Step 5: The Philosophy Of Success
In Step 4, we looked at your ultimate goal, your desired future state and why it’s an important step in building your startup. In Step 2 & 3 we learnt that Core Values and Purpose build a solid foundation from which to ensure your business will be heading . The previous step focused on defining your ultimate goal that tells you where you want to take your business, the tangible measure between your current state and your desired state.
Welcome to step five, we’ll discuss achieving success using the Happy Path Flight Plan.
For those just joining us at this point, you can continue and learn about the The Philosophy Of Success, but it’s worth starting at Step 1, My Current State, to give you better context. And its the starting point for embarking on your startup adventure.
Let’s get started. In our Happy Path Flight Plan illustration, we are touching on Philosophy of Success, in orange and bold below.
Many people dream of being successful but often don’t know how to make it happen. The path to becoming successful can be long and winding, but with a little patience and a sound flight plan, anyone can reach their ultimate goal. And achieve their desired future.
In order to succeed you must first understand why others have succeeded in the past. Having a more focused approach to reaching your desired future can be more than just an advantage — it can also help you reach it sooner and with greater ease. This is the happy path that’ll form our Philosophy of Success.
The Philosophy of Success in a nutshell is being conscious about every decision you make between productive and non-productive activities in your day-to-day life. It is a frame of mind that is built on 7 beliefs which we shall explore.
We will look at the seven beliefs that are present in every successful life – together they make up the ‘Philosophy of Success’. By applying these to your own life if you desire to be more successful. and reach your desired future state.
1. You acknowledge and accept your current circumstances
Most people want to be successful but are too proud to admit that they are not where they want to be now. If you do not accept where you are now and who you are now, then you will never be successful.
It is important to acknowledge and accept where you are at in your current circumstances/state. It is easy to look at others and think that you want to be like them, but it always comes down to who you are and where you are at in life. Every great venture starts with acknowledging your current state and the reason we started this series of steps with the current state.
To become successful, you must first accept where you are now. You can look at other people and think “I want that too, but I know I have to earn it”. This is a good sign that you acknowledge and accept your current state. But need to work towards getting what you want. This is a positive belief.
If you have a negative thought about this, such as “I’m not smart enough to have what they have got” then you first need to work on changing your self-perception. Whilst we discuss Mindset in the next step it’s best to start your business adventure with Step 1: My Current State. If you have a positive emotion towards having to do some hard work, then let’s continue.
2. You are Driven by Your Core Values
Your core values are what drive you. They are the deepest parts of who you are and what you care about. They are the foundation on which all your decisions are based.
It is important that you understand your three core values and what drives them. If you do not, your decisions will lead you in the wrong direction. Your core values are the most important thing you can have in life because they will take you from where you are to where you want to be.
Core values are different things for different people. For some, it may be financial security while others may care more about love and family. Your core values can be anything — but will be better if they are not materialistic. This is because material things can be taken away without a fight, whereas your core values should be something that you care so deeply about that you would fight to the death for it.
We spoke about Core Values in Step 2, so if you need to define your core values check this step out. To build your forever business you will need core values that last forever and are deeply ingrained in you. Core values are your driving force that work hand-in-hand with your purpose.
3. You Are Driven by Your Purpose
A purpose for living is the driving force behind every successful life. To be truly successful, it is important to know your purpose — not just for existing, but also for reaching your ultimate goal and desired future.
Are you in this life to eat, drink and be merry, or are you here to eat, drink, and be successful? If you are only here to drink, eat, and be merry, you will never become successful. Nor will you be happy with your life if that is all you are doing.
If you are here to eat, drink, and be successful, then you will be using the gifts that you were given more correctly. Your purpose is more than a veneer over a shallow life — it is your reason for being here. This can often be difficult to understand for those who have not been to successful. You need to be the hero in your story but to become that hero a decision on which path to pursue must first be taken.
Although it may not feel relevant now, once you understand your purpose, it will become clearer. How do you know what your purpose is? Start by starting this adventure with Step 1: My Current State. And move through those steps toward Step 3: My Purpose. If you have then let’s continue.
4. You Begin with The End In Mind
The end in mind is critical to the success of any venture. The end in mind is the place where all the planning begins. This is what we call your Ultimate Goal that’s tied to your Desired Future State, your utopia.
When you are starting out, you may be able to create a list of goals for yourself, but as you get further along, you will realize that these goals will change. As you get closer to your desired future, you will want your goals to change as well.
It is important that you always keep your end in mind when making decisions. The goals that you have set must align to your ultimate goal. So that each goal accomplished takes you a step closer to your ultimate goal and desired future.
So, of example, if you are deciding between two different jobs, it is important to keep in mind that one may be better suited to taking you towards your desired future. Many people take the easy route, they may create a detailed plan for reaching their ultimate goal, but don’t follow through with it.
This is often a result of others guiding them or being persuaded towards a path that is expected or the norm. If someone else has a clear plan for you, it can be hard to alter your own path when you are following someone else’s plan. Therefore, it is important for you to begin with your end in mind. And not blindly follow someone else’s advice.
5. You Realize It Takes the Right Actions to Reach Your Ultimate Goal
Success will not fall into your lap — it will be given to you as a reward for your hard work. Success is never given to anyone. It is a prize for those who work hard for it.
Winning a race does not just happen, it takes hard work to reach the finish line. Winners are those who finish the race. Nobody gets ahead by simply sitting and waiting for things to happen.
