What are some of the things that you need to do to have long-term success? Whether that is having better business, improving your relationships, managing change more effectively, improving your health or getting in better shape? What are some of the things you need to do to have any of those things happen?

No matter what the goal is, it takes what I call The Formula for Success. The Formula for Success has four primary components.

The first component is to have a vision. You need to know where you want to go and what you're trying to achieve if you want to have long-term success. You need to have a goal you're heading for and a picture in your mind of what it is you want. You have to have something out there that you can see that would be better for you.

To do this, to have this vision, you need to manage your self talk. You need to manage that negative thinking that can get in your way and block your vision, because it can inhibit change and movement. So, you've got to watch what's going on inside of your head and you have to have a vision.

Second, you need to make a plan. You need to think about where you ultimately need to get to, and how can you accomplish it? You need to break it down into step by step action, whatever the plan is. You have to break it down into chunks so you can do step one, then step two, then step three and so on. That way you can move into it piece by piece.

The third part of The Formula for Success is to take action on the first step in your plan. Maybe the action would be as simple as making a phone call to somebody you need to talk to. Maybe it is to send an email. Maybe it's to begin to write a letter to send out to someone. Whatever it is, you figure out what the steps are and then you take action on step one of that plan. Then you go on to take action on step two, step three, and so on.

Part Four of The Formula for Success is that once you take action, you stop. You take time to look back at what you did and how well it worked. Did it work really well? If so you keep going in the same direction, doing what you're doing. If not, you revise your plan, make some changes to it. After you revise it you take action again.

So, the four part Formula for Success is this. One, you have a vision or a goal. Two, you make a plan. A step by step plan as to what you need to do to get to your desired outcome. The third part is that you take action. You do something. Fourthly, you revise the plan as you see that it could be done better and take action again.

The key point here is that you have to take action. Most people don't act when they need to because they have negative self talk going on inside their head that blocks them.

For instance, a number of years ago there was a woman who came to me because she was very successful at her job but she always felt lousy at work. Why? Because she was always picking on herself.

The change she wanted to make to implement the Formula for Success was to quit being such a negative critic about herself. Even when she did something really well, her mind was telling her, "Oh, that wasn't good enough. It could have been better. They think it was good but it really wasn't." When someone would compliment her she would disparage it. She'd say, "It really wasn't that great. Thanks, but…"

So, to use the Formula for Success she first needed to set a goal. What did she want to do? She needed to change that negative self talk. She needed to change that nasty habit pattern because nobody's perfect. We all make mistakes.. She had to catch what was going on inside her head. She had to make that step by step plan along the way to decide where she was going to go and what she could do differently.

Her plan was that when that negative self talk would come up, she would step back and say, "OK, have I really been that bad? Was it really that lousy or were there some parts of it that were good?" She'd begin to change that negative self talk and then she'd take action again. So, she knew what she wanted to have, she had the goals, she had the vision, she wanted to change the critical self talk. She then made a plan for how she was going to do that. After that she began to implement the plan and change that dialogue when it came up. She could then keep moving and keep revising over and over.

Through using this formula she found herself more successful than she had already been because she became a more positive person. People liked being around her more and she enjoyed her work significantly more.

Do you have things you want to change in your life? Would you like to improve your golf game, your tennis game or be more effective at some other hobby? Would you like to be a better communicator? How about make more money or have your job take a big leap?

Well, you can do that by implementing the Formula for Success. To have long-term change you need to get rid of the negative self talk and the negative thinking, promote a positive attitude and positive thinking so that your brain is aligned with where you want to go. You can do this. You can make it happen now. All you have to do is take these simple actions, implement the Formula for Success and you can have whatever you desire.

The Best of Success to You