By Book Author Denise Turney

The pull you feel – that inner tug moving you toward success may never fully go away. Why? You were born for success. Depending on your childhood, it might have felt natural to approach new tasks as if you were going to succeed.

 As a kid, you might have believed and felt that you’d never fail at anything. That’s why you explored so much, learned as much as you did and flexed your creative muscles. Within six years, you may have learned to roll over, stand on your own, talk, walk, read, run, climb, ride a bike, do a somersault and more. Learning was fun because you just knew that you were going to succeed.

Make Learning Fun Again

Now learning might not be as fun. You’re older and you’ve experienced setbacks, disappointments and, the sting of – failure. What you might not notice is that you’ve likely had more successes, maybe even a lot more successes, than failures, which leads to the first point.

To see how easily it is to open to success, get a sheet of paper or open up a spreadsheet. List successes that you have been a part of over the last year. Let your mind go. Recall as many successes you were involved with as you can. Take your time.

This exercise can help you prove to yourself that success does come easily for you. Stay free of judging the successes, categorizing them as simple or hard. Simply list the successes. If you find the exercise particularly enjoyable, go back two years – revisiting prior achievements.

Come On, Get Curious

Next, step away from the past and get curious about a major success you’d love to achieve – a goal you’d love to manifest in the approaching days. Consider the purpose that’s linked to this specific success. In other words, get clear about why you want to succeed at the goal.

For instance, will achieving the goal help you fulfill a promise you made to your younger self? Will achieving the goal help you strengthen people who are now experiencing a challenge you’ve overcome?

Finding out the purpose (or the why) that’s associated with your goal can prove to be incredibly empowering and motivating. Additionally, it could remove mental barriers you have about you being successful.

Linking Success to Greater Gains

As a start, if you think you don’t deserve to have the success you want, linking the achievement with how it benefits others could send you above the self-judgement barrier. Depending on what you’re aiming to do, you could help military veterans heal from mental injuries. Or you could stop human trafficking in the town where you live.

Regardless of the goal, people are watching you. In tangible and intangible ways, your success will inspire others. In fact, you may never know everyone who your wins will impact.

See if you can think of 50 ways that others would benefit if you achieved the success you want. This short exercise will help you to see how big the impact of your goal is. As you continue doing this exercise, you might increasingly start to see and feel how much good is linked to your success.

Start Taking Action

To recap, remind yourself of how much success you’ve already been a part of. Then, discover the purpose that’s linked to a current goal you have. And see how many ways fulfilling the goal will benefit others.

After this, it’s time to take action. Research what you want to do, looking for shortcuts, ways to save time, money and energy. Also, identify step-by-step actions that you’re going to take to get from where you are now to where you want to be. Write down necessary resources too. These resources might include grants and other funding tools, administrative staff, marketing tools, etc.

After you list the actions and resources you need, take at least one action that you listed. Don’t wait. Take action. Just thinking about what you need to do does not count. Keep at it, action-by-action, until you complete all steps required to fulfill your goal.

Measure the results of each action, identifying where you need to make changes. Stay focused. Steer clear of magical thinking. To stay empowered and motivated as you do the work that gets you closer to your goal, read books, articles and research material about your goal and how your beliefs about your ability to succeed affect outcomes.