The Keys to Success: 4 'A's
Did you ever want to get inside a successful person's brain and see what makes them tick? By reading Ordinary Women . Extraordinary Success (Career Press, 2004), you can do just that. This book is jam-packed with information, with an overwhelming array of essays by top female motivational speakers on topics ranging from career success, to financial management, to staying out of abusive relationships. Despite the great variety of the essays, certain messages repeat themselves, messages that are strikingly consistent with what we teach in career planning. I call these the 4 "A"s of success:
- Assessment: Many of the essays emphasize how crucial self-knowledge is to success. In her essay "Let your light shine", Claudia A. James notes that without self-knowledge as a guiding light in your life, it is only possible to live life reacting to external events, rather than taking positive action. James specifically recommends two assessments used in our program, the Strong Interest Inventory and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a personality assessment. She also mentions the importance of assessing your values, a theme that is repeated in other essays, including Jennifer Buck Curtet's "If you dream it, you can be it," in which the author supplies a values assessment exercise. Curtet notes, "Many of us have never allowed ourselves to determine what we truly value in life because we have been so busy nurturing everyone else's values." James sees this pattern as a key source of stress. Other authors suggest gaining self-knowledge by making a list of your strengths or your accomplishments, or by building a personal portfolio.
- Acceptance: Self-acceptance can only come from self-knowledge. Pam Royle in "It's never too late to let go" emphasizes the importance of letting go of negative messages you may have been raised with such as, "You're not good enough." Value and use your strengths. A powerful story, presented by Jan Fraser in "How do you define success?" is that of the cosmetics tycoon who only experienced success when she decided to put herself in her sales presentations and stop parroting other peoples' techniques.
- Attitude: More than one author quotes therapist and concentration camp survivor Viktor Frankl: "Everything can be taken from a person except the ability to choose one's attitude." Fiona Carmichael in "Building a Better Tomorrow" notes that many people use obstacles that come their way as an excuse for their lack of success, whereas the key to success is to focus on a solution to any obstacle. Tara Bazar in "Climb Every Mountain" cites research indicating that success is 80% attitude and only 20% aptitude. Bazar and several other essayists present concrete techniques you can use to change your attitude.
- Action: Fiona Carmichael notes that many people become immobilized by fear that taking action will take them outside their comfort zone. Fear of failure is also a big one. In career planning, we emphasize breaking down large goals into small, achievable steps. Jana Stanfield in "Three Steps to More Courage" takes this concept further with her "Three steps, no failure" technique. This involves "building a bridge" between where you are now and your goal by listing three steps that you couldn't possibly fail at in the next week. Although the connection between the initial three steps and your goal may not be immediately apparent, once you have completed the first three steps, they will logically lead to three steps for the following week and so on. Just keep going and if the going gets tough, remember,Tara Bazar's words, "You can cry and climb at the same time."
Ruth Silverman, MEd, CCC is a Counsellor/ Facilitator with SCCI Project Restart Ltd. Published in The Recruit October 13-26, 2006.