The Success Cycle

“One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.” The success cycle is one of the most important tools that you can identify and plug yourself into that will put you on the road to hitting your goals. It relies on 3 simple steps that can move in a positive or negative direction equally. It is up to you to identify your success cycle and use it to your advantage to breed bigger success in your life. 

The three simple steps of the success cycle are as follows: Awareness, massive action, and results. This process is ongoing in many different aspects of your life and once you identify and value its power it will unlock anything you want to achieve. Also, you must be mindful that the success cycle can move in both a positive and negative direction. 

Lets look at a few examples as we examine this further. First we will walk through the positive, and then I will show you how easy it can be to fall into a negative success cycle if you are not hyper aware of yourself and your surroundings. Say you have the desire to lose weight, or just generally improve your health, this will show you how understand the success cycle along the way and will aid your results. 

The first key element of it is awareness; the identification of the issue. When you become aware of a issue or situation that is the first vital element to changing it. How many people do you know who have goals, but do not achieve them simply because they do not know the major factors holding them back, or even the major factors that will allow them to overcome challenges.

In this example of weight loss, say you have a goal to lose 20 pounds by a certain date. You first use the success cycle to make you aware, or “hyper aware” of what you want. You become aware of the WHY behind what you want to achieve. In this first stage of awareness you must identify the major factors that will hold you back from hitting this goal. What are the key elements of what will get you to this goal faster and what will hold you back. Are you eating unhealthy food? Are you not exercising nearly as much as you know you should be? Are you associating in groups of people who are making unhealthy decisions? The first step in the success cycle is to become aware of all of these factors and use them to make a plan for success. 

Awareness may come in all forms, gradually or suddenly. Regardless of when you become aware of an issue, that is the first step in the success cycle. Awareness is a state that many people live in, but do not possess the desire to change. What I mean is that most people who are unhealthy, are aware that this is an issue, however they are not willing or able to change it at the current moment. 

In order to move forwards in the success cycle the next step is crucial. MASSIVE ACTION. We must attack this new goal will all the force possible. This action can come in many different forms. Part of this massive action could include breaking down a plan that will help achieve the goal. It could also be immediate action towards the goal. The most important thing is that action is massive and immediate. It is important that the first move toward your goal be big and exciting. Use your “Why” to fuel your mission towards success. If it is something you truly want, then do not wait for it to come to you, go attack it with massive action. 

To plug yourself into the success cycle means you need to live a life of integrity and not making excuses. If you truly want success you will be willing to take the massive action required to obtain it. Mark Cuban once said, “When you want to be successful as bad as your want to breathe, you will be.” 

Do not be afraid of “what if” situations. Take the jump towards success and learn to fly on your way down. Having a plan is great, but you must take immediate action. Don't wait to be great. Stop thinking about the thing you know should be doing and just do the thing your thinking about. It is important for the action to be ‘massive’ because without massive action the success cycle cannot be fueled into the next step. 

Get up right now and go to the gym. Turn off the TV and start working on your writing. Pick up the phone and make the call you know you should. Grab a pen and pad and start working on that project. Do whatever it is you need to do right NOW to move you closer to your goal. 

When you decide to take massive action towards your goal your create the first spark to the success cycle. The third step of this process is results. Results can be both positive and negative, but by taking MASSIVE ACTION you increase the chances that the results will breed a more positive result. Your big jump towards your goal is more likely to yield more positive results. 

These positive results are the building blocks to the next success cycle. Take these positive results and use them to feel good about the work you have put in. Say your goal was to lose 20 pounds. You may have wanted to lose 4 the first week, but only lost 2.5. This is still very positive, because you are moving in a direction closer to your goal, not further away. Also, this is great because you can use these results to feed back into another success cycle. 

After you get a result from the success cycle its is time to feed that result back into another state of awareness and start the cycle over again. Each success cycle builds off of the previous one and it creates a wave of momentum that cannot be stopped. 

Two important factors to realize about this cycle. The first is that it is constant. One cycle feeds into the next, and there is no stopping in between. One of the single biggest killers of goals is loss of momentum. The key to using and thriving in the success cycle  is to keep it going constantly. Always be hyper aware of the goals you want to achieve and the date you want to do it by. Do not allow pauses between getting results and using those results to obtain even better results. The success cycle is a feedback loop that can be your best friend or worst enemy. 

The other major element of the success cycle that you must learn in order to use it is that the speed and magnitude of the cycle will be a direct reflection of the massive action you take towards it. “Massive Action” can be interpreted all types of ways for all different types of people. The speed at which the cycle grows or slows is completely up to the operator. To yield the best result the best cycles are done faster. The more you can go through it the larger the momentum will build. 