It is important that you understand that you may not reach your desired future state quickly — it will take effort and perseverance. Success is reached through action and perseverance repeated again and again. The following few steps after step 5 focus on perseverance and how to set up a system to support this and stay on the happy path.
6. You Take Accountability and Responsibility for All Your Decisions & Actions
There will be times when things will not go as planned and you will be faced with some difficult decisions. These are opportunities to take accountability and responsibility for your actions.
There will be times when you will want to simply blame others for your current circumstances. Blaming others is a great way to make yourself feel better by putting the blame on someone else. Although this may feel good for a moment, it will not lead you to your desired future.
Taking responsibility for your decisions and actions is a way to start moving yourself towards your desired future. It is important that you take responsibility for your decisions and actions — it will help you make better decisions in the future. We’ll cover this in more detail below.
7. You Are Willing to Persevere
Sometimes the hardest thing about reaching your desired future is the perseverance to stay on the path. Many people get distracted or go off course and lose the path that was so clearly marked for them.
The path is straight — this is our Happy Path, veer off this path and you become unhappy. It is important that you do not let the detours get you off track. It can be easy to get distracted by the small things in life and lose sight of your ultimate goal.
It is important that you remember that you are on the right path and that you stay on track. Your purpose is clear — it is just a matter of following through with your plan. If you do, you will reach your desired future state.
Disciplined Attitude
To reach your ultimate goal, you’ll need a disciplined attitude, which we shall discuss now.
“Those who say they can and those who say they can’t, are both right.”— Confucius.
To illustrate this quote and bring it to life we shall use a modified version of the diagram used in the book ‘The Slight Edge’ by Jeff Olson. Just having a great philosophy of success doesn’t get you anywhere. What’s key is having a disciplined attitude to ensure the decisions you make bring about positive actions towards your ultimate goal.
Looking at the above diagram, with perseverance and the right actions, you will move up the happy path curve towards your desired state. However, with the wrong actions to you slip towards having setbacks that could lead to failure. Drifting downwards puts pressure on your perseverance that will either fade leading to failure or motivate you to address these setbacks, learn from them and address them to get you back on the happy path.
Therefore, having a disciplined attitude is about building and maintaining positive habits that are repeated consistently until your ultimate goal and desired future are reached.
You will a setback or two, you need to learn, re-valuate what you did and what went wrong, then recalibrate that behavior so that it doesn’t happen again or is modified to produce a better outcome.
To maintain a disciplined attitude there are 10 action focused principles. These overlap with the Philosophy of Success beliefs but are actionable. These Disciplined Attitudes are:
- Being Driven by Your Purpose
- Being Laser Focused on Your Ulitmate Goal
- Live by Your Core Values Every Day
- You are Thriving Each Day even with Setbacks (you’re continuously learning)
- You Focus On Less To Do More
- You Act Every day in some way to Reach Your Desired Future
- You Own All Your Decisions & Actions
- You are Systems Focused (progressive realization over time)
- You have Repetitive Productive Habits
- You Persevere
By maintaining these principles, you shall be able to move upward along the happy path towards your desired future. We are human so you will have setbacks, that’s normal. Take those setbacks and learn from them and get back on the path by taking corrective action.
How Do I Get to My Desired Future?
With what has been learned how do you get to your desired future?
The simple answer is By Doing Simple Easy Productive Actions Repeated Consistently Over Time.
As easy as it sounds it is in fact difficult. The reason for this is because you have to think about every decision that consumes a significant amount of time every day.
Are these decisions having a positive or negative impact on your desired future? Such as too much social media time instead of completing your planned tasks. Compounded this has a negative effect as small decisions add up!
So, we must keep in mind the consequences and take corrective action as soon as possible. The more frequent repetitive poor decisions are made the more likely they become a bad habit.
We shall cover habits, mindset, and a systems approach in a later steps. To understand how success works we first need to understand how the conscious and subconscious mind works.
In our world, the Philosophy of Success is your subconscious mind. Disciplined Attitude is your conscious mind. And for you to move along the happy path these two must be aligned & in harmony. If they are not, it becomes a tug-o-war.
Your Disciplined Attitude influences the right Actions (behavior) that leads to successful DECISIONS.
Your Philosophy of Success is what motivates you and therefore influences your conscious mind in decision making.
The tools and techniques we shall cover in upcoming steps, but the most powerful tool at your disposal is journaling, which we will cover soon.
Disciplined Attitude Journaling
Start
How Is the Desired Future NOT Achieved?
Conversely, how is your desired future is not achieved.
How does this not happen:
What is easy to do is also easy not to do (bad habits). Easy errors in choices of doing non-value add activities. Done repeatedly over time leads to repeated setbacks. Resulting in failure if not corrected.
Your fear leads to chronic procrastination, so you don’t act on pursuing your dream.
This occurs because there is Imbalanced Philosophy of Success and Disciplined Attitude. Or an Undisciplined Attitude leading to poor choice of actions or inaction.
To correct this, it is important to revisit and reevaluate your current state, core values and purpose statement to understand if you are motivated enough to want to achieve your desired future state. Is your purpose, ultimate goal and desired future all misaligned? Revisiting these from time to time reminds you why you have started on this adventure and re-energizes you to keep pushing forward. Winners never quit. And quitting leads to regret. Stay focused and persevere in the face of challenges.