No doubt, one of the greatest morale busters in our lives is stagnation. Whether caused by a setback or it just being a ‘process’ through which one must pass to the next level, stagnation is not something that one can rejoice about.

Inherently, we all seek to have a ‘forward’ motion with everything we do in our lives.

• We would love to move from obscurity to authoring a book,
• From authoring, we would love to get acclaim from the work we did,
• From acclaim, we would love to see our work make a difference in people’s lives,
• We would love to see our book move from the shelves at a fast rate, enriching us in the process.

You get the point. It is kind of like a mirage. I am yet to find someone who is fully satisfied with all that he has done. If so, that person qualifies to transition to the  next life!

We all want the next level. It is inherent in us.

In the Previous post, we talked about these things. We came up with two starter points for moving us in the next level.

1. Get Desirous
2. Document Your options

Today, we continue with the rest of the five points to usher you to your next level.

3. Document your difference:

There is a whole article concerning this coming up. The study of your difference can be one of the most revealing and useful studies you can ever undertake. Life Signatures are necessarily unique from one person to another. Your difference should merge at a certain point from two dimensions. The first dimension is the difference you were intended to make in life.

This can be deduced from your capacity inherent within your talents and gifts, as well as the strengths and opportunities you have. If for example you are a good orator, you love working with words, chances are that you were intended to make a difference through words: written or spoken. The real difference itself that you are to champion will come from two things: What people praise you for and what you are passionate about.

The second dimension that your difference comes from is what you are passionate about and what you have experienced so far. In a nutshell, you need to document what your Brand is. You need to document what your Mission is. You need to document what your Vision is. Most importantly, you need to document what your Audience is.

4. Set Goals and Take Action:

You saw it coming didn’t you? At the heart of intentionally getting to the next level is the business of goal setting. Goal setting is the discipline of documenting your wishes and dreams on paper, complete with time frames and action plans for their fruition. Remember the desires we talked about in the last post? This is now the time to crystallize them on paper, churn them through prodding thinking to analyze all that is needed to see these desires attained. It is of necessity that Goal Setting starts from what you desire. Most importantly, it is of necessity that your desires have a strategic implementation plan. I know of no other single thing that has always been central to ushering people to the next level than Goal Setting.

5. Build Reserves:

Of course you can get to your next level by a gradual process. Know what you want. Start from where you are to build whatever reserves you need for your next level. For the most part, these are normally financial reserves. It could be that you do not have the financial power at the moment to see you through your next level. However, you could gradually start piling up the needed finances through careful strategies outlined by a professional financial planner. In fact, the most common method is savings. I know of recent some people have been advocating against it, but I can tell you that it is noble to have some savings dedicated specifically for your ‘next’.

In our day and age, one of the biggest reserves that you could build is relationships. You will need people both to take you to the next level and to sustain you there. You will also need lots of knowledge reserves for your next level. This means that you need to grow in knowledge in the direction of your next level. Do this deliberately on a daily basis. Know the ins and outs of your next level. Know the leaders in that level. Know the best practices in that level, the whole nine yards.

6. Start a Mastermind:

“Two are better than one…” is not just sound advice, it is scripture! I come from a background where people get together for the success of others mostly during their pre-wedding and wedding days. There is unrivaled support of enormous magnitude! It is typical of goal setting to perfection. And then….everybody scatters after the wedding!

You seldom see such gatherings of people to help one another in a common course that is profitable in life, such as a business venture. I wonder why, and I have written about it here. If you can bring together like minded people and set yourselves a goal, a major goal that you must accomplish, it becomes easier to pull resources together and see it through. Two are better than one remember.

7. Take the Leap:

After all is said and done, the journey of a thousand miles most definitely begins with a single step. The fear of the unknown has been responsible for robbing very many people of their next levels. In fact, I dare say that very many people are scared of success…which sometimes has to come through failure. Some people never really take the leap for their next level.

It is not that they lack ideas. They have them in droves. It is the unknown of their “what if” questions that paralyzes them. So they would rather stay in their ‘known’ comfort zones than venture out. The actual thought here is that there is no guarantee that if they take the leap, they will get to the next level.

I saw a quote on Faceboook attributed to the legendary Jack Canfield that goes something like this:

“Those on top of the mountain did not fall there!” –Jack Canfield

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Touche.

Question: Can you honestly say you have been afraid of success?