7 Principles of Personal Success

By Lorna Barrow

Ever so often, when I discuss the rules for success in business, someone in the audience will ask me "How can I be successful not only in business but also as a person?

This question always surprises me because to me, if you're in the business of delivering a service especially if it's in the information sector, then you and your business are one and the same. But not being one to miss an opportunity to add insight, I decided that if you and your business are so connected, personal success must equal business success.

So I asked myself what makes me successful as a person? How can I truly answer your question? Well, assuming that you're just like me, I am sharing with you my top 7 principles of success that I rely on to help me to be the person and then the business person that I am, hoping that they will help you too. Are you ready? Here goes:

1. Resolve to succeed. Yes! Simply decide to be successful. If you don't make this decision then you will find that you give up and give in before you even begin. This helps me to ignore the naysayers and opens my eyes to many, many ways to achieve my goals.

2. Set goals. This is really your gateway to success. There is something about writing down your goals, I mean real pen and paper writing down that seems to imprint them so completely on your psyche. And when you determine the steps that must be taken to achieve them and be willing to take those steps, as we say in the Caribbean "yuh gone clear!" or more sedately, success is assured.

3. Do what must be done when it must be done. In a word - focus! Focus and self-discipline go hand in hand and when I apply them both, I can resist the temptation to have a good time and miss the "lifeline" by which I told the client that I would submit the proposal. For me, doing what must be done when it must be done is seldom negotiable.

4. Take action - especially in the face of uncertainty. To me the fastest way to acquire a large piece of real estate on Failure Street is to know what must be done and being paralysed by fear into inaction. I know you need to be certain about the outcome; your perfectionist attitude steps in. But in the words of Michael Port, Author of Book Yourself Solid: Often the very people who are perfectionists, control freaks we might also call them, and who therefore think that the projects they complete will be perfect can't actually complete projects, much less get started, in many cases. I learn to take action even as I am scared of the challenge, and learn as I go forward.

5. Know the rules. I never cease to be annoyed, amazed and amused by the rate at which people enter a particular arena and try to survive without so much as glancing at the rules. There are rules for living, for parenting for using the bathroom, for relationship and there are rules for doing business. At some point, mostly near the beginning, I learn the rules inside out and because of this, I learnt that knowing the rules and applying them is more likely to get you what you want than breaking rules you don't even know.

6. Get in touch with your spirit. Notice I did not say join a religion or go to a church - although this could be a part of the process of finding your spirit. When you're in touch with your spirit the entire world looks so completely different. The drama falls away, there is no problem that does not have a solution and hope truly, truly springs eternal in your breast. Yeah, getting in touch with your spirit guarantees success.

7. Laugh. You heard me correctly, LAUGH. I laugh at life. I laugh when the document that I worked on for two days disappear down a computer dark hole and I laugh when people recite to me all the things I must change about me. I laugh at the antics of my grandchildren and I laugh when my darling dog Peaches takes 5 seconds to disdainfully reject the dinner I specially prepared with love for her. And above all, I laugh at me and remind myself that no one died and made me God.

So there you have them, the top seven principles I live by that make me successful and I believe that if you use them as well you can be successful.

Please understand that success is not a destination because I'm still growing and learning and unavoidably, I keep moving the goal posts and constantly redefining success. I also want to remind you that the measurement of success is individual to the individual but the world seems to agree that the most objective yardstick is money.

Now all I ask of you is to take my 7 principles and make them your foundation. Add to them, subtract from them but take some action NOW!