Live Life To The Fullest

How to be successful? That’s a great question to ask. It open up our mind to learn the road to success. The meaning of success in different from each individual. However as the rule of thumb successful people reached their dream and live the life as they mean it. When I listened to highly respected and successful entrepreneurs, authors or coaches interviews. I learned about many things in the interview, about how they became very successful, many possessed similar quality, mindset, the willingness to do what it takes to get where they’re now and live life to the fullest. Yes, they have different stories, very interesting story, fascinating story with their failures, determination, hard work, and the story about how they finally get there. It wasn’t an easy road to get there, it require hard work, believe, and determination to get where they want to be. Read below to discover 10 steps to success.

 1. Know exactly what you want to reach

I know it seem so obvious, but believe it or not, many people don’t even know what they really want in life. You need to know what you really want in life in order to get where you want to be in life. How do you measure your success, if you don’t even know what you want?

Follow this exercise to find out what you really want in life! In the next article.

Make a list about what you really want in life and be very specific about it. At this stage, don’t worry about how to get there? You’ll find the solutions along the way, if you open up your mind to learn.

 2. Have a burning desire to success

Burning desire to success is the fuel to get where you want to be in life. It may what keep you awake at night, your mind try to find a way to reach your ultimate goal. Burning desire to success will help you get over humps, obstacles or problems you’re facing on the way to get there. Ask yourself, do you have a burning desire to reach your lifetime dream?

3. The big why

Ask yourself why you do what you do now? Why you’re working so hard? What is the reason? Think the benefit you will get at the end. The big reward from working so hard now. When you think about the big why is a lot bigger than the obstacles you’re facing now, and combine it with your burning desire to success, it will propel you to keep moving forward. Remember: you need to have “the right reason” to keep moving toward your goal. Your goal need to be big enough to make it worth while, even though you have to chase it the whole life. Think the big picture what your life will be like when you reach your goal. How many other people can you help? How can you change the world to the better, happier, greener world?

Sometime the big dream, create fear, and it’s normal. I often ask myself who am I? There is so many wonderful, fabulous, smart, great, successful people out there. Who am I? Can I be as great, wonderful, successful as they are? Remember: “That you’re doing is not just for yourself, but for the greater purpose, to serve others, to follow your calling.

4. Willing to do what it takes to get there

When you have the right reason, why you need to be successful, then the next step is to be willing to do what it takes to get there.

Many of the successful people start from a very humble beginning, but they work their ass off to make it happen. Yes, there is almost no overnight success, most of them have been working hard for few years, they believe so much on their dream, then they become famous. Stop making excuses. Ask yourself how can I find time to build my business or to work toward your goal? Don’t tell yourself and others that you can’t do that because of (insert your own excuses). Don’t have enough time is the common excuse not to do what it takes to reach your goal. Click here for the next article about time management. Many highly successful individual rarely make excuses. Instead they always ask themselves and try to find a way how can they get where they want to be?

5. Keep moving forward toward your success

Analyze if what you do is adding on to where you want to be, to your success.

Do 80/20 analysis, find out which work that you do contribute the most to your progress. In the other word, what 20% of what you do contribute to 80% of your success, then allocate on what 80% of what you do only contribute a little (20%) to your success. This will open up many possibilities to multiply your result, by doing more works that bring greater results toward your success, and if possible outsource the rest of the work which take too much time and contribute only a little, or eliminate the rest (using a system to automate the process).  Make priority to do the most important work first, it may not always be the easier task, make this as a habit, and you feel you do most of the work already in a day. Never stop learning. In every obstacle, there is a lesson to learn to build a better and bigger business.

 6. Do massive actions

Do massive actions that contribute to your business success. In example, if you own products to sell, create and an e-commerce store to sell your products. Then contact many top bloggers in your products niche to promote your products on their blog. You can do different arrangement with them. One of the best advice I heard is to create a contest or giveaway to their readers, you can give them the link to visit and like your site. If you own a service business to local businesses, then cold call the local business owners or decision makers and let them know what your company can do to help them grow their businesses. Do this everyday as a part of your important tasks to get your products known in the market! Yes, you will get many rejection, but from every rejection, there is a step closer to a new client. It’s called conversion rate. In example if you get 1 result from every 10 businesses that you called, then your conversion rate is 10%. If you believe in your products and your products deliver value. It will show in everything that you say, and in turn it will make them enthusiastic to learn some more or to try your products.

