Achieving the Uncommon Level of Success: Your Worth Barometer

Today, I want to share some more insight on achieving success.

“You have to believe in yourself when no one else does. That’s what makes a winner.”
—Venus Williams, Olympic gold medalist and professional tennis champion

In my 20+ years of research into the secrets of success, I’ve found that the most important aspect of long-term, sustainable achievement is a healthy “worth barometer.”

I coined this term, which is a measurement of a person’s self-esteem and beliefs, in my book, The 7 Principles of Becoming a Millionaire for Life: Powerful Lessons to Create Significant Wealth, Health & Happiness. People with high worth barometers have a great self-image: They are willing to persevere, even when things aren’t going their way.

On the other hand, people with low worth barometers don’t believe that they’re good enough and rarely sustain success over the long-term. Even if they make a million dollars or achieve something similarly spectacular in one area of their lives, they will typically lose it or sabotage their success by diminishing some other important aspect of their existence, like their health or relationships.

Fortunately, your worth barometer isn’t fixed. You can build it up by assessing your current level of self-esteem and making shifts in your internal belief system.

Changing your belief system.

Beliefs are powerful things. According to the author and philosopher James Allen, “You are truly where your thoughts have brought you. You will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.” Consequently, if you believe you deserve health and happiness, you’re more likely to get it.

But how do we change our beliefs? Sometimes they’re so ingrained in the way we live that we’re not even aware of them—or that they’re keeping us from achieving our goals.

To get the results we desire, we must be open to changing them. Ask yourself, “Am I getting the results I want in my career, my personal life, etc.?” If the answer is a resounding “Yes,” then you don’t have to change a thing. If the answer is “No,” then you need to take a hard look at your beliefs and the way they manifest themselves into your actions and behaviors.

As Albert Einstein so eloquently pointed out, wanting a different result yet continuing to do the same thing is insanity. There are a lot of people that want to be financially free, for example, and yet they continue to overspend and rack up credit card debt. Insanity indeed!

If you want to achieve a certain goal but it’s been elusive, you need to identify the beliefs and behaviors that are getting in your way. In every aspect of your life—such as your career, relationships, health, community and finances—write down the beliefs and behaviors that are working and what beliefs and behaviors you need to change. Be brutally honest with yourself. It may be difficult or scary to let go of something you’ve held so dear for so long, but perseverance will be worth it.

Some of the latest brain research shows that we can change our beliefs through a combination of self-talk, visualization, education, coaching and practice. It may take a little time, but you’ll be amazed at the results. I can tell you that a common trait among multi-millionaires is that they believe with ever fiber of their being that their dreams are real and attainable. Even when others tell them that they’re crazy, they continue to follow their purpose and passion with great faith.

Scientific studies confirm that beliefs matter more than the current reality of a given situation. For example, many people who miraculously overcome illness do so because they simply believe in their treatments with every fiber of their being. Prayer, chemo, acupuncture—in many respects they are all the same if the belief in them is strong enough.

Building your self-esteem. As you change your beliefs about yourself, your self-esteem will improve. The two go hand in hand to determine the settings on your worth barometer.

In today’s instant-gratification, youth-driven media culture, it’s easy to feel inadequate. Wherever you look, there are people who are thinner, smarter, richer, healthier, sexier, happier and more attractive.

A strong self-esteem helps you keep things in perspective, so it’s important to do the personal work necessary to build your self-image. If necessary, seek professional help: It’s that important. Otherwise, feelings of inadequacy will haunt you and prevent you from realizing your potential.

One of the best ways to determine your current level of self-esteem is to listen to the internal tapes you play on a regular basis. Does your internal dialogue build up your confidence or force you to retreat from life’s abundance? Again, be honest with yourself and work to change your self-talk. Start small, and soon your worth barometer will start to rise.

Next month, I’ll show you how to overcome some of the most powerful barriers to a healthy worth barometer. These barriers include thresholding, solution rejection and excuses, and you’ll learn valuable strategies and workarounds to remove these limitations from your life once and for all.

Until then you can access more articles and insight on developing a strong worth barometer in our FREE mastermind community. Get instant access at FREE Copper.

