Success Mindset

The Real Secret to Achieving Your Big Dreams and Goals

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This is Part 4 in my Live Your Dreams in 2014 (#liveyourdreams2014) series. Read Part 1 of this series over here (Will You Die For Your Dreams?), Part 2 (Stop Being Scared to Follow Your Dreams) over here and Part 3 (Get Aligned for an Awesome 2014) over here!

I was 17 years old when I first joined the gym.

The truth is I didn’t really join because I wanted to be in better shape or healthier but because my Mum had joined up and I just felt it was a bit of a poor effort from me to not be working out if my Mum was!

Throughout my final year of high school and the year after I made a semi-regular effort, probably attending about 3x a week and dutifully going through the program that had been prescribed for me. If I was busy or really tired with the hours I was working after school I didn’t go, and I didn’t really think twice about that either way. It wasn’t hugely important to me one way or the other even though I did kind of enjoy how I felt after exercise, and I had the underlying belief that it was definitely a good habit to continue with. Just not one to prioritise above long nights hanging out in the bar where I worked, or relying on convenience food like Maccas after a big shift. In fact it wasn’t uncommon for me to go to the gym at 6am straight from the bar, go through the motions (all the while stinking of bar smoke!) and then stop by Maccas on the way home for breakfast!

I’m sure I benefited in some way from my ‘sort of’ gym habit but I didn’t achieve radically change my body or build muscle. Obviously.

I kept gym as a background part of my life until I was 20, when I took off overseas for 3 months of sole travel. I had a BLAST traveling Europe by myself and meeting up with friends a few times for extra adventures along the way. It was an incredible Summer and I have so many memories from that time. One of the most crystal clear of which happened in a dirty bathroom in the toilets at Rome Airport. Hmmm … no, nothing sinister or non-PG! What happened is I realised it would be cold on the plane and decided to change my hot weather wear which I’d basically worn for 3 months straight and put my long pants on for the trip home. The same pants I’d worn flying over earlier that year, and hadn’t looked at since. Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be possible – they barely went halfway up my thighs! I couldn’t believe it – sure I’d been living on gelato and bread for 3 months but I truly hadn’t realised I’d gained so much weight and I immediately made my mind up that it was NOT going to stay!

Within days of being back home in Melbourne I was back at the gym and what had once been a not-so-important background habit become a daily and then twice daily habit, eventually leading me to ditch my plans of being a Lawyer or Journalist (never could make my mind up hence leaving Uni to travel in the first place!) and to study gym instructing and then personal training.

With that sort of commitment it didn’t take me long to lose the weight, and then some more, and then to start building lean muscle. I ended up taking it so far that I competed in bodybuilding and won a Sports Modeling competition as well.

But this story isn’t about my gym achievements, is it?

Think back over the past year of your life. And tell me –

Is there anywhere you are making a ‘semi-regular’ or ‘sort of’ effort? Sure there is, right? We all have those parts of our life that we don’t truly prioritise.

But here’s where it gets uncomfortable –

Are any of those areas which you have not been prioritising areas which you claim are important to you? Are any of them areas that relate to a big goal or dream you’d love to achieve?

If the answer is ‘yes’, you’re not alone. One of my big dreams was to have a book published – I had that dream for as long as I can remember and yet despite having been online since 2007 I didn’t even TRY to have a book published (on Amazon as opposed to an ebook) until 2013! I know – WHAT THE FRICK?!

Surprise surprise, when I actually set out to have one completed, edited and published it bloody well happened! And it didn’t take years either, it took months. Much in the same way that it took me mere months to totally transform my body when I actually consistently applied myself to do so, when I made it a priority.

So be honest now –

What do you SAY is of high priority to you, what do you LONG to achieve or create and yet you continually fail to ACT as if it’s truly important meaning you simply don’t put the work in?

It can be disheartening to realise that with all the things you’ve managed to squish into the past hectic year you haven’t made space for the stuff you say you REALLY want.

