The secret weapons to success could be right at your fingertips

Weapon 1. The What Rocked Journal

I’ve always been envious at the amazing diaries my Mum has been able to keep over years. Envious, yet seemingly unable to replicate this feat! Until this year that is… instead of attempting to match my Mum’s feat I simply start a “what rocked” journal on the 1st of January, 2007. One small entry per day of something that was awesome (aka that rocked) about my day.

On each day I’ve listed completely unrelated things for each day, like having John Anderson (legendary Contiki founder) agree to write the foreword to my book Retired at 27, having a great dinner with friends and a promo launch of a new business.

By focussing on the good in each day the aim is to attract more of that great stuff into my life rather than focussing on the dull or down side of each day.

"Life is not so much a matter of 'finding' ourselves as it is a matter of making ourselves." Alan Loy McGinnis

Weapon 2. The Low-Tech Goal Box

I’ve always been pretty goal oriented even from as early as age 7 or 8 when I decided the best way to make my first million (one of my first goals) was in peddling pirated video tapes to my school mates (see my first book Advance to Go for some of my other childhood escapades)!

Obviously I’ve progressed into more legitimate means of achieving my goals these days. I used to keep lists upon lists of goals taking my cues from my mentors like John McGrath who laminates his list and has it in the shower and then mine was in my car under the sun visor (until I realised that I live in Tasmania and don’t need to use my sun visor all that often!) I’ve had lists taped up at my desk, lists in my wallet, lists by my bed, lists in my head. Until I realised that I didn’t love the idea of having a list at all for two main reasons:

1. Because I’m a pretty visual person – so I wanted to be able to incorporate pictures to really make my goals seem real
2. Because each time I updated my goal list and got rid of those things that I achieved, I lost that information. My “done” goals were done but also gone which meant I had no way of looking back and seeing what I’d achieved.

And then one day it came to me. I was sitting with a very special sales consultant, Jeff, from our real estate company and we were discussing the fact that although we had all this amazing technology and software for databasing his clients, if the best system for him was a file box with each client on a card then that’s what he should use.

It hit me that I could use an online goal program like www.joesgoals.com (which is very cool and I highly recommend it) – but maybe I just needed to get very low tech and invest in some file cards and a box myself.

These days in my funky little low tech box of goals I have everything categorised:

P for those goals already Planned and waiting to happen (like my trip to Cambodia in January)
G for Goals that don’t fit into any other category (my dream wardrobe, the world’s largest shoe collection, a Bugatti Veyron for my husband)
B for Business goals (subscribers to my weekly email, income goals etc)
T my favourite, Travel goals (this category has by far the most cards)
E Experiences I want to have (seeing a volcano erupt, going zorbing)
L Things I want to learn (waterskiing, dancing, piano, sign language, reading 52 books this financial year)
A Affirmations, these aren’t so much goals as just things I like to remind myself of – seeing as I check through my goal box at least weekly I thought this would be a good place to put them!
D DONE! The best section! (includes completed goals like indoor skydiving, speaking in Las Vegas, launching my new book Retired at 27)
U this is my Undone section. Goals I thought I once wanted but have now decided aren’t a priority for me (being flexible is good – I just kept them here as a reminder in case I change my mind again!)

This system works really well for me because I’ve got room to write in detail where I need to, I can add pictures (which gets me much more excited than words) and I also have room to write when and how I achieved the goal.

Checking back through my Done section gives me reasons to celebrate, moments to remember and a great record of what I’ve achieved for the past year.

Now of course, good things don’t come cheap! I think you can pick up your very own goal box in any office supplies store for the princely sum of less than $10. And if the low-tech goal box isn’t for you, write a list, paint your goals on a wall, tattoo them on your leg – do whatever you need to do to make it work for you!

"The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them. Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to achieving your dreams." Og Mandino

Weapon 3. The Wall

Years ago heading in to my local gym I always loved the little motivational quotes they blu-tac-ed onto the equipment and had on the walls. It made me realise that if one little quote that I saw while slogging it out on a bike for 5 minutes could give me a little buzz of inspiration then by changing what I was staring at each and every day in my workspace I could have that same impact multiplied many times over.

Over the years my walls have been covered with many things, here's what currently features.

1. Shake it Off and Step Up
Simply google “shake it off and step up” to read this great little piece and I’m sure you’ll understand why I have it at my desk. Special thanks to Debbie MacQueen for introducing me to it!

2. My Burnie Ten Running Number
My running number from my first ten kilometre race (ran in October this year in under my goal time) is a great visual reminder of an important goal achieved this year.

3. Retired at 27 stats
We launched a new book this year and I keep a visual track of how sales are going. Our team gets to be excited when we add more sales to the list (as do I!)

4. My Personal Mission Statement
I wrote this mission statement for myself and my personal life when I sold my business last year. Without it I knew I’d run the risk of not heading in a direction of my choice.

Alice in Wonderland: …I was just wondering if you could help me find my way.
Cheshire Cat: Well that depends on where you want to get to.
Alice: Oh, it really doesn't matter, as long as...
Cheshire Cat: Then it really doesn't matter which way you go.

My mission statement includes things like:

My lifestyle
• Is supported by passive income
• Allows me to see the world
• Allows me to spend a lot of quality time with my husband
• Allows me time to be fit and healthy
• Allows me to proud of and excel in my achievements

Developing your own mission statement is dead simple because there’s no right or wrong, no correct format and no need for it to work for anyone other than you!

Weapon 4. The book of knowledge

Ever been to a seminar, read a book, heard someone speak and been introduced to a great idea – only to realise that you’ve heard it before, thought it was great and then deleted it from your brain almost as quickly as it arrived!

My book of knowledge is what I use to avoid as many of those moments (which used to happen to me A LOT!) Any time I read, hear or learn something that triggers that light bulb moment for me – I write in my book of knowledge.

It’s a pretty simple concept and one which has greatly assisted not only in using one of my many groovy notebooks (I think I may have an addiction to them) – but also in tracking the best ideas that come into my brain (before they head out again!). While I truly think the human brain is an amazing thing, mine certainly doesn’t remember everything it needs to. By reading back over this book which contains ideas, business strategies, quotes, stories, articles I get an instant rush of inspiration. And if you’re someone (like myself) who can’t bear to deface a book by highlighting or writing in it – it just make work as a solution for you too.

"Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours." John Locke

Weapon 5. Instant Memories

Sometimes I have a phone call that doesn’t go the way I want it to, or I receive an email that gets me a bit cranky. Bad moments happen to all of us at times, but I feel it’s what we do to get ourselves out of them that is really important. My secret weapons to get me back on track at my desk are what I like to call my Instant Memories.

There’s my baseball that transports me instantly to an amazing trip my husband and I took to Disneyland. There’s a goofy gift given to make me smile. There’s the framed quote I bought myself while celebrating a huge business success.

Each of these items are just simple little things but they have the power to be able to produce a dramatic shift in my mental state when I need them to do so.

"Everything that is past is either a learning experience to grow on, a beautiful memory to reflect on, or a motivating factor to act upon." Denis Waitley

My desk is a veritable treasure trove of weaponry… weapons of success that is. Having spent much of my working life at a desk in front of a computer I decided a few years ago that what I had with me at my desk was going to be vital in assisting me towards achieving my definition of success.

Kirsty Dunphey is one of Australia’s most publicised young entrepreneurs and is the founder of http://www.reallysold.com - the ultimate tool to help real estate agents write amazing advertisements. For more information on Kirsty or either of her books or to sign up to her weekly newsletter head to: http://www.kirstydunphey.com

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