you are trying to
persuade your spouse or kids to go
to Europe for your family vacation,
you are selling. In a professional
setting, sales is paramount and the
lifeline for any business. If you want
to get the most out of life and
business, learn the skills for effective
selling. I am beginning a series of
blog posts on How to Sell on my
blog and you can learn from other
successful sales trainers by reading
material from Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracey
and Og Mandino.
When you hear “sales”, what
associations come to mind? Are they
positive or negative? Do you know
the how to sell effectively? If not,
how do you plan to learn?

10. Be Resilient
Things rarely work out the way you
planned and there will always be
distractions and stumbling blocks
that you have to deal with when you
are on your road to success. The key
point to remember is to persist and
to develop the courage to move on
even when everyone around you is
telling you it is ok to give up. This
does not mean stubbornly holding
on to your original plan but rather
continuing to pursue your goal as
long as the reasons for doing so is
still valid (Make sure you know the
“Why” of what you want). When
everything seems to be going wrong,
keep in mind that “the road to
success is paved with a thousand
failures” so each failure actually
brings you closer to where you want
to be. If you have trouble being
resilient, check out the 6 Effective
Ways to Be Persistent.
How often to you quit because
things got tough? Would you
descrive yourself as an unshakeable
optimist? Do you view problems as
opportunities or warning signs? How
do you view failure and are you
making sure that you don’t make the
one mistake people make when
learning from their mistakes ?
This is not an exhaustive list, but it
does provide a good starting point. I
would love to hear what tips you
have found especially useful in both
life and business in the comments
section.