Formula for Success in Life, Career and Business

Peter Steele

• Publisher: College for Success Pty Ltd
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780645024425
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Personal Success

Being successful in life, career, business or whatever else you set yourself to achieve is highly important because it significantly and positively impacts your quality of life.

Regardless of its importance, the attainment of success is not a subject that is taught in the ordinary course of your secondary or tertiary education.

This book, Formula for Success in Life, Career and Business, fills that gap and provides you with a formula that, if properly applied, should be a substantial help in attaining success in whatever you set out to achieve.

Whether you consistently achieve success in life, career, business or whatever else you wish to accomplish depends on whether you have the necessary winner's mindset to pursue your goals, never quitting, until you succeed.

You may use the information contained in this book to ensure that you achieve that winner's mindset.

Think! Plan! Take Action! Never Quit! Succeed!

DIVISION 1

THE
FORMULA

1

YOUR PRIMARY GOAL

Fundamental Principle One

Identify and precisely define your primary goal in writing.

You need to know precisely what you want to achieve as your primary goal because it’s only when you know precisely what you want that you will be in a position to plan precisely what you must do to achieve it.

What is your primary goal?

It is your most important goal. It is the one goal that, at this particular time in your life, you most want to achieve; more than any other goal.

It must be a material goal that is measurable. It must be a goal that is entirely under your control to achieve. It cannot be a goal that involves, for example, love, emotional attachment or some similar desire that requires another person to reciprocate your feelings. Whether, or not, the other person is of the same mind as you, is a matter that is under the control of that person. You cannot force another to feel the same way as you do. You may certainly try and you may certainly set yourself those types of goals, however, they are not goals that will necessarily be achieved using Formula for Success in Life, Career and Business. The formula provided in this book is only concerned with the achievement of material goals that are under your control to achieve. Of course, you may obtain the assistance of others to help you attain your goal providing you retain control and guide the outcome.

Your task is to select the one goal that is your most important goal at this particular time in your life and pursue it to the exclusion of all other goals. This does not mean that you may only have one primary goal during your lifetime. You may have several. Most people do. However, it means that you must pursue only one primary goal at any one time. Every other goal becomes a secondary goal. After you have achieved your primary goal, you may then precisely define your next primary goal and pursue it to a successful conclusion in the manner shown in this book.

By pursuing more than one goal at a time, you distract yourself. In so doing, you destroy your singularity of purpose and, as a result, you substantially diminish your chances of success.

Identify and define your primary goal

The process for identifying and selecting your primary goal is to take the time to think carefully about every goal in your bucket list that you would like to achieve and make a written list of every one of them as they come to mind. From that list, select three goals that you consider are your three most important. Delete all the other goals you have written down. From your list of three, you must then select the one goal that you absolutely know is your most important.

The one goal that you finally select as your most important at that particular time in your life, is your primary goal.

Write down your primary goal, using as many words as you wish to generally describe it. Every goal starts as an idea or thought in your mind. By writing it down, you have taken what’s in your mind and committed it to paper. In doing so, you have taken the first step in turning your thoughts into reality. You have taken the first step towards achieving your primary goal.

Your next step is to take what you have written as a general description of your primary goal and rewrite it with such accuracy that you know precisely what it is, leaving no doubt, setting out exactly what it is and, where possible, the date by which or the time period within which you want to achieve it.

For example, suppose that you wish to travel to a city in order to visit a friend at his or her home and you write a travel plan for your journey. Obviously if you wish to visit your friend at home, you must know the address. It is an essential part of your travel plan. If it only states that your destination is Sydney, London, New York or whichever other city you are visiting, it is not sufficiently precise. If you simply commit the address to memory, but forget it, you’ll have a problem when you arrive in the city, especially if for some reason, you are unable to contact your friend. If your written travel plan had been sufficiently detailed and you had included all necessary information such as your friend’s address, you will have had no problem. You cannot readily achieve a specific goal unless it is precisely defined in writing. Having it in writing provides you with a permanent record that you may refer to at any time.

