I attended a seminar this past weekend and found myselfdisappointed and accelerated with excitement all at thesame time.

I went to this seminar ready to be blown away by some fairly popular speakers and entrepreneurs. When it cametime to listen to the first keynote (who I was pumped abouthearing) I found myself deflated with disappointment whenit was over. I thought to myself, "I hope the rest of theweekend isn’t like this."

I was disappointed because the main person I wanted tohear and meet was all excitement and no substance. Therewasn’t any meat to what he was saying. He just yelled andscreamed a lot and had the audience yell and scream, butnone of us were any better or knew any more than when wefirst arrived. And I heard others saying the same type of comments.

Then it occurred to me, "This guy who is speaking is me." He’s you. Every day we do the same thing. Most of the time, though, it’s not on such a big platform.

What’s the point?

How many times have we set out to achieve a goal but attacked it with no plan. We made a lot of waves but never made a difference. The problem the speaker had that night was he had no plan of attack.

Neither can we just go through life expecting to succeed in our areas of choice without setting up some kind of plan to achieve our already decided successes.

On the excitement side of the coin, I went to a class the next day at this seminar that floored me. I couldn’t believe the class facilitator’s passion. Like the first speaker, this guy had excitement, passion and a couple of other characteristics that hit home with everyone there.

You see our decision to accomplish a goal is VERY mportant. But the decision alone is not enough. We must have a few other things in place to help accomplish that decision. These things are the same characteristics I saw in our class facilitator on Saturday.

The following are a few things we can do to prepare for the successes we’ve already decided in our lives:

PASSION
We’ve already touched on this but it’s worth repeating. Trying to succeed without passion is like calling a soggy bowl of cereal a hearty breakfast. It just leaves you wanting more and eventually you’ll just pour it down the drain because it just isn’t appealing.

So, to be successful, develop a passion in your area of choice.

INTEGRITY
This is an outstanding asset and seems to be fleeting in today’s society. If you have a true, upstanding character that lands you in the category of integrity, then you are miles ahead of the rest.

Anyone loves to work with people who have integrity. This is a characteristic that isn’t easily attained. You have to work hard to be recognized as one of these people. But once you’ve got the label of a person of integrity, you’re worth more than any product you will produce or endorse.

HARD WORK
Hard work is essential for success. I knew this going in the Saturday class. But to hear it reintroduced was a great refresher. Work doesn’t just "get done". Someone has to do it.

And you know how you want things done. And if you have an unlimited amount of money, chances are things won’t get done the way you want them even if you hire it out. When it comes to hard work, excuses have no place. There’s no short-cutting hard work.

RELATIONSHIPS
This is vital. Without relationships, you will be in the same place you started when you decided to work toward your endeavor.

Your relationships are one of the main avenues to your success. The company you keep, the partnerships you make, the every day interaction that you maintain will be a gauge for your achievements.

You will be able to look back once you have won a victory and see how the relationships played a part. In the midst of working toward your success, you may not see it. But once you’re living your success it’s obvious. Rarely, if ever, can a success be claimed by one.

Take these areas and enhance them. You’ll be glad you did. There’s a great success waiting on you and a victory to claim.

Choose it.

Chase it.

Achieve it.

Until next time keep looking and living forward.

Author's Bio: 

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