7. Build an authority in your niche

You need to deliver value in order to have a credibility as an expert and build authority in your niche. It’s important to build a brand credibility or authority in your niche. How to build a brand authority? By constantly helping other who need your service or product! You want to be someone to go to when someone need help in your niche. Put yourself out there, announce to the world what you do, and how can you help them. Remember to be unique, to be different, and be a leader in your niche, not a me too brand or products. You can also speak at the seminar, teach others “how to?”, write books or e-books, publish yourself, your brand and your company. The more people you reach the more authority you build in your niche.

8.Visualize your success

Visualize and feel as you already at the success level. Close your eyes and really feel the power of visualization. The life you want, the life you always dream about. Visualize how’s your success life will be at that level, how many people will thank you, how much you will enjoy your life to the fullest, surrounded with people you love. People will love you, people will respect what you do, and many raving fans rave about your products. Let this visualization possess in your mind and show in everything that you do. Then next things to do is the reverse engineering, the steps you need to take to physically get there. The life you always dream about.

You really have to believe in your dream, that you will get there, start from visualization to realization of your successful life. You will feel the fear, but follow your calling. If you don’t feel the fear, then your dream is not big enough. You just know it, you strongly feel it, the calling to be a service, to make a different in other people life, to bring happiness to the world.

9. Surround yourself with people who will lift you up to the next level.

It’s important to surround yourself with people who can support you and lift you up to the next level. It’s hard to reach your goal without support from others who understand what you’re going through. Find support groups, forums, conferences where you can meet up  other with the same interest, where you can help and be helped. Join association or master mind group in your niche to learn some more, exchange ideas, or form a joint venture. Hire the right person to do some of the works, you don’t have to do everything yourself. If you want to expand and move closer to your goal faster, it’s important to delegate some of the work, ask for help.

10. Be persistent, try different approach and be patient.

Whatever any new venture you do. You need to deliver value to others in order to be successful. You need to believe so much in your products, and how your product or service will help others to have a better life, to make their life easier, to save so much of their time, etc.  Believe it or not, many successful people, have many failure stories in the past, than success stories.  The different why they so successful, just because they didn’t give up and they’re willing to try it again, they try different approach, make it better, work smarter, learn from their mistakes. Remember: Failure is a stepping stone to success, in every failure there is a lesson we can learn. If the first approach doesn’t work, try it again, still doesn’t work then try different approach, until it work.  Many people already give up before they even see the result. Sometime, it takes a while to reach the success level you want. So if you already doing as much as you can, then just be patient, give it a time to reach its full potential. Don’t give up to early, you may be only few feet apart from gold.

Well, whatever your passion it, you can build a business around your passion. Some people said that not all passion can make money. Well, I said that almost all passions can make money, it depends on how much or how big you want it to be.  It also depends on how creative you package your passion to entertain or help others. Most people have few passions they can choose to create a business around it. We will look deeper to see which passion will be the most profitable for you. With a careful plan, you can create a business around your passion, or finding a perfect job for what you’re really passionate about.

Building a business around your passion doesn’t have to be a complicated process, however, it may take a lot of time, persistent, and willingness to try different approaches. It also require to open your mind to learn from other and implement what you learn to take your business to the next level. Always hone your skill and knowledge about the subject if you want to be the best. If you not sure what your passion is? Do a little test and read my previous post, “How do I find my passion?”

 Questions to ask yourself and tools you can use to build a business around your passion.

 Is that a market for your passion? 

There isn’t any point to create something that no one want, right? To create a business around your passion, you need to do a market research, to make sure you have enough market or audience for your niche. There are some different ways to do this?

1. Ask others. You can go to forums, conduct a survey, join a group, etc. When you’re join and active at forum or group for specific niche, eventually, you’ll find out what problems people have and solutions they are looking for. You can also conduct survey, online or offline to find out.

