Ten practical ways to find your own  success.

1. Be of Service
This is less about what you provide but how you go about providing it.  We need to find ways that we can make our clients’ experience as easy as possible.  The motivation for this is simply the satisfaction of doing a good job better.  Good service is something that people might not even notice, but acts as an addition to what we already offer.  Being of service means that your primary purpose is to serve your clients before anything else. Even MONEY!!

2. Patience
We need endless reserves of patience if we are to be a success.  Patience with those around us who are trying to distract us from what we’re doing, patience with clients and people who place demands on us.  We need to be patient with the process of becoming successful or as busy as we would like.  Sometimes our therapy takes longer than we would like or our learning curve doesn’t seem sharp enough. Sometimes we’re not as good as we think we are!

3. Discipline
Just because the book is filling up, doesn’t mean we can book the holiday.  Keep doing it for longer and get a pattern.  Be disciplined with your study and the way you work, consistency being another branch of discipline.  Be clear about your boundaries with clients, when you will and won’t work and what you will and won’t do.  Discipline yourself to take time off and stop working, being tired stops you from being efficient.  Being burnt out stops you from being of service to others.

4. Joy and Love
WOW what an opportunity you have!  You have a skill, that every day, can help people and make a difference to their lives.  You don’t have to serve fries or work with people who don’t understand you.  You can work the hours you want and enjoy a meaningful life to the full.  Learn to love what you do, find the joy and you stop ‘working’.  Life is an opportunity, not an obligation.  How amazing is your life?

5. Knowledge and Study
Keep studying, keep learning and have the discipline and patience to apply this.  Find ways you can understand your job better.  People who stop stretching, stop growing.  Challenge your own knowledge and expand it.  Invest in training and materials and make that investment give you a return.  Find out where you’re weak and build on it.  Learn about your business; don’t be at the mercy of others.

6. Growth (Personal)

What would it be like

If you lived each day, each breath,

As a work of art in progress?

Imagine that you are a
masterpiece unfolding.
Every second of every day a work of art

taking form with every breath. -  Thomas Crum

When we grow we learn to let go of being right, of being wrong, of having the answers.  We learn to solve conflicts by seeing that other people have a point of view. We learn to listen to others and value them.  We have more meaningful encounters because we give them value.  We step outside of our own flowerpot.  Business growth comes with all this and gives us more opportunity and money.  Money is only as good as the use we put it to.

7. Desire
Passion, excitement, ambition, energy.  Why are you doing what you do?  Do you want to do more of it, where do you want to go with it?  Is it a means to an end or a journey of discovery?  Find something about what you do that makes you excited and explore it more.  Travel to learn.  Light a fire in your belly and stoke it!  Find people who inspire you.

The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your whole life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for the rest of your life.  And the most important thing is, it must be something you cannot possibly do!

8. Common Sense
Two thirds of small businesses in the UK do not have a database.  Most people have never been on a business based course.  Most people do not have a business plan.  Most people have no idea how much they need to earn to live.  Most people do not live on a budget.  Most people believe that ‘Things will get better’ without having a vehicle.

Keep doing what you always did, keep getting what you always got.  Apply basic common sense to your life and your decisions.  It’s not rocket science.

9. Take (sensible) Risks
Don’t leave it to luck.  Dare to follow your heart, prepare to work at it and it will come true.  There is no such thing as a free ride and if you think success will come when it’s your turn, you’ve got a long wait.  Borrow sensibly, find your market and plan as much as you can.  What’s the worse that can happen?  If it’s going to happen it’s down to you and no one else.  Standing still is only an option for trees.  Risks are not just financial. Reputation, failure, way of life, etc.

10. Laughter
People who never laugh are not serious people. The ability to see the funny side of life, yourself and what you do.  Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you end up with puffy eyes.  Laughter really is the best medicine, be serious about what you do but not who you are.  You are going to die, die laughing.  Learn to play, explore the ridiculous, ask yourself what offends you and why.  Repressing laughter is fattening and spreads to the hips. FACT!  “If I can’t dance I don’t want to be part of your revolution.”

…….. and finally

BE HAPPY, IT’S A CHOICE!