Success can sometimes seem like a broad, generic term reserved for the super rich and famous. For some people, names like Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, and Steve Jobs may come to mind. However, not everyone’s definition of success is exactly the same. For some, breaking free from the corporate lifestyle to teach scuba diving off the coast of Australia is the definition of success. For others, success comes in the form of owning their own business or getting the next big promotion.
When it comes to creating a successful event, it’s important to define what success specifically means to you and how you can go about obtaining it. The process of attaining success does not have to be obscure, shady, or out of reach for that matter. It is far less complicated than you might think and can be broken up into five simple steps.
This is the simplest step, but also the one that is most overlooked. Everybody wants a “better event”, but few spend the time defining what exactly that means to them. Define success for yourself. What is your dream? What does your ideal event look like? Don’t filter your thoughts, make them specific, and write them down. Then, formulate a plan that is broken up into simple and action-oriented tasks.
These seemingly simple tasks performed daily will compound over time and produce an effect known by the ultra-successful as The Slight Edge.
The slight edge is working for or against you every day. Example: It may not seem like reading ten pages of a helpful book per day will make a huge difference in your life. However, if you read just ten pages every day, that amounts to 3,650 pages in one year, which translates to twelve books containing approximately 300 pages. Twelve well-written, educational, or motivational books could change your life (or at least your thought process) significantly. That’s the power of the slight edge at it’s finest.
The unsavory news: the slight edge also works in reverse. Let’s say you get a little lazy and stop greeting your event attendees at the door, or miss a few newsletter updates that you meant to send to you’re A-list clients. This happens for a couple of weeks, and then a few months, and then you realize that you’re halfway through the year and haven’t made any connections with your guests. Your attendance drops, your relationships falter, and you’re back to square one. The slight edge can be your best friend or your worst enemy, so find those actions steps (even if they seem small or simple) that will compound overtime to produce a big effect.
To ensure maximum productivity and increased willpower, familiarize yourself with what commitment really means:
Print out a photo that triggers the emotion of achieving your goal and hang it next to your written goal. The photo could be of last year’s marathon winner, a world-renowned chef, or the Lamborghini you’re going to buy when you sell your company.
Write your goal down over and over again, say it out loud, tell it to your friends, and daydream about it daily. This will help you when committing to actions gets tough. Remember, following through with your commitment is not always going to be easy. If it were, everybody would do it.
“ If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” Jim Rohn
After a few weeks, take notice of the actions that are progressing you the most and the ones that aren’t leading you anywhere. Use the 80/20 Principle to determine the 20% of tasks that are producing 80% of your results. Eliminate or automate tasks that are producing little to no results. If you find that you have a higher conversion rate when you call clients in the morning, rather than the evening, reschedule your day around this insight.
As you progress, you’ll begin to notice things that work, don’t work, or need improvement. Don’t ignore these signals. Modify and refine your key daily actions and re-commit.
Success follows commitment. Success is not extravagant; it’s a quiet set of tasks repeated daily for weeks, months, and years. Most people fail not due to lack of desire, but due to lack of commitment. Although it often might seem like it, nobody achieves overnight success. Plan, commit, and succeed.