Original publication Forbes https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbescoachescouncil/2024/12/27/your-4-part-personal-success-formula/
As a coach, I strongly believe that everything you’ve successfully achieved has been an example of your inherent power, a power we all have. Further, everyone can successfully achieve their goals, provided they operate their power effectively.
Specifically, your capacity to achieve your goals is due to four factors over which you have full control. In fact, regardless of who you are and your role, I believe these are the only factors over which you have full power and control. They are your thoughts, feelings, actions and words.
Every time you’ve achieved a goal, it means you have effectively deployed these four factors.
I’ll now describe how you might have used these factors to achieve past goals; does your lived experience resonate?
1. Thoughtfully Designed, Detailed Clarity Of A Chosen Goal
You had absolute clarity and certainty about your choice. You desired it because you thought about all the details of the goal and your reasons for the choice, and you knew the benefits that would flow from achieving it. “Fuzzy” or unclear goals, on the other hand, meant that your thinking about it wasn’t deep enough and the “why” wasn’t fully clear, and therefore the commitment wasn’t enough either.
For instance, a few years back I decided I wanted to regain my former operational fitness. I had two opposing thoughts: One was “I want to get very fit again”; the other was “It’s going to be harder, now that I’m older and unfit.” I lacked a singular clarity of thought. Result: I didn’t do enough and remained unfit.
Then, just over a year ago, when I realized how much fitness I’d lost, I set an extremely specific goal that I’d thought through and had absolute clarity over. I expressed this goal in terms of my body mass index target, nutrition and exercise regime and progression. Result: I’m very fit and enjoying regular exercise—I feel great!
Recall a goal you’ve achieved and another goal you didn’t achieve. Think about how clear each goal was in the beginning and compare the differences.
2. A Consistent Feeling That The Goal Was Being Achieved
Throughout your pursuit of the goal, you believed it was coming about and always felt the joy of progression. Any time you had lapses of belief or felt it wasn’t going to happen, you delayed the achievement.
A great example is my first failed fitness attempt, compared to my second, successful achievement. In the first attempt, I had inconsistent feelings about it, partly because I hadn’t chosen specific goals and worried about getting back to operational fitness at a much older age. In my second attempt, I felt confident and committed throughout—and continue to feel that to this day.
Compare the two goals you recalled earlier, and notice the differences in the consistency of belief and the feelings you had about them.
3. Actions That Were Consistently Aligned To The Goal’s Requirements And Feelings Of Achievement
You took action that both aligned to the requirements of your goal and provided feelings of achievement. Every time you took the aligned action, you were given evidence of progress. Every time you took no action or unaligned action, you had evidence of no progress.
Using my fitness examples again, in the first instance, my actions were irregular, insufficient and not aligned. In the second instance, they have remained consistent and measured, partially because I sought advice and help from an expert until I could proceed on my own. The positive evidence I see continually motivates me.
Again, compare your two chosen goals, and notice the differences in the aligned action you took.
4. Consistent Internal Conversation In Alignment With The Goal, Feelings And Action
All the way through the goal achievement journey, the words you chose for your internal conversation with yourself kept you in alignment with your goal, feelings and actions. This internal dialogue gave you the power to stay on course and even course correct.
Using my two fitness goals again, I know that the conversations I had with myself, my self-talk, were quite different each time, and each had a major impact on my outcomes. I feel very clearly that self-talk is the most powerful of the four factors since it influences feelings and thus actions.
Compare your same two chosen goals, and notice the extent to which your internal conversation differed between the two.
Conclusion
After performing the above exercise, I hope you’ll agree with me that your success in any endeavor, regardless of your role or occupation, is because you effectively deployed the four factors above.
The formula for success is therefore: Clarity of goal + Feeling of its success + Aligned action + Aligned internal conversation = Goal achievement.
Whenever one or more of those factors is lacking, your goal achievement will be delayed.
Your thoughts (desires) are the easiest and most human factor here—so just make sure you think them through and choose these desires carefully. Get clear on the feelings needed by imagining how you’ll feel when the goal has been achieved. You keep those feelings alive by being grateful in advance for what you are about to achieve.
Then make sure you carry out whatever actions the goal needs from you to achieve it. No action means no progress. Unaligned action means no progress. You can always correct your actions.
Finally, make sure your self-talk is positive and optimistic, supportive and persistent, to keep you thinking, feeling and acting in ways that manifest your goal.
Your lived experience is proof that the success formula works. How will you carry this knowledge forward?
