Creating your own personal roadmap to success

The desire for success, and the rewards it brings, is probably uppermost in many people’s minds.  But how many of us actually follow a roadmap dedicated to achieving that success? The answer is probably not many. We are all too busy being distracted or are just simply following a roadmap that someone else has given to us.

Some of us experience a modicum of success doing what comes naturally. However, there are many more of us who are not so lucky when it comes to succeeding in life. We have to make a conscious effort to plan for our success. I am one such person.

Many years ago my tutor and classmates laughed at me when I told them that my ambition was to become a teacher. My tutor was even so kind as to point out to me that I was a lazy scholar and was unlikely to gain the necessary qualifications required to join the teaching profession.

My tutor’s statement was born out of my lack of effort in the classroom. I was, indeed, a lazy student. I was probably the laziest student that my tutor had had the misfortune to teach.

In my tutor’s opinion I would never achieve profession status. At best, all I could hope for was a job sweeping roads. His words were harsh and bitter to hear. They certainly had a negative impact on me as a person.  Any ambition I harboured of becoming a teacher was crushed that day. After all, my tutor was a person in authority and he knew best, or so I thought. My tutor had basically handed me a roadmap to failure. But that was forty years ago, and today I am a teacher with my own communications training company (school). So what happened to prove my tutor and my classmates wrong?

Well, after all the trials, mishaps and unlucky breaks that most of us encounter during our working life, I finally stumbled on a roadmap that would help me achieve my ambition. Yes, I still had to work hard to reach my goal but the effort was made that much easier because of the discovery of my personal roadmap to success.

Finding my personal roadmap to success came about out of desperation rather than luck or design. It was about twenty years ago and I was experiencing yet another bout of unemployment. There had been too many bouts of unemployment during my early career, and my tutor’s idea of how my life would pan out was proving to be correct. But then I had a young family to feed and I could ill afford to be out of work every six months. I decided to do something about it.

With time on my hands I began to read. I read books on self motivation techniques, self analysis and on how to improve my career prospects.

One of the things that I discovered during this period of enforced reflection was my thirst for knowledge in relation to people and how and what they communicate. The fire of ambition extinguished during my school days had been re-ignited.

Although the flame of ambition burned bright, the goal I set myself was a tough one. My academic qualifications were not good enough for me to become a teacher and that meant I would have to go back to school. Not an easy thing to do when you have a young family to feed. Nonetheless, I was going to try.

The first thing I needed to do was to analyse why I wanted to become a teacher. I came up with some very interesting notions before finally settling on the real reason behind my ambition. I love to share ideas with others and by becoming a teacher I would be able to do just that.

Analysing the reasons behind my ambition was not enough. I needed to do more if I wanted to achieve my goal.  A starting point was required, so I put together a five step process that would help me. Here is the five step process:

1.       Wrote down my goal and analysed the drive behind reaching that goal

2.       Carried out an audit of my life skills

3.       Listed my qualifications and experiences

4.       Analysed the gaps between my life skills, qualifications and experiences, and my goal

5.       Created a plan based on my gap analysis

Only by following the five steps was I able to understand what my skills, qualifications and experience were in relation to what was needed to become a teacher. The five steps showed me the route I would have to take and made planning that much easier. In essence, the process allowed me to create my own personal roadmap to success.

Not only did I go back to school, but I also took five years out from fulltime employment to study at college and university. It was the most important, productive and enjoyable five years of my life. During that time I was able to elaborate on my roadmap to success. I decided that I would never again suffer unemployment. I would create my own employment by building a school dedicated to helping others to communicate effectively.

Today, my company trains approximately one hundred business executives every year on how to communicate effectively with their peers and employees.

Naturally, achieving my ambition was not all plain sailing. There were moments of elation as there were many moments of disappointments. However, the most important part of my journey to success was the roadmap that I had created for myself. It allowed for disappointments and gave credit where and when it was due. No more would I allow others to dictate my future. I would control my own destiny - health and natural causes permitting.

For anyone who has a problem discovering their own personal roadmap to success, I have this advice: Take the timeout to test the five steps outlined in this article. You will find the process edifying. It may even lead you in another direction to the one you are following at the moment. And give yourself credit for what you have already achieved. Only by understanding yourself and your unique abilities can you hope to create your own personal roadmap to success.