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Defining Success

Written by: Chris Simpson

Article Overview: Achieving success is defined by most as setting and meeting goals. The goals can be financial, productivity based or related to company growth goals. Goals as well as what is considered success, vary from business to business.

Defining Success

Achieving success is defined by most as setting and meeting goals. The goals can be financial, productivity based or related to company growth goals. Goals as well as what is considered success, vary from business to business.

Some goals can be purely financial such as a freelance writer setting a goal of creating X amount of dollars within a set amount of time. In a different scenario, a writer can set productivity goals such as writing a set number of articles every month. Setting goals can keep business owners on track.

However, it is also important to achieve the goals successfully. There is no point in meeting your goals with shoddy work and having to redo it. After all, it's not really successful if your customers or clients aren't happy with the work or product now is it?

Here are some tips to help you reach your own goals for success.

Make Your Goals Practical

Set realistic and achievable goals to avoid disappointment. It is better to set smaller goals than on big goal. This allows you to achieve in smaller steps. Short term goals can be monthly goals or six month goals while a long term goals can be as long as a year or two.

Write Your Goals Down

Keep tabs on your goals. Write an actual physical plan that includes your goals and the criteria you set to achieve the goals. An eBay storeowner can set goals in terms of the amount of merchandize they sell.

Set Realistic Time Frames for Completion

Set realistic time frames. Don't set a high monthly goal while you are still learning the ropes of your business. Depending on your specific goal, three months is probably a realistic time frame within which to complete the goals. The learning curve stops being erratic at that point. Keeping your goals close by where you can remind yourself of where you're headed can be motivating.

Measuring Success through Achieving Goals

Before embarking on a home business, it is important to define what you consider as success. Start by listing things you consider successful by finishing the sentence "Success is when I..." Here are two examples to help get the juices flowing.

1. Success is when I can work only twice a week and still meet my financial obligations. This is the financial aspect of success.

Start saving money on a regular basis. The same rules for reaching goals can be applied here. Set aside small amounts of money and increase it as times goes by. Set a realist daily or monthly goal that allows you to limit the amount of time you can work. This is an important goal, because it allows you time away from your business. People running home based businesses tend to work long hours. There should no difference between a regular office job in terms of sick days and vacation time.

2. Success is when people recognize my work. This goal is related to productivity.

Writers know in order to have recognition they need to appear in mainstream media. A plan should be devised where the writer builds their portfolio to where they can be hired by a national magazine to write articles. If your business makes homemade craft objects, the business owner should develop a marketing plan that eventually gets the goods into the national marketplace.

No matter what you define success as; keep a reminder of your goals within easy access. When you find yourself losing motivation, revisit why you wanted to achieve the goal in the first place. Then, get right back to the grind. Mental preparation and goal setting are an important part of achieving goals and remaining motivated.

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Article Tags: achievable goals, achieving goals, achieving success, amount of time, business owners, disappointment, ebay, freelance writer, growth goals, learning curve, learning the ropes, merchandize, productivity goals, realistic time frame, realistic time frames, setting goals, shoddy work, smaller steps, term goals, three months



Related Forum Posts
Re: THE SECRET TO SUCCESS IS ALL IN YOUR HEAD...RIGHT NOW!!! - Success = Thinking (Head) + Heart (Feeling / Interest) + Hand (doing/ action). Success - H3 Robert
Budgeting Approach - Budget is a roadmap for future operations of the company and it must be realistic. Here are some guidelines (extracted from my company manual) which I like to share with you. Each cost center in company will submit documentation defining the services provides and resources require. Each department is responsible for maintaining the accuracy of this document over time. Every department is encouraged to take a long-term strategic approach to providing its services. This approach entails an annual review of the costs that must be incurred to provide valued services (regardless of past practices) at the most efficient (and understandable) cost. Once this level of service and funding is established, increments to the baseline are considered. Ideally this would involve the following approach: a) Defining the current and future level of services provided, the resources necessary to provide those services and rationale for major change. b) Evaluate current operations and identify issues and the gaps to providing future levels of service. c) Look internally for cost saving measures or the elimination of services that are no longer required. It is assumed that before any funding request comes forward that it has the approval of the manager/director responsible for that department. d) Look cross-organizationally for resource allocations and efficiencies.
Re: Success - I study success intently, and would like to share: Here's two excellent and nearly identical success-formulas from a couple of the world's masters. FIRST FORMULA: 1. Passionate Desire 2. Clear, Definite Purpose 3. Committed Decision 4. Take Action In Faith (Bonus Secret Sauce: 5. Repeat Consistently) I made a video about this, but am not allowed to link it yet. Google "Ryze Success Steps" for it. Oh, and this is Napoleon Hill's (Master Of Success Laws)'s Formula. SECOND FORMULA: 1. Passionate Desire 2. Understand It Is Already Done (Faith) 3. Relax & Allow It To Unfold (Go about your life calmly) This one is courtesy of Abraham-Hicks (inspiration for the movie The Secret). Hope that helps!
Success Strategies - How to get the results you want now? Success Strategies and Action Steps I have used are: The Power of Choice Where you are at this present moment, is exactly perfect from the choices you have made. If you want to be somewhere else, you have to decide clearly what that is (your goal/outcome) and create action steps to achieve this. The Power of Focus The book "The Power of Focus" by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt, is one of my treasures in my Entrepreneur Library. If you focus on what you want versus what you do not want, your conscious and sub-conscious mind will direct attention to this. The movie, What the Bleep, Down the Rabbit Hole, explains this in detail about quantum physics and what we create in our lives. The Power of Commitment This is not about commitment to others. The first step is the commitment, your word, you make to yourself. Accountability and responsibility are additional success strategies and ingredients to creating the success, defined by you, that you want. The commitment to others reflects your integrity, your word and the team you work with. Co-workers, clients, yoru family, friends and community. My Success Acronyn in Success Breakthroughs(c) is: S pecific & self-directed U nlimited opportunities & possibilities C reate powerful outcomes C onsistent measureable results E xperience pwoerful transformation S olution and action-oriented S uccessful habits and outcomes Break Through to Powerful LIfestyle & Performance Choices Moira
Re: Books for the Entrepreneur - Here's one of my most recent books The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success By Brian Tracy


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