6 Proven Elements Of Success For Growth Discovery

In this segment, we shall be considering basic issues that are inevitable in the quest to achieve success. You might also choose to call them success Principles. The following are some principles that can help anyone achieve success. 

1. Self Discovery: 

Success is achieved when you know who you are, understand where you are going, and move progressively towards its attainment; that is the summary of the concept of self-discovery. Why so? Because success is the progressive advancement towards an identified course (which re-echoes my definition of the concept of success)

Many people live through life unknown and without any traceable level of impact because they do not bother to know who they are; this is not common to Africa because I have met people from different parts of the world who do not know who they are beyond their names and perhaps nationalities. Your name is actually a reflection of what your parents thought about you at the point of your birth while your nationality is just your geographical location in the course of your Odyssey on earth.

Without equivocation, you can bear witness with me that you can change your name and even your nationality if they don’t match up with who you are because your purpose (vision, assignment) is actually the true definition of your identity. Then how do I know who I am? That question has been a recurring decimal in most of my meetings and I do always leave the people who pose such questions satisfied with the answers I help them dig up from within themselves.

Simply put, the answer to who you are is trapped within you and the ability to ask the right question is the key that unlocks the true value of your identity. Who you are is that voice that continuously draws you to the direction of what you are wired to do, how you are wired to think, and how you are wired to operate. (I would be glad to furnish you with the self-discovery matrix I developed on request)

2. Good Mindset:

The root of success is established in the mind because the mind is the center of cognition. It is in the mind that the picture of success is first established before it can be framed into reality in the physical realm. There is nobody who achieves the success that did so without a clearly defined picture of it in their minds. Every human being is configured to be bigger on the inside (the higher form of self) than the outside. This sense of awareness is exactly what gives momentum to the quest for success because it breeds passion, upgrades confidence and stimulates creative thinking towards attaining the set goals (which are indisputable tools for success)

A good mindset is a strong magnetic force that pulls towards it the things that are agreeable and acceptable to its disposition. I have never seen anybody who focussed on failure that became successful but I have seen people who focussed on succeeding that became successful. The mind is the root of any physical outcome you can ever think of (irrespective of outward circumstances) and it, therefore, becomes imperative to master the art of using the mind to build whatever you desire to do.

Think success; have success.

3. CHARACTER

Another word for character in this context is honor or integrity. 

Joe Paterno said, 

“Success without honor is an unseasoned dish, it will satisfy your hunger but it won’t taste good.”

Indeed character is the pillar of success; it is like the foundation carrying a building without which it cannot stand. We can liken it to the power behind the throne or the hub of the wheel. In fact, as a dish is incomplete without seasoning, so it is with success if the character is lacking. Character crisis is at the heart of the issues that brought about disruptions in the otherwise successful reign of King David in the Bible. (2 Samuel 11,12 respectively). On the other hand, it was a good character that distinguished Joseph while in Egypt as a slave. As the chief servant of Potiphar, he had all the space in the world to make his master’s wife his sex subject but he refused even though she offered herself to him (that gesture would have denied him a bigger position of becoming Prime Minister).

Character is the ticket to victory and a strong platform on which to touch the world positively. Character does not only benefit the person possessed of it rather it benefits everybody within the person’s circle of influence. The reverse is also true, hence the lack of character in some public officers has been at the root of leadership crises in Africa; a situation which has subjected here people to untold hardships in the midst of plenty.

If Africa must rise above the dregs of poverty, instability, and unproductivity, her people, especially the youths, have to choose to embrace honor in everything they are involved in which was our traditional trademark until we were ‘brainwashed’ to deviate…some of the values that our dead heroes like Thomas Sankara, Nelson Mandela, etc lived by having to be resurrected and personified across demographic and political lines in Africa.

4. PLANNING

Every enterprise is built by wise planning be it marriage, business, career, or even one’s life. Planning is the intentional act of bringing future objectives into practical systematic modes of action by which they can be achieved. A plan, therefore, puts things in their order of priority and sequence of execution.

Planning is a time-honored practice that was put into effect by the Almighty Creator, God Himself. For instance, before He created Adam and Eve, He had already established a luxuriant garden full of aquatic, arboreal, and terrestrial animals and plants for their sustenance.

In the business world also, planning is an integral process of management. Planning is so important to business managers that the rest of the management processes namely; organizing, directing, controlling, and budgeting depend on it.

Planning is a strategic, broad-based, result-oriented exercise that channels a man’s mental and spiritual energies into a stated course. No wonder Jesus Christ also emphasized this in the Bible (Luke 14:28-31). The planning process opens up the mind to a large pool of ideas that man ordinarily would not have access to. When it is done with deep meditation, it causes the mind to intermingle with the higher realm of life thereby broadening one’s horizon of thinking. It is in such a mood that one’s mind can be developed to the extent of making intelligent forecasts or projections which oftentimes work out.

Many people across the world today fail in their life’s pursuits because they fail to plan. They either live by chance or claim they’re waiting on the Spirit to direct them whereas God has given us the privilege of meeting with Him in the higher realm if we can take out time to plan meditatively.

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” – Benjamin Franklin

Planning gives focus to live and if you must succeed, you must plan and plan well. If you live your life by chance, life will not give you a chance to live. Planning is a non-negotiable ingredient for success so plan your life well or life will give you failures which you never planned for. As a Leadership Strategist and Certified International Trainer in Administration, planning helps me to spend my 10 hours at work on investment rather than on mere survival.

