🧠 The Big Idea

Estimated Read Time: 4 Minutes

6-Step Foolproof Formula for Success

By Bill Harris, Founder of Centerpointe

I want to share a very simple formula with you for getting whatever you want in life. This is so simple it seems trivial when you first hear it, but few people follow it, and if you do follow it, you can create anything you want in life.

Step 1: Know Where You Are

This means you evaluate your circumstances honestly and become clear about exactly where you are. It also means you don't beat yourself up for where you are or feel victimized if you don't like where you are.

If you want to get to China, you can't start traveling until you know where you are. If you don't know where you are, how will you know what direction to go?

Step 2: Know Where You Want to Be

This is a big one. You have to know where you want to go, or what you want to achieve, before you can set out to go there or get it.

The more specific you are, the more you'll know what to do, how to start, and how to know when you get there.

Step 3: Take Action

This is a huge stumbling block for many people. How do you know what action to take? You see someone who is already successful, and you say to them, "Sure, it's easy for you. You know what to do."

Here's a big secret, and I don't want you ever to forget it:

The successful person doesn't know what to do any more than you do unless he or she is doing something for the second time.

Almost no one knows what to do when they do something for the first time, including those people you think have it all together.

So, in such a case, when you don't know what to do, do something. Anything. Take your best guess, but DO SOMETHING.

If you focus on what you want or where you want to go and take the best action you can think of, even if it's pathetic, what to do next will appear, if you're paying attention.

It might look like successful people know what they're doing because they're so focused and so willing to take action, but I assure you, they don't. They take the first step, and then they look around for more information to tell them what the second step might be.

Step 4: Evaluate the Results of the Action

You could call this The Dr. Phil Step, where you say, "How's that workin' for you?"

You take some action, no matter how pathetic it might be, and then you check and see what happened. If you made some progress, you might want to do some more of the same action.

If not, you ask yourself what other action you might take. Whatever you do, you will learn something. Take enough action, and you’ll become very wise.

Step 5: Refine the Action

Based on the evaluation you just made, refine your action. Your refined action might be just as pathetic as the first action, or it might be better. It doesn't matter. Take action again.

Obviously, the better the action, the faster you'll get the result, but I'll let you in on something that people who wait and wait and wait to act don't realize: 

You learn a thousand times more from a bad action than you do from waiting until you think you have everything figured out.

When you act, you find out what works and what doesn't work. Before you act, you're just guessing.

Step 6: Keep Repeating Steps 3, 4 & 5

Continue acting, evaluating the results, and refining your action until you get to where you want to go. Stay focused on what you want, NOT on the obstacles, and just keep going.

One thing implied in these six steps is that it's okay if your actions aren't exactly right all the time. They might be very wrong, over and over, and for a long time.

When Thomas Edison was inventing the light bulb, he tried thousands of different materials for the filament before he found one that worked. Partway through, someone asked him if he was discouraged.

He said, no, not a bit. He was thrilled to find out all those things that didn't work because he knew he was just that much closer to finding out what would work. And, of course, he did.

Let me wrap this up with another secret: Mistakes are the reason successful people are so successful. Successful people make a lot of mistakes, many more mistakes than unsuccessful people make.

I've made more mistakes than I can count, and that's a good thing. There is information, wisdom, benefit, in every bit of feedback you get.

It's my mistakes that have made me successful.

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🎯 Mini Challenges

The Pathetic First Step Week

Bill gave you six steps. This week, try them on one thing you've been putting off.

Day 1: Pick one goal you've been waiting to start. Write two sentences: where you are right now and where you want to be. Be specific.

Days 2 to 6: Take one small action toward it each day. It can be pathetic. It just has to happen. Then ask Bill's question: "How's that workin' for you?" Write one line about what you noticed and adjust tomorrow's step.

Day 7: Read your notes from the week. You'll know more than you did on Day 1, and not because you planned harder. Because you acted.

✍️ Forwarded by: MaryEllen

Fail Better

When I read the end of Bill's essay, I thought of a line from the playwright Samuel Beckett.

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." -Samuel Beckett, Worstward Ho

Beckett never pretended the failing would stop. He just stopped letting it be the end of the story.

That's what Bill did for his whole life. He tried things before he knew how, and he treated every miss as information.

So if something didn't work this week, you're allowed to try again. You're still on the path.

-ME

🤣Meditation Meme of the Week