At this stage, also give some thought to the time period you will reasonably require in which to achieve your primary goal. Understand that if your primary goal is one that will take some time to achieve, it may not be possible, at this early stage, to state with accuracy the date by which or the time within which you will achieve it. The reason is that there may be various factors, not properly known to you at the time of making your estimate, which may affect the time period needed to achieve your goal. Unforeseen circumstances may arise that cause delay. Certainly, put pressure on yourself to achieve it within your specified time, but always consider whether the time period you have allowed yourself is reasonable, given all your circumstances. Those circumstances (if any) that are likely to affect your time period will become clearer while you are working through your plan to achieve your goal.

Using another example, suppose you have a plan to take a holiday with your family. You estimate the cost of the holiday at $5,000 and your plan includes saving $500 per month until you have the required amount. All is going well, until unforeseen circumstances arise which result in you losing your job. You have no alternative other than to put your holiday plan on hold until you find employment and are able to reassess and resume your savings plan at a level that will depend on your future earnings. In those circumstances you will need to reassess the time period in which you will be able to save the money needed for your holiday. Your circumstances may, and often will, change as a result of factors beyond your control, so it’s difficult to accurately assess the time period that you will need in order to achieve your goal. Changing circumstances may leave you with no alternative, other than to adjust your time period.

Whatever is necessary in order to achieve your primary goal and the time period within which to achieve it will depend, to a large extent, upon your personal circumstances at the time that you set your primary goal and the circumstances beyond your control, if any, that arise during the period you attempt to achieve it.

In all cases, where time is not of the essence, always remember it’s more important to achieve your goal than to achieve it within a particular time.

As part of this chapter and each of the next four chapters you will be asked to complete an exercise. Apart from their instructional value, the five exercises have a practical purpose because when you have completed them, your answers will have completed each step necessary to achieve your primary goal including details of how you will achieve it.

Exercise 1 is set out at the end of this chapter. In it, you are asked to identify and clearly and concisely define your primary goal in writing.

Five examples to assist you to complete Exercise 1

In order to assist you to properly complete Exercise 1, please consider the five different examples set out in this chapter. The examples show how those persons cited in the examples have completed their answers to Exercise 1 and, in so doing, have identified and defined their respective primary goals.

Example 1

A young man has a dream to buy a home within the next five years.

The facts relating to him are:

1.He is employed as a real estate salesperson earning a retainer of $500 per week and a sales commission of $1,000 per sale.

2.Over the last three years, he has achieved an average gross income (based on his retainer and his sales commission) of $50,000 per annum.

3.He has no savings.

He takes into consideration what he wants to achieve and completes his Exercise 1 by identifying and defining his primary goal as follows:

Within the next five years, I will purchase a three bedroom property on the Gold Coast in Queensland as my home for a purchase price of $400,000.

Example 2

An overweight middle-aged lady has been talking about losing weight for years and has finally decided to do something about it.

The facts relating to her are:

1.She is married with three children. She is a full time housewife who is supported by her husband.

2.Her husband earns a slightly below average weekly wage, the majority of which is spent on paying the rent and supporting his wife and family. There is very little, if any, surplus cash left at the end of each week.

3.She is forty-eight kilograms heavier than the weight that is considered a healthy weight for a person of her age and height.

4.She is concerned about the adverse affect that her obesity is having on her mobility and health.

She takes into consideration what she wants to achieve and completes her Exercise 1 by identifying and defining her primary goal as follows:

Within one year, I will lose forty-eight kilograms in weight and thereafter continue to maintain a healthy weight for my age and height.

Example 3

A young girl, who has recently completed her secondary education, wishes to obtain a degree in veterinary science in order to follow her dream career as a veterinary surgeon.

The facts relating to her are:

1.She is in her late teens and lives at home with her parents who support her.

2.She lives in Sydney, Australia and has recently completed her secondary education. Her dream is to...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• About the Author
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Division 1: The Formula
• Division 2: The Winner’s Mindset
• Division 3: Self Analyses and Reality Checks
• In Final Conclusion
• College for Success