Self Improvement Success Formula

Step 1 of the Success Formula: Awareness

Have you ever driven down the road, and become aware that you don't remember driving the last five minutes? It can be a frightening experience, to realize that you have been on autopilot and have no conscious recognition of time and events.

Unfortunately, many people live their whole lives like this! Walking through life in an unconscious state, blind to their impact on the world. Tuned out from how much better their life might be.

At some point in your life, you may wake up and think: "This isn't working!" It might be life in general, or only one specific area - e.g. health, relationships, productivity, finances. You'll have a question thrumming around inside you something like: "How on earth did I manage to find myself here?"

This type of question is the awakening moment. It's the pivotal opportunity to stop and change your world, and reach into your potential. Or, you can ignore the impulse and continue to stumble along on auto-pilot feeling unfulfilled.

Awareness is about identifying the traits, characteristics, habits, attitudes that block your success. Do you know anyone floating through life generally unaware that their, for example, arrogance, or timidity, is holding their success at bay? Awareness is the first step in liberating yourself from the unintended and generally negative impact of those traits, habits and attitudes that aren't serving you. 

Step 2 of the Success Formula: Insight

Awareness isn't enough though. You also need self-reflection and insight, so you can make deliberate choices about how you want to direct your life.

At this stage, you are on a quest. You are gathering information about yourself, your life - answering questions like

So begin's the Hero's Journey. It's a quest to be the best version of you

During the awareness and insights stages, you devour books, seminars, self-assessments, courses etc.

You are about to commence a Hero's Journey. A Hero's Journey is a notion popularized by Joseph Campbell (he is a remarkable thought leader from the mid 20th century).

A hero's journey is one of self-discovery.

You see a hero's journey unfold by watching the characters from your favorite myths, fables, movies, books, religious stories and even real life:

Each of these characters real, and fictional began a journey. Sometimes deliberately, sometimes by chance. Eventually, through all they experience, they come to know themselves much more fully.

Their journey becomes a journey of self-discovery, because of the adventures, trials, and tribulations they experience along the way.

As the Hero progresses through his, or her, journey and faces and overcomes challenges, a tremendous sense of who they are arises. Often accompanied by inner peace. As well, they seem to unfailingly inspire many people along the way ... often unwittingly.

Aspiring to be a Remarkable Leader, is a Hero's Journey

Make no mistake being a high-performance leader will take you on a journey ... as much as Frodo and the rest.

Generally, you won't be facing any physical dangers on your high-performance leadership hero's journey. However, you may face some emotional and mental challenges.

You will stretch yourself out of your comfort zone.

But, if you take the time to reflect on how you are showing up, and how you could do things in a better way, you will step into your potential.

Check out this article for tips on why and how you can reflect and gain insight into your performance after every meeting. You have the opportunity to take a far-reaching look at who you are, and the impact you have on your world.

With insight, you now move to self-responsibility ...

Step 3 of the Success Formula: Self-Responsibility

While Awareness + Insight are terrific if you do nothing with them, then nothing changes. So now is the all-important stage of Self-Responsibility ... one of the most empowering gifts you can give yourself.

Your journey, to be of real value, requires your commitment, energy, time and desire to do things differently. To apply your insights and learning. 

Knowledge, Without Application, is Simply Information. 

To deeply integrate the knowledge you are gathering, apply what you learn within 24 hours. Then make a diary note to yourself to look for opportunities to apply again. Applying your new skills, habits, attitudes, mindsets once doesn't make for radical change. 

I have discovered that when I get clients to put notes in their diaries that say, "During this meeting practice the skill of ...." then the chance of this skill, mindset etc becoming just a part of the way the doing things dramatically increases.

As you apply what you learn, people will respond to your changed energy. And, as you bring out the best in yourself, so too you will bring out the best in others.

As you progress, you may come to the same incredible realization that many people on the personal growth journey experience, which is ... as you change the way you behave and feel, so too will the people, and the circumstances, that surround you change.

A client recently commented: "Now that I realize I create all this sh.t in my life, it makes it very hard to hide from myself." With self-responsibility you can no longer hide from yourself, using blame and excuses.