What Skills are Needed for Success?

If you're looking to achieve a specific goal, maybe in a specified amount of time (or not), you need certain skills in order to do so. You cannot aimlessly reach a goal without acquiring and developing certain skills and practices. You need consistency and discipline in order to accomplish something, too. Whether consistency is once per week to you, or maybe even more, or could be less - let's say biweekly. As long as you're consistent and set time aside to work on different practices, skills, and actions - you will succeed at some point.

Now ... what skills are we talking about here? Let's dig into 6 different ones: time management, planning and preparation, prioritization, application, repetition, and a growth mindset.

1. Time Management

   1. Involves: organizing your time in an effective and efficient way, and making a plan for when things need to be done. Eliminate distractions that will take you away from accomplishing things to help you reach your goals. Look at your "free" time - could you be doing something productive during that time to help with your success?

   2. Practice: what needs to be done for your goal?

      1. If your goal is to go to the gym, make time to go to the gym.

      2. If your goal is to get outside more, make time to step outside for X amount of time.

      3. If your goal is to graduate with your associate's, bachelor's, master's, doctorate, etc., then make time to study.

   3. Action: book an appointment with yourself at a time that works best for you.

      1. If you have a 9-5 job, maybe you set time aside for yourself at 6:30-7:30p to work on this skill and practice what's needed for your goal. Plan this appointment with yourself in advance and commit to it.

      2. If you want to do things during your "free" time, like watch TV, could you take your phone with you and watch a show on an app or listen to a podcast in place of your TV show while you go to the gym or sit outside? Could you study on commercial breaks while you watch TV instead of fast-forwarding through commercials? Every minute of practice and action towards your goal counts!

2. Planning and Preparation

   1. Involves: needing to look ahead and anticipate potential obstacles, creating an environment relevant to your goals and/or practices, and finding ways to eliminate or reduce distractions in your environment so you can focus on what needs to be done.

   2. Practice: what are some potential obstacles that could interfere with your success? Brainstorm ideas.

   3. Action: coming up with a plan if an obstacle occurs - how can you work around that? What would need to be done if an obstacle gets in the way?

      1. If your goal is to go to the gym, but you're short on time, could you reduce your hour workout into 30 minutes?

      2. If your goal is to get outside more, but it's raining all week, could you wear a rain jacket or use an umbrella? Maybe sit under an overhang?

      3. If your goal is to graduate with a degree, but a major life event occurred, or maybe you cannot afford to be a full-time student, could you reduce the workload by taking 1 class at a time, or take a gap semester instead? Might not be your ideal path, but sometimes we need to accommodate!

3. Prioritization

   1. Involves: being able to do the most important things first

   2. Practice: brainstorm a list of priorities, and then order them by the most to least important. Which things need to be done first, and which things could wait?

   3. Action: reviewing your list and checking off what has been accomplished each day. Some priorities may take longer than others to complete, and that's okay! And note: are the things you're doing checking off the top of your list first?

4. Application

   1. Involves: putting your knowledge into practice

   2. Practice: how can you apply what you're learning?

      1. (Not gonna lie to you guys, some of my social media posts and blog posts help me apply my knowledge and retain information! This is a form of studying for me - providing you with information that I'm learning or have learned via content that I share with you).

   3. Action: sharing information in a way that works for you, or doing things that you've learned to help with your success. Are there exercises or worksheets that can help to supplement your success?

      1. If your goal is to go to the gym, are you applying your knowledge that you have learned via an in-person certified personal trainer, or content from a science-based online trainer to structure a workout split? Are you performing exercises properly?

      2. If your goal is to graduate with a degree, are you able to do your homework and other assignments, and receive decent grades? Are you creating study tools that work best for you, like flashcards or even a powerpoint if you need visuals?

5. Repetition

   1. Involves: repeating an action multiple times, as if you were a beginner

   2. Practice: choose a skill and repeat it until you begin to progress, and continue doing it after you start seeing results - practice makes progress.

   3. Action: create a reminder for yourself to practice something multiple times per day

      1. If your goal is to go to the gym, you're doing repetitions with each exercise. Always strive to improve your form and feel the muscles you're working with each rep. Strive to try to increase weight with each set if your goal is progressive overload, or increase reps once you become comfortable with the demands of your weight/reps for each exercise if your goal is endurance.

      2. If your goal is to get outside more, you could set a timer to remind yourself to get up and go outside multiple times per day until it becomes a habit.

      3. If your goal is to graduate with a degree, you could set a timer to remind yourself to study. You could commit to review notes on each commercial break, or for 5 minutes before bed and 5 minutes in the morning while you eat breakfast. The more studying you get in, the better success you'll have!

6. Growth Mindset

   1. Involves: believing that there is always room for improvement, that failure is an opportunity to learn and grow, and that persistence and effort contributes to success.

   2. Practice: always showing up, regardless of past experiences

      1. If your goal is to go to the gym, but you've fallen off in the past, or maybe you don't know what you're doing - how will you ever adapt to new habits if you don't try, or try again? If you've fallen off in the past, that's okay, most of us regular gym-goers have at one point, too. If you don't know what you're doing, could you hire a trainer, or follow science-based personal trainers on social media so you could learn?

      2. If your goal is to go outside more, but it's cold, or the weather is just gloomy - how can you adapt? Can you wear warmer clothes, more appropriate shoes? Revisit the umbrella idea if it's raining - do you have one of those. or a raincoat? Or ... learn to love the rain again, just as you most likely did when you were a kid. Adapt to the circumstances as necessary!

      3. If your goal is to graduate with a degree, but you're struggling through school, could you receive extra help from your professor? What things could be done to improve your learning experience?

   3. Action: trying new things if necessary in order to keep succeeding. Just do the thing - whatever that thing is for your goal. Giving up on it certainly won't lead you to success. Never fear asking for help, or coming up with new ideas to help you get a step closer to where you want to be.
      

Whether you apply these skills to your goal, or just your life in general, you will find greater success within each day and each goal that you set for yourself. It's not necessary to acquire all of these skills either. Figure out which ones are necessary for you to have and master in order to contribute to your success.

The amount of time you have to work on reaching your goal will obviously determine how fast or slow you get there. Enjoy the journey. Don't stress yourself out with a timeline, or at least try not to. We are all on our own path, and the most important thing is remembering that we all start somewhere. Some may achieve things faster than others, and that is okay. It doesn't make you less of a person, or make you less worthy, etc. than someone else if they achieve the same (or different) goal before you do. You're on your own path, so enjoy the ride and learn what does and doesn't work along the way! As long as you're consistent, you will get where you want to be.