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Time to Gear Up: Make 2011 Your Year

Guest post by: Elizabeth Freedman

Article Overview: How to become successful by creating the right mindset

Time to Gear Up: Make 2011 Your Year

Hard to believe we're almost at year's end, because it may only just feel like yesterday when you sat down and pledged to land a new job, launch a new business, or achieve some other goal you set for yourself. The question is, how did you do? As we review the year we've had, let's resolve to give even more to getting what we want. Whether it's really getting serious about your career or devoting more time to building your business, promise yourself now to make 2011 your year. Here's how:

Get the millionaire mindset.

If you've been hanging your head in shame over low test scores or a less-than-stellar GPA, I'm here to tell you those days are over. As it turns out, low test scores and bad grades are great to have if you want to be a success in the United States today.

Sound crazy? According to Thomas J. Stanley, author of the bestselling, "The Millionaire Mind," a "big brain" equals "no bucks." It's true: Stanley surveyed over 1,300 American millionaires to discover that success doesn't require high SAT scores. In fact, the typical American millionaire managed to squeak out a respectable 2.92 GPA with average SAT scores between 1100 and 1190 during school.

What does this mean for you as you gear up for the New Year? If you've still got an inferiority complex because of your low test scores, your lack of experience, your background, your so-so English skills, your age, your resume (or lack thereof) or the fact that you flunked accounting, resolve to let it go. Adopt the mindset of the millionaires in Stanley's study, who quit chasing the prestigious jobs or schools that everyone else was running after. Instead, they credit their success to "Discipline 101 and Tenacity 102" and say that what really worked for them in the long run was a strong optimism and an ability to deflect criticism.

Put more irons in the fire.

If you're like me, then you've been guilty of putting all your eggs in one basket on more than one occasion. For instance, I remember interviewing for a job that I was convinced I was going to get. So convinced, in fact, that I distinctly recall planning my outfit for my first day of work and figuring out what train I was going to take to my future job while I waited for the phone to ring with my offer - rather than continue to seek out other job opportunities in case the "sure thing" didn't work out. P.S. It didn't.

In 2011, do yourself a favor and keep your pipeline full. Continue to generate leads, apply for jobs, network for new contacts, and stay on top of the relationships you have so that you'll have lots of things to choose from if all goes well or something to fall back on if it doesn't.

Find the discipline to work on some aspect of your goal every day, whether it's making five phone calls to new contacts or attending a networking event on a regular basis, so that when graduation rolls around or your deadline is up, you'll have options.

Try again.

For every story of an "overnight success," there are hundreds more of people who had set a goal for themselves and eventually achieved it with months or years of work. For those of us who beat our heads against the wall when we don't get an immediate response to our resume or don't get the offer, take heart. After all, Abraham Lincoln lost seven elections (plus failed at running his own business and suffered a nervous breakdown!) before he won the Presidency. Most of us don't get what we want on the first try - but many of us don't stick around to try again. As 2011 rolls around, resolve to try and try again until you get it right.

As the year ends and things wind down, give yourself the best holiday gift of all - the opportunity to make 2011 your year. Spend some time over the next few weeks to develop three exciting goals, three motivating resolutions, or anything else that you'd love to accomplish next year. Then, sit back, have a glass of egg nog, and gear up for the year ahead. Cheers!

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Article Tags: discipline, Goals, millionaire mindset, opportunity, tenacity



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