2. Use Google Keyword tools to find out if there is any market for it. Google keyword tool allow you to search for specific keyword. First, enter they keyword related to your passion, and then you can see how many people search for this specific keyword monthly, it based on global and local monthly search. It also includes many other related keywords to your main keyword, where you can expand your subject wider and deeper.

3. Google trend, allow you to enter the keyword, then show you the chart for few year back, almost like a stock market chart. You can see if the trend for specific keyword is uptrend or downtrend. It also listed the related terms to your specific keyword, and you can adjust the period and others indications, as well.

What value do you offer to your audience or customer?

People will not buy something unless you can show them the value. What is your “Unique Value Proposition” that differentiate you from others who is in the same niche? Remember to think about value you can provide to others first, such as how your product can make their life easier, how it can solve their problem, how it will make them feel better. Then, think about monetization later, yeah I know you need to earn a living as well, but don’t think about making money first, think about how you give value first, and money will follow. People like to buy something that can solve their problem, make their life easier, or make them feel better, but they don’t like to be sold. They also rather buy from someone or company who they trust and familiar with, from someone who’ve been helping them along the way, instead of from someone who just show up and try to sell their products.   You need to build relationship with your audience or customer in order to be successful.

Creating a unique value proposition 

One of the marketing law that work from the test of time is, how do you differentiate yourself from other who offer similar products. You don’t want to be just a me too product, because then the original, already well known product which has been out there in the market longer will win, You need to differentiate yourself. There is no point to go into business just to be another me too product. Think about what make you unique, what make your company or product unique and different from your competitors. Remember people rather buy from brand they’re familiar with, than a new unknown brand, unless you can show them the unique value, the different from the market leader. You can sell the same things but change your company image to the better, better design, better service, better marketing message, people perception about your products does matter.  What I learn about, why “De Beers diamond” is so successful, is not just because they have a better quality diamond, or design, which is also very important, but it more about their message to us “Diamonds are forever” it became their world wide company image. It a “De Beers” way to change people perspective about their company, very clever. Ps: De Beers also paint their motto on their super mega yacht.  I’ve seen it at Atlantis harbor.

Networking with your peers

It’s important to make friend with people who are in the same niche that you’re in, you have the same passion after all. It’s nice to have a support group, mastermind group, where you can learn from other and share what you know to other.  There are many events, classes and conferences for variety of niches in United State or around the world. Networking also gives you the opportunity to know others, make new friends, stay on the top of the trend and maybe form a joint venture, or cross promote your products in the future, it’s a win-win situation.

Marketing for your business

Marketing is very important to build a brand recognition, because it doesn’t matter how wonderful or valuable your product is, if no one know about it, then no one will buy it. You need to put your product out there at front of your audience. Marketing is a part of building a successful business. Of course, you need to calculate your ROI (return on investment) for any marketing campaign that you do. Than decide with marketing campaign that bring the largest ROI for your business, and try to double the effort.

Being social

Nowadays is very important for any business to build a social media present for their brand. Social media helps brand or business owner to gain social approval, and it is a viral marketing for your business, and a part of brand recognition. It’s really important to create an awesome product first, then with social media, your audience will help your company grow, by promoting your product to their friends, then friends of friends. Viral marketing is a very powerful platform to get more customers.  Friends recommendation weight a lot more than your own advertising.

Building a business around your passion can be very long, but a wonderful and rewarding journey. It will take a lot of work, sweat and tear, but at the end, it can be very satisfying. Remember, nothing worth come easily. Building a business around your passion gives you the most in life, by providing value to other and being recognize as an expert as well. It will be well worth it because you’re being who you are and doing what you love in life.

Many people asking everyday how do I find my passion? Look into yourself to find your passion. What activities that make you happy? What makes your life more fulfilling? Finding your true passion sometime is not an easy task. It may be obvious for some people what their true passion really is, but for the rest of us, sometime we need to dig a little bit deeper to find who we really are, and what is the purpose of our life?

There are many indications we can measure to find our passion, we can look at those one by one. We can also add score to each possible passion to measure which passion that really speak to us, which one is our true passion. It’s also possible to have several passions at once. How does each passion really make you feel? Then score them from 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest score.