Another key component is that the cycle can be both positive and negative. A negative cycle can yield as much damage as positive results. Take for example someone is aware of a weight problem they have, but they take no action towards it. This lack of action creates a negative result. This negative result has the ability to cut off any future growth of positive goals. If not corrected a negative success cycle can be catastrophic to you and your health. For so many people today are caught in negative success cycles, and seldom have a way out. 

The good news is that no matter how negative the cycle feels it can be switched by taking one positive success cycle. Even if the results are not that large, the direction of momentum has been changed. A simple state of awareness and massive action are all you need to break free of a long standing negative success cycle. 

HYPER AWARENESS

As humans it is always important for us to be aware of our current state, our environment and our status. Awareness is a built in human mechanism that allows us to regulate many aspects of our life. We are always aware of many things that reflect our health, family and lifestyle. This mechanism is built in to sustain our own integrity and keep us on track of what we want out of any given situation. 

Unfortunately, awareness is something that can be easily overcome by deterrents and distractions. We can be consciously aware that something is not good for us, but we choose to speak over that voice and follow through with the action anyway. For example, lets say you have set a goal to lose 10 pounds in the next 5 weeks. If this is your goal you are aware of it most of the time, but when it is time to go to friends BBQ party awareness might not be enough by itself. You are aware of the goal, but you make the conscious choice to ignore this awareness and let go a bit on your original goal. 

Another example would be if you have to get an assignment done by a certain date to get a passing grade in a class, but the night you are about to sit down and do it a friend of yours calls to hang out. Although you are aware of what you are supposed to do, your actions might speak otherwise, and you might not follow through on what you said you were going to do. The point is everyone has a sense of awareness, it is built into us as human beings, but awareness is something that can be overcome by a lack of integrity and vision. This is why in order to achieve your goals that you set out for you must exercise a state of HYPER AWARENESS. 

Hyper awareness is a state which super cedes a regular state of awareness. It is a necessary element in order to stay on track to hit any goal we desire in life. Without this vital tool we are destined to continue to fall of track of what we really want to achieve out of each and every day. 

The difference between being aware of something and being in a state of hyper awareness is that why you have hyper awareness it is directly linked a goal you have set. It keeps you present in every moment and creates constant urgency behind whatever goal you want.  

This elevated state of awareness in any given moment keeps us ‘in the now’ and constantly excited about the goals you want to achieve. It is as if we have bottled up the initial excitement of hitting a goal we want, and keeping it for future times when we might be faltering on our commitments. This state will bring you right back and put you back on track in no time. There are a few simple ways to achieve this state of mind easily and regularly. 

In order to achieve hyper awareness you must follow through on a few of the steps I have previously mentioned. The first being to DECIDE what you really want. Once you have made this concrete decision then it gives you the power to cut off any other alternative route which might lead you to failure. 

Once the decision have been made then you must use the power of visualization to constantly remind you of what you truly want and then ask yourself; “Is what I am doing right now moving me closer to or further away from my goal?” This one of the most powerful questions you can learn to ask yourself on a regular basis. Constantly asking yourself if this is what you truly WANT, or is it just what you want right in the moment. Take a moment to step out of the situation and check yourself. This reminder question is the backbone to strong habits of hyper awareness. 
Taking into account the example used earlier about having a weight loss goal and ending up going to a BBQ with friends to pig out. While you might be aware this is not a good decision you may still go and pig out anyways. However, if you exercise hyper awareness and step back for a moment to ask yourself, Is what I am doing right now moving me closer to or further away from my goal, or in other words; is what I am doing right this moment going to help or hurt me in pursuit of what I TRULY want. Is what I am doing right now helping me achieve a greater goal, or just giving me temporary pleasure? Is eating this massive meal of meat and fat going to make me feel good about my goal, or simply feel good for the brief moments I am enjoying it. 

Looking at our other example of staying on track with studying when you get a call from a friend to hang out. A person might be aware that studying is the right choice, but because a simple lack of the big picture they might choose to ignore it. When you are able to take yourself back from a situation and look at the big picture and the direction you are heading it give you the power of clarity. Clarity of what you really want, and then you can step back into the situation and make the best decision possible. 

Hyper awareness is a simple tool we can all use on a daily basis that reels us back in to our goals when we are lead astray by others and distractions. It is a tool that is easily activated by one simple question: Is what I am doing right now moving me closer to or further away from my goal. My challenge to you is to ask yourself this question 10 times a day for the next 10 days and you we instantly see how easy it can make your day to day decision making.