Secrets to Success: Passion, Purpose, Focus & Commitment

In the our last blog, we discussed two more secrets – #5: Set your affirmative goals and big picture objectives and #6: Identify and complete your HVFDAs & IPAs.

Today, we will dive into

Secret of Success #7: Add in the Passion, Purpose, Focus & Commitment

The best analogy to Secret #7,  I can think of relates to making soup. I happen to make pretty good soup (at least that’s what everyone says). Whenever someone asks what ingredients I added to the soup, my son responses, “A little bit of this and a little bit of that!” The reality is pretty close to his description. I learned this strategy from my father, who clearly was the best soup makers ever. But what my son didn’t share was after I add the ingredients you have on hand, I add in the spices to get the taste just right. Without the key ingredients the end result isn’t as good- just like in your business when you leave out the critical ingredients of passion, purpose, focus & commitment.

Secret of Success #7- Add in the Passion, Purpose, Focus & Commitment

Let’s dive into each ingredient.

Passion is critical to achieving success because it is the motivating factor that drives us to do the tasks we may not want to do but that are critical to our achieving our goal.  Passion also ignites our inner energy and enlivens our soul.  So make sure and include some passion in your quest for success!

Purpose is our calling or reason we are on this earth. When we know our purpose, we are less concerned about input from naysayers. Our purpose is our higher calling which some believe is our reason for being alive.

Focus is critical to achieving success. A great definition of focus is to follow one course until successful. Too often people lose focus before they have fully engaged. If you have a hard time focusing set a goal to work on a task for 10 minutes without interruption. After 10 minutes take a brief break and then get back to the task. Continue to increase the time until you have worked for 55 minutes without interruption. You will be amazed at how productive you become. Remember to reward yourself along the way.

Commitment is also a critical secret to success! I recommend setting an income goal that you commit to achieve before you can change course. For example, let’s say you start up a small business. Set a goal that before you can quit you must earn x amount of dollars. This is very powerful because it shifts our attention away from the problems and to the solution. We are no longer distracted by pebbles or even boulders. Instead our entire focus shifts on achieving the goal we have set. This is an effective strategy for other areas of your life such as marriage or health.

As you incorporate these 7 secrets of success, remind yourself that Rome was not built in one day. This is your life and the time you invest in getting from point A to point B will be one of the best investments you will ever make. It also is the secret to a great life, personally as well as professionally!

Until we connect again, don’t forget to add in the key ingredients!

Secrets to Success: Affirmative Goals, HVFDAs and IPAs

In the last blog we discussed two secrets of success – #3: Develop a healthy Worth Barometer and #4: Develop a game plan. Today, we will dive into two more secrets – #5: Set your affirmative goals and big picture objectives and #6: Identify and complete your HVFDAs & IPAs.

Secret of Success #5: Set your affirmative goals and big picture objectives

Once you have an idea of your big picture game plan, set five to ten personal and business objectives you want to achieve for the year. Your objectives should be big picture and measurable. As you move forward, continue to ask yourself, “Will what I am doing right now, bring me closer to my goal?” As long as you honestly answer the question, you will be much further at the end of the year to achieving your goal than you would have been without doing this exercise.

The next step is to set affirmative goals in each area of your life including financial (include income and net worth), family, spiritual, career, physical, relationships and charity.

Write your affirmative goals in an “I am” or “I active verb” format. Using “I” is much more effective than “We.” It is best to include one idea for each goal. For maximum results, make sure that your affirmative goals are focused on what you want versus what you don’t want. Your affirmative goals should be bigger picture because your HVFDAs (high value fixed daily activities) and IPAs (income producing activities) will provide the details and actions to ensure you achieve the goals.

As you move forward and monitor your goals, keep your focus on the end goal. In my 20 plus years of setting affirmative goals, one thing that has proven true is that when we set and actively work to achieve goals, we always achieve more than if we did nothing!

To learn more about setting affirmative goals, join us on our next webinar, “Achieving the Uncommon Level of Success”, click WEBINAR ACCESS to register now.

Secret of Success #6: Identify and complete your HVFDAs & IPAs.

