Success Planning: Don’t Settle For Less Than Your Personal Mission

Being successful requires a plan and the secret begins by having a desire in your heart. Let’s talk about success. Success is not an easy concept to define. What does it take to be successful? How does success look? When should a person feel like a success? Once success is achieved, how can new goals be set without diminishing the value of one's previous accomplishments? Can success ever be realized when time is so finite and our obligations/responsibilities seem endless? These questions may be answered best with the following question, "Who is the person defining success?"

First of all take responsibility for your own success planning by developing a personal mission statement. A personal mission statement is developed by focusing on the qualities that make you unique, such as, who you are, what you would like to do, your hopes, fears and wishes. It can be as ambitious or as simplistic as you desire and it is ever-changing.

What if you don't feel confident enough to create a personal mission statement? Start with a group of goals you would like to accomplish over the next year. Keep experimenting until you find an idea that you believe you were meant to relentlessly pursue. Remember, it is your mission and it can change as you grow, excel and plan for your success since you are the only limit to what you can become.

Are you having trouble defining personal success and your success plan? Well, imagine that a genie were to grant you three wishes. If all you can come up with is, "I would like to be rich and thin," then you haven't taken enough time to know your true goals. Ask yourself what you would DO if you were rich and thin; and you will see a hint of your true mission. Now ask yourself if any of the things you named are things you can do right now and, if so, why do you choose not to follow through.

This is a very personal key for your success planning. Measuring your standards on a bar set by others means permanently installing yourself on a treadmill of your own making which doesn’t include what you want for your success. I encourage you to have the courage to determine what you want out of life and make a promise to yourself that you will not settle for less than your vision of success.

I see this dilemma often among parents with young children. Some are stay-at -home moms who would really like to work at least part-time. Others are working at careers that leave them unsatisfied, when they would really prefer to spend more time with their children. And although we don't often hear about this dilemma among fathers, there are a growing number of men who are sharing equally in the day-to-day activities of child rearing and would also like more flexible work schedules.

Take the time to determine what is most important in your life and be honest with yourself as you identify a personal mission statement and your mission for your life. What is the mission that you know you were born to do to make a difference in the lives of other people? Do you know what it is?

Success planning happens when you take the time to know where you are headed and you will begin to see opportunities that will help you reach your goals. This may include creating “wealth and power” for yourself and your family. It may mean setting the goal to start a home-based business and experience “success online”. By honoring your vision of success, you'll be in the best position to take that next bold step toward personal fulfillment.
You may want to start with a few things you want to change, ideas you want to pursue, people you want to meet, or a new hobby you want to try, and a home-based business. Then, when you see an opportunity that will help you reach your unique goals you will be prepared to embrace the challenge.

Above all, commit to keeping your life mission and your success plan foremost in your mind simply because it will help you identify your aspirations and serve as a roadmap as you navigate the maze. Don’t ever settle for less than your personal mission. Success planning is the roadmap that you need to get you where you are going.

Ask yourself what you desire and these desires will determine what method you use to plan for your success. Don’t ever allow anybody to prevent you from doing what you know in your heart and soul that you were born to do in your life-time. If you do there will always be a “hole in your soul”.

Therefore, don’t settle for less than your personal mission and be open to the opportunity when it presents itself or just take one step in the direction that will fill the need in your heart to succeed with your personal mission. Your personal mission requires success planning.

About the Author

Businesswoman, Rose Kirkland assists Women to be success stories and inspiration to others.