You Can Always Get What you Want

Adapted from the forthcoming book: The Talent Advantage by coauthors Dr. Alan Weiss and Dr. Nancy MacKay, published by Wiley.

1. Follow your passion. Identify what you want. If you don’t know what you want, you’ll never get it. Declare it and go after it. Passion + competence + need = extraordinary results.
2. Past does not equal future. Think about who you are today and who you would like to become in the future. Learn from the past and move on. Everyone is put on the planet to achieve their full potential.
3. Develop a success mindset. Maximize connection, contribution, learning and growth, challenge, certainty, and significance to increase your energy in life.
4. Develop your top 20 list and contribute to the success of others. Contact people on your top 20 list to contribute to their success and to identify opportunities.
5. Ask for referrals. For example, ask, “Who do you know that might benefit from my expertise?”
6. Visualize success. Don’t be attached to outcomes. Success in life is about doing the best you can, learning from what happens, and moving on.
7. Don’t let your ego get in the way of success. Be real. Ego-talk is all about looking good, being right, being judgemental, playing the blame game and being a control freak.
8. Build your self-confidence. Focus on success and use positive self-talk to remind yourself of your strengths. Don’t let what other people say and do affect your self-confidence. Do the best you can. Don’t take things personally. Stop making assumptions.
9. Identify your strengths. Complete the StrengthsQuest online tool (www.strengthsquest.com) and study the results. Write down all of your key accomplishments in life and in your career. Ask yourself (and others) what you’re really good at. Allow yourself to feel good about your strengths. Every time you take on a new challenge, ask yourself how you will use your strengths to create greater success and fulfillment in your life.
10. Don’t beat yourself up.Give yourself a maximum of five minutes at any given time to beat yourself up for events of the past. Focus on where you are today and where you need to be in the future and develop a results plan to get there.
11. Don’t be afraid to fail. Ask yourself the question, what if I fail? Remind yourself that if you fail you’ll learn something about yourself and you’ll be in a better position to take on new challenges.
12. Master your emotions.You can learn how to access positive emotions  anytime.
13. Celebrate success.Take a few moments to celebrate success everyday. Use a daily success journal to build your self-confidence.