Plan now, it will move you from servant-hood to kingship because good thinkers make good planners, good planners make good strategists, good strategists are successful, successful people make an impact, high-impact people are people of influence and only people of influence obtain the ticket to leadership.

5. VISION

Vision is the contemporary picture of a future event made available to people living for a purpose. It is a clear concise description of where one is heading to or what one is aiming to become. Vision is always purpose-based; any vision without a purpose is merely daydreaming.

The individuals who have made it to the top regardless of their place of birth or level of education all had a vision. Vision brings tomorrow into perspective and causes the bearer to move progressively from the known to the unknown until expectation becomes a tangible reality.

Professor Pat Utomi, one of Nigeria’s finest economists and the founder of Centre for Value and Leadership and once said, 

“If you cannot see tomorrow, it may be tough to shape it and it may end up shaping you in a way that could make you fear to look in the mirror.”

Vision is the propelling force behind every great achievement. Irrespective of age, status, or gender, your vision gets you prepared for the challenges of life and ready with answers for anyone that asks. In fact, if you can’t summarize your vision in less than two minutes, it means you might still be a daydreamer.

Usually, when one has a divine vision, it works to benefit a lot of others besides the vision bearer. Hence it is always easy to distinguish between ambition and vision. In my own words, ambition is largely self-centric while vision is God/people-centric; that is others must benefit from the vision. Remember, it was one man’s vision by the name of Martin Luther King Junior that turned out to be the liberating force for Blackman today especially in the USA. A God-breathed vision outlives its bearer.

Also never forget that vision reproduces; that is it must spark off positive lights (other visions)…if I heard right, Condoleeza Rice (Former US Secretary of State) said that whatever she ‘is’ today was sparked off by the action of Rosa Parks.

I can’t easily forget the effects the visions of men like Smith Wigglesworth, Bishop Idahosa and Bishop David Oyedepo had and still have on me because I started reading their books quite early in life. Write down your vision, keep it alive because one day it will keep you alive.

6. PERSISTENCE

One day in the forests of California, a very strange incident happened when unfortunately Al Hill fell a tree that landed not on the ground but on his leg. 11hours passed by and his strength was fast ebbing with no assurance of help or success in pushing out the tree from his thigh region, he had to make a decision to stay alive at all cost. Guess what? The desire to live fired up his boldness as he reached for his pocket knife and slashed off his leg from the thigh region and so managed to wriggle out from under the weight of the fallen tree.

Eventually, he had to crawl for quite a distance shouting for help with the last strength left of him until his friend, Eric Bockey heard his shouts and came to his rescue. Well, friends, he didn’t die! and deservedly so, his fame spread around the world wherever his story gets to as the one-legged successful man who decided not to give up. Strange? Well, that is what persistence is all about – a strong irrepressible internal energy that keeps you going in spite of external barriers and challenges. 

Persistence is the ability to continue firmly or obstinately…sadly, that is the missing ingredient in the lives of people who have accepted frustration and defeat. Persistence is the antidote to frustration and hopelessness and at the same time the tonic to reach out and achieve. It is the key to the hall of fame because the door of success cannot resist it.

Everyman known to have achieved anything great in life has always been associated with it because it is one characteristic anybody desirous of success cannot live without.

The story above typifies the situation many people find themselves in life today but painfully though, many seem to choose to die under the weight of life’s burden instead of sacrificing one thing or the other in order to live no matter how painful the experience may be.

From my experience and those of other people, I have come to see that persistence can gain a man the portal to the gate of success if he invites it – persistence is the passkey. It is a free gift from God to all men but answers only to those who place a demand on it. It was persistence that gained our independence when our founding fathers invited it into their struggle with the colonial masters…daily, persistence is the force that makes women not to give up in the labor room.

Pathetically, I have come in contact with many people who are languishing in despondency today because their previous attempts failed so they gave up on themselves. Also, many potential rich people are today living in poverty because they lack the spirit of persistence.

One glaring fact is that persistence goes to sleep in a man until he rouses it in the face of challenges. Challenges act as stimulants to the spirit of persistence in the lives of some men and at the same time they cause persistence to peter out in the lives of others hence the high rate of suicide records the world over. (It is a function of choice)

When roused, it can make the weak strong and fearful brave; it can turn the rejected stone into the cornerstone of the house.

STEPS TO STAYING PERSISTENT

1. Ready Your Mind

It does not matter how badly you failed, the first thing to do is to make up your mind to try again till you succeed.

2. Failure Analysis

Carry out a mental survey of the areas you failed and ascertain the possible reasons behind it.

3. Relevant Knowledge

Seek advice from people who are succeeding in your areas of interest. Be open-minded.

4. Plan Meditatively

Sit down and draw up a plan of action. Itemize resources and personnel needed.

5. Strategize

What plans of action should come first? Which ones can be combined? What will be the best channel?

6. Take Action

Then step out determined to succeed and nothing less. Act now! Don’t delay!

In Conclusion: 

Nobody recognizes a failure in spite of their efforts rather everyone recognizes the successful in spite of their previous failed attempts. Don’t give up! For your next attempt might be the ace you are yet to play!

For more lessons on this, pick up a copy of the book; Make Success a Habit written by me.

If you would like to go through any of our learning systems or send an invitation to speak at your event, contact me.