Once you identify your affirmative goals, set HVFDAs (high value fixed daily activities) for each one and if applicable, also set IPAs (income producing activities) for each goal. HVFDAs and IPAs must be done each day because we can’t make up Tuesday what was scheduled to be done on Monday. Top producers have laser focus completing their HVFDAs and IPAs. Their less successful counterparts spend their time on LVFDAs (low value fixed daily activities) which fills time and gives a false sense of accomplishment.  It does very little to create the future we desire.

To learn more about HVFDAs and IPAs attend our next webinar, “Achieving the Uncommon Level of Success.” To register click WEBINAR ACCESS.

Once you complete these 6 secrets of success, you are ready to add a few additional ingredients, which will be the topic of our next post – Secret #7: Add in the Passion, Purpose, Focus & Commitment.

The key to success really is no secret… it simply requires that you create and then work your plan each and every day so until we connect take sometime and as Nike would say Just Do It!

Secret to Success: Your Worth Barometer and Game Plan

Last post we discussed these two secrets to success – #1: Where will I be? and #2: What do I want? Hopefully you have taken some time to answer these questions.

Today we will dive into two more secrets – #3: Develop a healthy Worth Barometer and #4: Develop a game plan.

Secret to Success #3: Develop a healthy Worth Barometer

In my second book, the 7 Principles of Becoming a Millionaire for Life, Powerful lessons for creating wealth, health and happiness, I provide insight to a term I refer to as a Worth Barometer. It refers to a measurement of your self-esteem and your beliefs. People with a low Worth Barometer have low self-image or self-esteem. They do not feel or believe they are enough.

My twenty plus years of researching the secret to success has proven that the biggest factor of people not getting their desired results is due to a low Worth Barometer. Not surprising, a person’s Worth Barometer is a direct correlation to their Wealth Barometer, which relates to their income and net worth. Because your Worth and Wealth Barometers are so critical, I recommend that you make it a priority to develop and improve your Worth Barometer daily!

The best strategy to develop a strong Worth Barometer begins by creating a solid foundation. Imagine you want to grow a crop of vegetables in your garden. First you would need to fertilize the soil. Then plant the seeds, water them, remove weeds from the ground and possibly add some nutrients to the dirt. If you are really busy and forgot to plant the seeds (prospect) or water the seeds (cultivate your prospects and clients), what would be the result in your garden or business in three or six months?

When you complete your high value activities on a daily basis, the end result is an amazing garden, business and/or life. When you create a solid foundation then when you build your Taj Mahal it will stand the test of time! We will further address your Worth Barometer in future blog posts.

To learn more about developing a healthy Worth Barometer attend our next webinar, “Achieving the Uncommon Level of Success.” To register, click INSTANT ACCESS.

Secret to Success #4: Develop a game plan

Ask a few friends if they have ever gone to the airport without reservations and purchased a ticket to whatever destination is available. They’ll ask you if you have lost your mind! Ask those same people if you can see their written game plan to achieve their goals and dreams. Most will laugh or change the subject because they don’t have one. Pretty scary! Studies prove that people spend more time planning their vacation then planning for their retirement or life! This is why you must take time to develop and implement your game plan so you can achieve your desired goal.

If we want to get some place, we have to first determine the desired destination. Then we have to create a game plan to ensure we will arrive at the desired location. Your game plan needs to provide the frame work to ensure you can achieve your goals personally as well as professionally. Once you create your big picture game plan, then you want to dive deep into the details, such as who is your ideal client, what lead generation strategies you will incorporate, as well as how you will implement your relationship marketing and referral marketing strategies. It is also critical that you also track all of your conversion ratios from initially meeting a new prospect to retaining them as a client for life.

Once you develop your game plan, continue to monitor, test and tweak it so you can reap maximum results.

For more insight on developing your game plan attend our next webinar, “Achieving the Uncommon Level of Success.” To register, click INSTANT ACCESS.

Stay tuned for our next two secrets: #5: Set your affirmative goals and big picture objectives and #6: Identify and complete your HVFDAs & IPAs.

Until we connect again take some time to identify your HVFDAs and IPAs!