Seven Success Secrets that Marion Bartoli Can Teach You to Achieve More Success in Your Life!

Success is sometimes a long and winding journey.  Many times you need to overcome the barriers that block you and naysayers who doubt you.  Sometimes you need to fight though your own self-doubts to achieve success in your life.

Marion Bartoli, the women's winner of the Wimbledon Championship, had to take a long and winding journey to overcome many barriers, naysayers and self-doubts to achieve to reach the pinnacle of the professional tennis world and become a champion.  Whether you follow or play tennis or not, the following are seven secrets to achieving more success can be applied to your life:

1. Believe in Success - Marion, from the age of six years old, believed that she would win the Wimbledon championship.  Because of this unwavering belief, she developed the attitude that she would someday win the tournament.  She developed powerful goals, developed a detailed action plan to accomplish her goals, and stayed focused on achieving those goals.  Once your belief is in place, you will develop the persistence to overcome many obstacles on your success journey.

What goals do you want to achieve?  What steps will you take to achieve your goals?  When will you start?

2.Visualize Your Success - Marion would visualize herself winning the Wimbledon Championship.  She would visualize every detail of the championship: what the crowds would look like, the sounds of the crowd, and the smell of the foods.  Marion would visualize what it would look like for her to dominate her opponents.  And finally, Marion visualized how it would feel carrying the championship trophy.  In her mind, she had already won the championship. 

The key to successful visualization is?the level of detail you apply to your visualization. Make visualization work for you by applying as much detail to your visualization as possible.  Invest in yourself and take time to visualize your goals every day.

3. Create Powerful Goals for Success - As I mentioned before, Marion developed goals to achieve her ultimate goal of winning Wimbledon.  She knew exactly what she wanted to accomplish, when she wanted to accomplish it by, who would be involved in helping her accomplish her goals, what resources she would need to accomplish them, and how she would develop her world-class tennis skills.  Developing powerful goals gave Marion the motivation to go after her goals with confidence.

What goals do you want to achieve?  Are they believable, specific, measureable, believable, time-based, enjoyable, and rewarding?  Most of all, are your goals written on paper?

4. Develop Your Mastermind Group for Success - From the age of six, her father, a physician, developed her skills.  They endured many peaks and valleys during their journey of success.   After reaching the Wimbledon final before and losing to Venus Williams, they realized that they needed to bring other experts into their mastermind group to help them go to the next success level.  They added additional coaches and trainers to further develop Marion?s tennis and physical skills.  She also developed a friendship with fellow French pro player, Tennis Hall of Famer, and past Wimbledon winner- Amelie Mauresmo.  Amelie shared with Marion how to overcome the fear of winning and what to expect on the way to winning Wimbledon.  But most of all, Amelie convinced Marion that she had the skills to win Wimbledon.   Marion knew that she had to develop this powerful mastermind group for her to go to the next success level in tennis.

Do you have a group of experts who can help you achieve more success in your life?  What backgrounds will they bring to your mastermind group?  Are they truthful and willing to tell you what you need to do to achieve your goals?  Do they challenge you to do better? 

5. Develop the Will to Overcome Barriers to Success - There will be many valleys along your journey to achieving more success in your life.  You need to develop an iron will to overcome the barriers to success.  Marion Bartoli, after losing her first Wimbledon final, could have accepted the defeat and gone away.  Many other losing finalists have done the same; however, Marion used her loss as a "stepping stone" to motivate her to work harder.

What barriers have knocked you off course from achieving your goals?  Do you look at your setbacks as learning experiences?  Do you see the big picture after a setback?  What triggers will you develop to get you back into the ?saddle of success??

6. Don't Pay Attention to the Naysayers - She had many naysayers who doubted her skills and ability to win a major tennis tournament, and none more so than for  the granddaddy of all tennis majors, Wimbledon.  Tennis announcers would over analyze her awkward playing style and her attachment to her father as her coach.  Tennis experts would say she was fat, crazy, weird, and strange.  These naysayers would state all the reasons why Marion would not win.  Marion focused on the one reason she would win:  her will to win. She didn't pay attention to these naysayers and won big.

Are there naysayers in your life?  Are they quick to share all the reasons why you won't be successful?  What steps are you going to take to minimize or eliminate these naysayers?  How will you use these naysayers to stay focused and "jump start your journey of success?"

7. Develop Your Skills for Success - Like the old expression goes, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?"  Practice! Practice! Practice!  Marion, with the help of her mastermind group, took her game to the next level.  She dropped habits that were holding her back while developing new tennis skills to take her forward.  Marion was willing and looked forward to putting herself in new tennis challenges that pushed her to a new skills level.

What are you doing to develop your skills and knowledge?  Are you the best in your field?  If not, what can you do to develop your skills and knowledge?  Are you taking classes to learn the skills and knowledge to be the best?  What situations can you put yourself in to challenge yourself to become better? Are you picking the brains of experts in your field at conferences, trade shows, and industry meetings?

Success, whether you are a world-class tennis player, manager, or entrepreneur, is achieved by applying the seven success secrets mentioned above.  I challenge you to implement the seven success secrets and you will achieve more success in your career, business, and in your life.  You will develop a new level of motivation and achieve your goals for success!