What activities make you happy? Refresh your memory and remember what activity that make you happy as a kid, and what activity you want to do often if you can. As a kid, our mind and imagination are still pure, we imagine anything is possible, we don’t think about limitation we have, we think beyond our limitation.

What activities make you proud? What proud moment did you have in your life.  Then also visualize yourself as someone who you can be proud of in the future, who can you be in the future? A great leader, a famous speaker, a health coach, a natural brand owner, a proud parent, a renowned author, etc. What value can you give to people? How can you help others? Giving value and helping other should add value to yourself, make yourself feel useful in this world, and in turn you will have more fulfilling and satisfactory life.

What do you want to share with the rest of the world? What kind of subject you want to share with other. Something you want to talk about all the time, and make you feel excited when you tell other about it. Something that make you proud to be a part of the community.

Have you listen to a leader or a speaker who make you feel so excited and make you want to hear some more about it? The speech was so interesting which pique your interest, won’t make you fall asleep listen to him or her, and made you so pump up to learn some more. Many of those leaders or speakers have a true passion about what he or she teach, and it show in their enthusiasm when they speak. Enthusiasm and excitement bring follower. People place confident in someone who is honest, knowledgeable, confident, and enthusiastic in what he or she said. So ask yourself: “What do you want to talk about a lot and want others to hear?”

What is your biggest fear, and want to overcome it? Find solutions to your problems, one by one, step by step. In example, I’m afraid of public speaking on stage at front of people. I worry people will judge me, I fell nervous when everyone is looking at me when I speak at front. However I want to eventually teach and speak at front of my audience. The solution, I learn from other who is really good at it, so I can get better, I practice at front of the mirror, I give myself pep talk before I speak, I learn some more about the subject, and I prepare myself with slides or keynotes I want to talk about.

Another fear that I have is to suffer from disease and side effect of medications, and I overcome it by reading many books about nutritions, natural health, radical medicine, alternative medicine, etc. I think knowledge can overcome your fear and spark your interest to learn so more.

What kind of books or literatures do you read? Well, the kind of books, magazine and information that you search online and offline can be one of the indication the things or activities you’re passionate about.

What do you love to do everyday? People who have passion in what they do, they don’t mind to do it everyday and keep looking for many ways to improve it.  In example I know someone who love to make cake, any kind of cakes, and she is proud of her creations. She experimented with different flavors and different decorations, post them on Facebook, and started to take order from family and friends, then the word came out and it become her business on the side, doing what she love.

Pinterest is another tool that I just use lately to find out more about my interest. It’s an online pinning board, where you can pin your favorite pictures from all across the internet on your online board. I think I know about all my passions before I created Pinterest account, such as gardening, traveling, nutritions, natural products, etc. However when I started to pin picture, I added many interior design and decoration pictures, especially simple, clean and organize room designs. It reminded me when I graduated from high school, I want to be an architect, but then I took different major.

However not all passions have pictures all over the internet, where you can pin on your online board. In example my other passions are writing, teaching, and networking with like minded people, but it’s hard to find interesting pictures about those kind of passion.

Next step is to create a score board for each activity you’re passionate about, then add them all up to find out what do you most passionate about in life, and start doing thing you love on the side. You will find your life will be more fulfilling when you love what you do and do what you love.

Start living and stop dreaming. Your passion can help you to find the purpose of your life. It has a deeper meaning than something you just like to do or learn. It help you connect with others in the same network. It help you to enjoy your life to the fullest potential.

“Learning is a process, not a destination.”

We should never stop learning because of these following reasons:

Learning help us to grow. Learning can help us to reach our goal faster. Learning can make us better, wiser and more knowledgeable about the subject. There are always smarter people out there, who we can learn from. We don’t know everything. Learning open up the possibility to go to the next level. Everyone has their own interesting story where you can learn from their experiences.

How can we learn faster?

1. Learn from our own mistakes. We all made mistakes before. We all do, there is nobody perfect. It’s important to learn from your mistake, so you won’t make the same mistake again.

2. Read books of your choice. Whatever subject you want to learn, there are plenty of good books out there from many respectful writers who are willing to share their knowledges, opinions, experiences, researches and beliefs. Reading books can help you learn on your own phase, and learn it from someone who already done it before. I have many mentors that I never met yet, maybe someday I will meet them though, from many of the books that I read.