If you think this is a push for you to ‘just do it’ when it comes to achieving your big goals and dreams, you’re really only a little bit right. Because here is the thing about success and achieving your dreams –

It is NOT enough to just want it.

Wanting it does not make you take applied and regular action. Wanting it alone does not ensure you pick yourself up when the going gets tough. Wanting it alone does not help you deal with your sh*t and any self-sabotage that might hold you back. Wanting it, in short, ain’t gonna get you it.

But you knew that already, didn’t you? Because if it were that simple, you’d have it. All of it. But here we are, ending another year, and you don’t. And you can tell yourself whatever story you like but what it really comes down to is simply that you failed to invest repeatedly and despite any setbacks in achieving that dream.

So how do you ‘guarantee’ your success?

Did you know there is a process you need to go through with each goal and dream BEFORE you take action?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve shared with you the first 3 steps you need to take to start living your dreams. These are (1) getting clear on what you really want and why it’s important to you, (2) dealing with any fear or sabotage around achieving success on your terms and (3) getting aligned in your daily habits and belief choices so that you are automatically moving toward not away from your dreams.

Only now in Part 4 4 are we talking about taking ACTION. Can you see how futile it would have been to try and begin with that before dealing with the other stuff? If you’re still not sure just look back to your own past attempts at diving headfirst into NY resolutions or even long-held goals without first building a foundation for success.

The truth is that the real secret to success and achieving your big goals and dreams is, without question, persistence. If you don’t take persistent action (come what may) you will never achieve your dreams and if you DO? You will. It really is that simple. When I took ‘semi regular’ action toward getting in shape, not much changed. When I spent the odd spontaneous hour working on book ideas or brainstorming new ones, I ended up with a litany of often non-sensical files on my computer and never finished even a full chapter of a book. When I committed to regular date nights with my husband ‘when we have time’ we had less than 4 in 4 years. When I saved when I had spare money, I found myself going further and further into debt with still no savings!

You get the picture 🙂

So again, I’ll ask you –

Where are you being ‘semi-regular’ with something you claim is important to you?

Don’t feel bad, although I know it’s hard not to. It’s human nature to hide our light and to douse the damn thing with water even when it does finally start shining!

But it’s also with your nature, within your genetic code, to REALISE your brilliance.

Realise it as in ‘be aware of it’ but also realise it as in ‘bring it to creation; to life’

Are you ready to realise YOUR brilliance now?

Are you ready to get clear not only on WHAT you want but WHY you want it?

Are you ready to deal with whatever sh*t you have to deal with that would try and hold you back; stop you from reaching success?

Are you ready to be truly honest with yourself about what you want and what you DON’T want, so that when you do take action it is aligned for true success, for a life on YOUR terms?

If you can answer yes to all of that then I can tell you that you are now ready to take action. And I can also tell you that you now have it within you to take the ONLY sort of action that matters, which is persistent action – come what may.

If the idea of doing so towards one or more of your big dreams excites you – good!

And if it scares you – good! It should. But know this – if you set out to take action and you find that you’re not being persistent, that you’re giving in easily when things don’t first work or that you’re listening to the excuses about why you ‘can’t’ it has NOTHING to do with whether or not that goal is for you. It just means you need to go back to the earlier steps.

Get clear on what.

Get clear on why.

Deal with your sh*t and break through any mental/emotional success blocks.

Get aligned for true success.

And once again, take action.

Sometimes the action to take IS simply going back to those earlier steps.

Anything you can dream of really is possible, for you. But it’s also entirely possible that you won’t achieve it. For many people it’s highly PROBABLY they won’t achieve their goals. This is a sad reality of life but it does NOT have to be your reality.

So get out there and shine that light beautiful. Eliminate semi-regular behaviours from your life unless what you are aiming for is a semi-result, which is to say no result at all. Realise you are BRILLIANT and REALISE that brilliance and do it again and again and again not only because you WANT it but because you want it enough to create it.

I believe you can make it happen.

I believe you can start today. It’s the only way really, isn’t it?

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