By Stephen C. Thomas

There are many steps to success. I suppose if you listed them all there might be hundreds if you counted all the experts and all their suggestions, but I think there are three critically important steps for success. Without these three, your chances are slim!

Believe in what you want.

You have to believe that the task you want to accomplish is achievable and worthwhile. If you do not believe that what you want to do is within your ability to achieve or that it is not something that you should be wasting your time on then stop right now. You have little chance of ever being successful.

Now the goal in mind may not be something that you personally want to do, it might be something from your boss, but if you cannot find some way to believe in it, you are doomed.

If you do not believe it is something that you can ever do, if it seems unreachable, then you have little chance of reaching it. You will constantly defeat yourself with negative thinking about how no one could ever do what you have in mind to do.

Our thoughts and our beliefs are two thirds of the factors that create our realities. If we believe that something is impossible and we think it is impossible, then for us, it is impossible. Henry Ford said that whether you think you can or you can’t, you are right.

You must put action behind your belief.

I said that belief and thought were two thirds of what creates our reality. Action is the final third. You can believe something is true, something is achievable, until you are blue in the face but if you put no action toward that goal, it will most likely never happen.

Some people who are believers in the law of attraction think that all they have to do is put their order out into the universe and the cosmos, like an eternal bell boy will make it happen. Good luck! We have to work for the things we want. Even if it is something as simple as reaching out your hand to take it, you have to put out some effort.

If you believe that what you want to do is within your ability to do, then you must not only plan for how you are to accomplish this feat, you must put those plans into action. You have to put some effort into getting where you want to be. You have to have some backbone, not just a wishbone.

Self Discipline

The last thing you need is self discipline. You have to be strong enough to take the action needed. You have to be able to face the small failures, and yes there will be some, and go on. You have to be able to be strong enough to work past the obstacles that you will meet. Think about it! Have you ever done anything that did not have a few hurdles to jump over?

This discipline might be in a schedule or plan that you refuse to miss or a task that must be carried out before you sleep. It might be the routine of saying over and over to yourself what it is you want to do and how you will not let anything stop you. Without self discipline, you will crumble at the first sign of difficulty. Strengthen your resolve to see the task done!

There you have it! The three critically important steps to success in anything you want to do are belief, action and self discipline!