3. Learn from others. No matter who you are, you can always learn from other people experiences. There are plenty of organizations, associations, groups, blogs, offline or online where you can meet up, join, and learn from others. However, make sure you hang out with the right people who support you and want to see you grow, and not someone who try to bring you down.

4. Open up your mind. One of the essential factor of learning is to be able to open up your mind to other people perspectives. If we think, we know everything and we always right, then we will never learn. Listen to what others have to say, then if it’s make sense, apply it to your own situation. It doesn’t mean that you have to agree in everything that other people say, but the willingness to learn from others will open up you mind, and you gain from other people real life experiences.

5. Once you know what you are really want in life or find out your true passion, you will never want to stop learning. Therefor it’s important to really know what you’re really passionate about, otherwise learning will be a boring process if you don’t have the passion for it. Learn about the subject that you’re passionate about, can be so much fun. It may not be easy, but it will worth your every effort.

6. Teach or share with others what you know. Believe it or not when I teach or share with others what I know, I learn some more. It reminds me about the subjects again. It also motivate me to study the subjects deeper. Interact with other and helping other to learn the subject you’re passionate about can create excitement and enthusiasm to learn some more.

7. Ask questions and get answers. In the internet world, internet makes it easy for anyone to learn and research on anything faster.  You can use the search engine to search what you’re looking for, or ask question at the forum, group, comment box, Yahoo answers, etc. One caveat though, not everything you read from the internet is correct. Make sure you go to reputable sites, use common sense, and hear what others think, don’t depend only from one resource.

8. Go to classes, conferences, summit, expos, or join association to learn more. You will find wealth informations and networking opportunities by putting yourself out there. Those venues above are excellent opportunities to learn as much as you can about the subject you’re interested in.

•  Class is an excellent opportunity to learn about a certain subject in a group. Take classes for the subject you want to learn and get hands on help from your teacher. You meet up once a week or twice a week for some time to learn a certain subject, and may have a group discussion about it. Classes can speed up the process of learning and hold yourself accountable to learn it.

• Conference is an excellent opportunity to learn from industry leaders, network with others, and meet up with like minded individuals. However it can be expensive for someone who just get started. It usually takes few days at beautiful vacation or meeting spots. Therefor, after the conference during the day, then you can relax and enjoy the rest of your day.

• Summit is an intensive learning program. This term is being used interchangeable with conference. This is the definition from The Free Dictionary: “Summit – the highest level or degree attainable; the highest stage of development. A conference or meeting of high-level leaders, usually called to shape a program of action.”

• Attending an expo also can extend your knowledge about certain subject. In example, I attended Natural Products and Supply Side Expo last year to learn some more about natural product companies, suppliers from all over the world, and possible partnership with other companies. I learn a lot by talking to people in the industry, than I can do it on my own, besides meeting with many industry leaders and networking with the peers is priceless. Most expos also combine it with conference as well, but not all expos have conferences and not all conferences have an expo floor.

9. Join association to learn about the industry you are in, is very important to get you on the top of the industry trend and news. Association also can help you connect with industry leader, and other companies who can help you to fulfill your dream. Association usually plan meeting or event periodically to meet with its members; most have classes to offer as well.

10. Internship is on the work training or learning for student or anyone else who want to practice what they learn in real work experience. It usually no pay or very little pay, but you will learn so much and gain some work experience. I never work as an intern before, but if I have the opportunity to learn what I really want to learn, I will take that opportunity. Who know if you do a great job, they will hire you as their permanent staff, if that what you are looking for.

Phew, I think I cover many stuffs here. Learning can be so much fun if you learn what you’re really passionate about. Stay tune for the next post how you find what are you really passionate about, your true passion.

I really appreciate and welcome you to leave a comment, or to share your own learning experience, so others can benefit from it. You can also contact me for any question or just to say hi. Thanks for reading, I know your time is valuable. I hope you learn something and benefit from it.

Book report and review: “The Magic of Thinking Big, by Dr. David J. Schwartz.”

This is an awesome book for someone who want to learn the secret of success and live the fulfilling life. I really recommend this book, and you can get it for sale from Amazon. Below I summarized the most of the important points in my own writing about what is in the book.

