Author Michael Jeffreys
personally interviewed 15 top motivational gurus in 1997 for his then upcoming
book. After talking to gurus from Brian
Tracy to Dr. Wayne Dyer, he distilled 8 Secrets to Success they all agreed
upon. These secrets are still good today
and are as follows:
1. Take 100%
Responsibility for Your Life – In a society where people blame
everything from their parents to the government for failure, those who don’t
buy into this mentality or succumb to the “victim” thinking succeed. To blame
something or somebody outside yourself is saying they have control of your life
and not you. Someone else’s opinion of you doesn’t have to become your reality.
2. Live Your
Life On Purpose -
What separates motivational thinkers from the unsuccessful is that they
believe they’re doing what they were put her to do. The difference between this
and just living, is that the latter is just getting through the week with the
least problems. But when you live your
life on purpose, your main concern is doing the job right. For the entrepreneur this means finding a
cause you believe in and building your business around it.
3. Be Willing
to Pay the Price - Be willing to pay the price for
your dreams. Wanting a big house, a
luxury car, and a million dollars in the bank is all very nice, and everyone
wants these things – but are you willing to pay the price to get them? This is one of the major differences between
the successful and unsuccessful.
4. Stay Focused
– Every day we’re bombarded with hundreds of tasks, phone calls,
messages, and everyone competing for our time.
Focusing requires giving up something in the present because you are
investing your time in something that will pay off big-time down the road. Jack Canfield and Mark Hanson were turned by
30 publishers when they submitted the first “Chicken Soup for the Soul”
book. Instead of giving up, they stayed
focused on their goal and did four or five interviews per day for radio, TV,
and newspapers, for five days a week for a whole year. Eventually, a small publisher decided to take
a chance, and of course now it’s a best-seller that spawned an entire series
that have sold more than 10 million copies.
5. Become An
Expert in Your Field One striking
factor all successful people have in common is how seriously they take their
profession. They strive to be the best
at what they do, and do almost anything to improve. If someone followed you around all day with a
video camera at your business, would it be a tape you’d be proud of or
embarrassed about? Make the decision
today to work at being the best in your field.
How? By finding out what the “best” in your field are doing, and do what
they do.
6. Write Out a
Plan for Achieving Your Goals - Write out an
action plan/map for how you’re going to achieve your goals. Trying to reach your goals
