Cheryl Wright

To those who are yet to em­bark on their own jour­ney to the suc­cess they want, suc­cess­ful peo­ple may seem like a mys­te­ri­ous bunch. Af­ter all, they have had to face chal­lenges we can­not imag­ine. In fact, they may con­tin­ue to face ob­sta­cles of one sort or an­oth­er, if they are to re­main suc­cess­ful. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, peo­ple en­vy their suc­cess - some silent­ly, while oth­ers do so overt­ly with dis­parag­ing re­marks and un­sub­stan­ti­at­ed as­per­sions. Crit­ics down­play their achieve­ments and the crim­i­nal el­e­ments keep them on their radar. Yet, they con­tin­ue to cel­e­brate their suc­cess and may even go on to achieve greater things. How did they do it? What does it take to be suc­cess­ful? It takes a prac­ti­cal plan, dogged de­ter­mi­na­tion, pierc­ing per­sis­tence, weari­some work and strong sup­port. True but wait, that is not the full sto­ry. There is more. In the pur­suit of suc­cess you al­so need -

1. Vi­sion

Your vi­sion gives you pur­pose. It en­gen­ders the de­ter­mi­na­tion and per­sis­tence re­quired to keep work­ing every day, plod­ding along steadi­ly, some­times slow­ly and of­ten, with fear, doubt, lone­li­ness and un­cer­tain­ty weigh­ing you down. For­mu­late your vi­sion from what tru­ly mat­ters to you. Strength­en it with a foun­da­tion of in­for­ma­tion. Bright­en it with the essence of your per­son­al­i­ty and splash­es of cre­ativ­i­ty. Stretch it to its lim­its - the day you achieve your suc­cess, the peo­ple who will cel­e­brate with you, the changes your suc­cess will bring to your dai­ly life and your re­la­tion­ships. Re­fresh and re­vise your vi­sion as you go along be­cause sit­u­a­tions change, you change and you might dis­cov­er a new an­gle, a new des­ti­na­tion, a dif­fer­ent or ad­di­tion­al lev­el of suc­cess that in­ter­ests you.

2. Voice

Of­ten, scared of what peo­ple may think, say or do, you keep your thoughts, your feel­ings, your goals, your plans and your anx­i­eties bot­tled in­side. If you are hon­est, you will ad­mit that they sti­fle you, frus­trate you and keep you trapped. Your voice is cru­cial to achiev­ing your suc­cess.

•Use your voice. Speak to your­self as you for­mu­late and clar­i­fy your vi­sion and de­cide if and how far you want to pur­sue it, to help beef up your self-con­fi­dence and deal with any chal­lenges that sur­face.

•Use your voice - share your vi­sion and your plans, ask ques­tions, sum­mon sup­port and re­fute the dooms­day the­o­ries of naysay­ers.

•Use your voice - en­cour­age those who are fac­ing their own brand of chal­lenges.

•Use your voice - speak hon­est­ly, con­fi­dent­ly and pas­sion­ate­ly.

3. Verve

Verve (dy­namism, en­er­gy, spir­it, vigour, pas­sion) is the fu­el that hits at the heart of the need and de­sire to act in the name of the suc­cess you en­vi­sion. Even sim­ple short-term goals need the spark of pas­sion to prompt and sus­tain the ac­tions you may dread but need to take. Verve (pas­sion) helps to blast through all man­ner of neg­a­tiv­i­ty. It pre­vents you from falling asleep to the drone of the mun­dane tasks that be­set any pur­suit. It won't let you give up when dis­cour­age­ments, dis­ap­point­ments, mis­un­der­stand­ing and crit­i­cism lit­ter your path.

Do you as­pire to be suc­cess? Do you have a vi­sion? Is your voice clear, con­fi­dent, in­quir­ing, com­fort­ing and in­spir­ing? Are you pas­sion­ate? A vi­sion of the suc­cess you de­sire gives it life and fills your day with joy and pur­pose. Your voice helps to clar­i­fy the na­ture and scope of your vi­sion, dis­pel fears and doubt, build self-con­fi­dence and re­silience, si­lence the neg­a­tiv­i­ty from crit­ics, il­lic­it help and in­spire sup­port. The verve you bring to your vi­sion and your plans deep­ens your de­ter­mi­na­tion, height­ens your per­sis­tence and in­stils de­light even in the most gru­elling tasks.

Here's to your suc­cess!