Some would say that there are all kinds of realities. Virtual or physical. Subjective or objective. Inner or outer. Being neither psychologist nor philosopher I don’t spend a lot of energy trying to define reality. But I do try my best to always acknowledge and accept it in pursuit of success.
There are a lot of things you can and should do to become “successful”. It doesn’t matter whether it’s personal or professional and it doesn’t matter how you define success. The steps are basically the same. You have to define the goal, outline the steps, and learn and gather what’s needed. Work the plan. Lather, rinse and repeat.
However, there’s one thing you have to do first or you will never make much progress. It’s a very simple concept, but one that can be quite complex to implement.
Learn to operate in reality.
See things as they really are, not how they should be or how you want them to be. Sometimes you get frustrated and feel like you are stuck in a never-ending loop. Over and over you try to do the right thing but never get the right results.
For example: Back when you were first starting out in business, you probably learned that prospects need to hear your message seven times (or 11, 17 or whatever number some marketing guru came up with) before they would pay attention and remember it. So you blasted your message across all your social media profiles. You may even have spent time and money on an advertising campaign.
But nothing much happened.
Or maybe you’ve been reading about positive attitudes and the importance of programming yourself for success. So you create vision boards and put sticky notes with happy sayings all over your office. You start and end every day with lovely affirmations. You tell yourself daily that you are ready and attracting prosperity, good health, a perfect marriage and rainbow colored unicorns on the front lawn.
Your smile became bigger and brighter. But otherwise, nothing much happened.
If you want to change a thing, first you’ve got to understand what that thing actually is. Not how it’s labeled or what it claims to be. Not what it looks like or what someone says it is. It’s not the appearance that counts, it’s the reality.