If you want to know where you’ve been going wrong (or right), here’s just a very short list of books on Amazon covering the subject of the secrets, or keys, to success:
• ‘Keys to Success: 50 Secrets from a Business Maverick’
• ‘You Hold The Magical Key To Your Success’
• ‘The 7 Keys to Success: Awakening to Your Divine Life Purpose’
• ‘The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be’
As a coaching psychologist, over the past 25 years I’ve worked with many clients who are highly successful at many things, ranging from world class sport to world class cuisine but I’m not sure any of them could give you the ‘keys to success’. Often, masters of a subject don’t know how they do what they do - in fact it’s sometimes my job to help them figure that out so they can keep doing it!
In any field there are so many factors affecting an outcome, many of them outside your control, so that the best you can do to give yourself the best chance of succeeding, is follow the golden rule and “control the controllables”. Those controllables are all about your own performance; the rest you can influence, manage or put down to luck.
I happen to present a local radio show and get to interview successful people; one of those is Mike Clare, the entrepreneur owner and founder of Dreams, the bed company. The great thing about him is his humility and willingness to confess his failures. When I asked him about the ‘keys-to-success’ cult he was very open about how he once thought the success of Dreams meant he had those secret keys and so opened a clock shop (horology is a bit of a hobby of his). He told us he was lucky to sell the business and break even.
The secret keys he thought he knew didn’t transfer to that new kind of business.
If there were a certain number of keys to success one book is all it would take; it would have been written by now and we’d all be successful!
This is not to say you can’t learn from others; it’s more that I doubt there are golden rules. You might well succeed using your own keys. However, I can offer some observations from my own experience of working with my clients over 25 years. When I think about it, there seem to be some obvious qualities these people share which might give you food for thought. My list has 8.
1. Knowing What They Want
They all have one or two very clear goals. You can ask them any variation of, “what’s your goal?”, or “what would you like to have happen?” or “what are your aspirations?” and they’ll give you a swift answer. Can you?
2. Knowing What Their Priorities Are
Having clear goals is one thing but staying focused on them is another. It is very easy to become distracted by day to day events plus other people’s demands for your attention. Some time ago I had the pleasure of working with a well-known rock drummer. His goal was to be voted No1 drummer by his peers. Whenever he was asked to do something outside his own agenda, he immediately asked himself, “what has this got to do with playing the perfect drum solo?”. If the answer was ‘nothing’ then you’d be hard pushed to get any of his time! (He was voted No1 that year).
3. Taking Responsibility
None of the people I’m thinking of would blame anyone else for things not going their way. They may not be able to control the world, but they do realise that it’s their responsibility to find ways around obstacles. Do you have that sense of ‘it’s up to me’?
4. Looking After Themselves
I don’t mean to say they are selfish; quite the opposite. What they all seem to recognise is that to have the energy to stay focused on your goal you need to take care of your health. For example, when I think about the sort of lunches I’ve shared with them, they have been careful to choose light meals that won’t make them sleepy later on when they need to stay sharp and make clear decisions. What’s your diet/exercise regime like?
On that note I think we should take a break - for a run around the park perhaps – and return to the remaining four qualities next time……….watch this space!