We must think big to achieve big success. When you have vision about your future success, and believe that you can reach your lifetime dream, anything is possible. The road for a huge achievement wide open for people who dare to think big.

Most successful people are not a super genius individual. They just an average person like us who is willing to think big, take risk, believe in it and work really hard to the road of success. They acted upon their good ideas and keep moving forward.

Mediocre people use to many excuses and reasons why they can’t be successful, instead of asking themselves how can they do it better and how to improve their chances.  Successful people decline to use excuses that affect their road to success. They have an “I can do this better” attitude. However people who have no plan of getting anywhere, always have too many reasons or excuses why they can’t move ahead. Stop using too many excuses if you want to move ahead in life.

A big thinker always have vision what can be done better in the future. They look at things not the way they are now but what they can be. Look at yourself what can you be in the future. What a better life and place can you be. Ask yourself how can I be a better person? How can I improve my life? Set a higher standard.

Respect your job to increase your performance. If you think your job is important and respect what you’re doing at work, it shows in everything you do. It shows when you talk to your potential clients, it shows when you give speech, etc. Give yourself a pep talk to feel bigger, stronger and better about your job. It gives you the enthusiasm to do your job better, and in return others will feel excited and enthusiastic as well. It will be a lot easier to make the deal happen with customer who trusted you and excited about your products.

Think like important people think. Think about your best quality. Tell yourself you have what it takes to win, to be the best. You are who you think you are. Act the way you want to feel. Believe in yourself. Create honest 60 second infomercial about yourself, your quality.  Below is the example of infomercial I created for myself.

“Lisa meet Lisa Wijaya, someone who’s great and very successful. Someone who you can trust. Lisa, you’re kind, smart, great, and charming. You have what it takes to be on the top, to win, to be successful. Lisa, you look great. A lot better than average girl. Guys feel lucky to be your friend and to be close to you. Girls think you’re a great friend, always fun and helpful. Happiness, fun, live your life to the fullest potential are your way of life. You are super confident and will get what you always wanted in life. Lisa, you have what it takes “the quality” to be very successful, to be the very best. Lisa, you deserve what’s best in life. You’re first class person. People love you and always willing to help you to get where you want to be in life.”

This infomercial can help you to feel good about yourself, to be the best you can be, increase your self confidence, believe in your own potentials, and in turn can help you achieve a bigger success.

The huge obstacle to reach your dream is believing that your big dream is way beyond your reach, or self limiting beliefs. Another big obstacle is listening to people who tell you, that it is not possible. In life you will find many people who oppose to your plan or give you negative advices. Some are well-meaning folks who doesn’t want to see you get hurt for hoping too much. Others are just jealous people who try to bring you down, because they feel inadequate themselves. Accept negative advices only as a challenge to prove to them that you can do it, to reach your lifetime dream, and achieve big success beyond your wildest dream.

Have right attitudes toward yourself and others. Attitudes do make a different. The right attitude increase your performance. Enthusiasm bring more followers; people follow someone that believe and enthusiastic about what he says. People do more when you make them feel important. Let others know that you really appreciate their help, praise them with honest compliments. You need the support of others to be successful.

In any business or job that you do, always over deliver. Give a great customer service, deliver value, give extra bonuses, over deliver your book content or online content, and people will come back for more. You will gather many loyal followers or customers if you over deliver.

Act upon your great idea. Nothing will improve or move just by thinking about it. You need to act upon your great idea. It will not move by itself. You must follow through your plans and make it happen. Overcome fear through action and gain confidence. Start right now, do not postpone it, or your dream may never come true.

Keep your focus on your goal. Think progress, plan progress and act progress. Keep your eye on the prize or reward. When you feel down, then ask yourself why you’re working so hard right now? The reward of your goal will give you energy, enthusiasm to keep moving forward. Remember every big accomplishment is a series of little accomplishments. When you do work, ask yourself if what you do now will take you closer to your goal? Work toward your goal.

Those are just few ideas what you will get by reading this book. There are many more important lessons and examples, and what you can benefit from this book. Get it now. Don’t wait until tomorrow, what you can do today, and you will be closer to your goal everyday.