How to REALLY get success?

Success is a slippery thing, but it is attainable and there are plenty of people out there to help you getting it.

Here are four things that will definitely make you reach a high point in your life, a definition of success:

• Preparation. Many years ago, I listened to this question, which has helped me for many years: if everything you have gone through has been a training, what have you trained for? Success is the fruit, it is the result of all we have done and by recognizing what we really have done, we would understand the depth of our own success. Yes, right now, you and I are preparing ourselves for a big event in our lives, the moment in which success turns into reality.
• Perseverance. Many things I am doing right now are not successful, but I don’t consider them as failure; for me, they are part of a process and there is always some benefit for me and others. Success is like a fruit, but it has to be taken care until it is ready for ripening; most of the things a normal person does are normal and success is the final result, the extraordinary fruit that comes from a very regular ordinary seed. Instead of giving up after failing, to get success try take one more step or change the way you do things.
• Strategy and tactics. We often realize the need to change something when there is no force and no energy to do it. Then they come; by thinking in a strategic way, like a chess player, an individual can foresee future threats and empower themselves to face them, or future opportunities for which they need training. A good strategist will be humble enough to accept their mistakes and weaknesses, while keeping a good self-esteem, by acknowledging their strengthens and powers. But, be careful, because too much strategy can take you into a state of paralysis. Implement the decisions, by design tactics and methods. The victory is just ahead!
• Keep swimming. A very wise yogi told a group of us that to get success, just keep moving ahead. Don’t stop, just walk forward… It seems a little simplistic, but many times, that is the best tactic. Success will come to those who never stop trying. Try, do it, don’t stop, just keep swimming in the ocean of possibilities the world is.

Learning the math of life

Math is a bit intimidating for many, since it works on logic and we humans are more than logical.

However, there is a logical process in terms of life in general as we make effort and we get results out from it, it sounds simple… and yet…

The math of life is much more complex, as it works in a different way:

• It is not only the effort we do. Intensity, intention, awareness, attitude, strength, others’ cooperation and so much more impact on the effort itself. To get the best results, we must invest time and energy enhancing all of this.
• There is a method, tactic or strategy that shapes the effort and makes us to experience the best result possible. Although trial and error is still the general rule here… which is not so effective.
• But most of the time, the result is beyond our reach. In fact, in Hinduism, it states we should act without expectation in relation to the results; selfless act is the right path.

To be a good mathematician of life, check the level of effort, choose the best tactic and be happy whatever the results are.

Methods to face change

Any situation you want to change, you have created it somehow, maybe by literally generating it or just by applying it to your life. For that, you needed a certain type of attitude or mentality, and the ironic thing is that with the same mindset you want to “uncreate” it.

That is what makes changes difficult, because it is more a question of changing the self than changing something outside, which takes time and lots of energy.

But there are changes and changes. Let’s do it simple and categorize them:

• Small. It implicates you have to change something that is easy, it is not complex and it does not require much of energy or any type of investment.
• Simple. A bit more than small, it is still easy and not complex, but you have to invest something like learning skills or a trip somewhere.
• Big. It is difficult and complex, you will have to invest something to work on it.
• Huge. It is very difficult, very complex and a lot has to be invested so that it happens.

A small change seems, well, small. So it should be easy, right? Not necessarily; the problem of small changes is that you don’t give them much importance, as it is often hidden in the theater of your life. For you to be able to solve them, you need the trick of giving them importance, because when you highlight them, you start to face them and find a solution.

Simple changes are probably the easiest ones, as they are bigger than the small changes so they are easier to be noticed, but not too big to be difficult. A good example is to adapt to a new boss; you may either adapt to his or her style or, if you don’t agree, you always have opportunities at other companies. Plan it and implement what is planned.

Big and huge changes are the fight, flight or freeze type. For instance, when economy dynamic changes and your golden job becomes a tinned job, what to do? First of all, reflect on the change and avoid the 3F’s impulse or instinct. If that change is for a short time – and please, consult experts to reach that conclusion and don’t get biased by an ideology – the fight option will be good as far as you have the energy to change the situation by doing it. Otherwise, no energy means patience can be a good teacher and the freeze choice, of just waiting and see will be the best. However, if the change will stay for long time, the flight option is probably the best; look for a new job, RIGHT NOW!

In other words:

• Check the category of the change.
• Apply the best tactic for it, which is...
• To give importance, highlighting it, facing it and finding a solution, in the case of small changes.
• If the change is simple, it is planning and implementation.
• For big and huge changes, it is better to reflect and then decide upon what you have decided.

Are you able to see the invisible?

In a leadership parable on leadership, a prince goes to the forest to live for one year. His task: to observe all sounds he could and relate them to his master later. After relating his experience, his master sent him back as he was not content with his disciple’s achievements. After a while hearing the same sounds, the prince started to hear the unheard: a star rising in the sky, a rock moving in the sand…

That tale touched me very deeply, because the key for a good exercise of a leadership is in the unheard, invisible and intangible, those things we just perceive, but there is no measurement to it.

Big data is a big thing nowadays, it is what is making noise, but there is no comparison with the practical effect of small data, those details most programs, institutions and people ignore. Small data is invisible, unheard and intangible, but it is also very powerful: it is the small data that gave many surprises last year with Brexit, Donald Trump’s election and the victory of NO in the Colombia peace process referendum.

Leadership does not mean to leave all of the analysis, strategies and hard decisions aside, but it is time for leaders to focus differently: leaders need to change their focus from analysis to understanding, from strategies to intuition and from unilateral decisions to decisions that are accepted by others.

Otherwise, they too will become invisible.