Critical Success Factors in Life: Acceptance, Purpose, Vision and Goal

Success Begins with Self Acceptance and
Setting a Definite Purpose, Vision and Goal

Commonly known as  PVG… why is it hard to create them for so many people? … and after they get to doing this exercise, why 95 % of students fail to implement after they do have their definite purpose, vision and goals on their goal card written down…

Acceptance:

Critical success factors teach  you how to get to success in life, not just in business alone.   The critical success factors are self-acceptance, purpose, vision and goal.  You probably heard so much about  definite purpose, vision and goal and have been already working on these most frequently taught lessons on these last three factors. 

Every successful business leader, entrepreneur or person, without exception, says it is easy to be successful and  that “you have it in you’ to be successful.  That element is inside of you.

The successful person will say “just go provide value” to your potential customers.  They will follow you and they will want to buy from you. They will want to do business with you.    But you are sitting there puzzled.  You may be plugging away with your great goals.   You wonder why after six months of working so hard, nothing measurable is happening.  Maybe you are growing as a person.  Or maybe you are getting clearer about your “Why.”   But no measurable result is coming your way in terms of building your business.   You need to have income.  That is related to success in many ways.  Isn’t it?  

The First Important Critical Factor to Success is Self-Acceptance: 

People consists of three aspects; conscious mind, unconscious or subconscious mind and super-conscious mind.  They don’t have control over their limiting beliefs which in most cases are unconscious… that’s controlling us.   People are often  in denial.  Fear!   People are so habitual …what people feel, think and what they do.

Without knowing the definite purpose, vision and goals, your journey to success is bound to fail. Before you going through his six step formula to develop you self-confidence and these necessary tools, there is one element many people ignore. Napoleon Hill pointed out in “Think and Grow Rich” as follows:

“Resolve to throw off the Influences of any unfortunate environment you may have grown up in or now find yourself living in and to build your own life to ORDER.” Most life coaches skip working on this critical factor that kept many people slaves to their past and programming. Is the Critical Factors, the first one is Self-Acceptance.

To be successful, we must cut through this barrier of their self-limiting beliefs.  This big factor is self-acceptance.   You may be in a horrible situation.  You may have had terrible, painful circumstances.    Have had abusive experiences in the past.    Bad things happened to you and you were not to be blamed.   But you were injured and hurt.  You may have such  low self-confidence.

The first step is to accept!  That doesn’t mean to be resigned.   That doesn’t mean to collapse under a weight of negative things that happened to you.   Acknowledge.  Instead of ignoring or being in denial, put your dark past and fears in the open.  Not with anyone and every one.  

• If you have someone you trust you can share.  
• Have quiet moments.  
• Journal your feelings.  
• Write everything down.
• Process your thoughts and feelings.
• Pray.
• Meditate.
  
• Say Affirmations.

You may wish to bring in a power beyond yourself.  Some call this God.  If you are  an agnostic or atheist, you can tap into the power of the Universe or Universal Laws.  You must forgive all the people who hurt you.  You must forgive all the things that happened to you.  You must forgive yourself being in those situations and having made a choice to be there.  You must forgive yourself.  You must let go.   You must then move on.

This essential factor of self-acceptance is what is missing when people just get positive and jump into formulating purpose and setting goals.
You may have a sense that you have a “DREAM.”  But all the negativity of your life you have not dealt with or wallowed in so long will weigh you down.
When things get difficult or you are met with ‘temporary defeats’ you will  begin to crumble and most likely give up.

The very first critical success factor is self-acceptance.  This process cannot be overlooked.  Accepting of yourself involves your past, present and future.    You must forgive yourself.  All the mistakes you made in the past.   All the pain and suffering you caused for yourself and others.  Cherish beautiful memories.  Learn from your pain.  You may not forget but suffering is optional.  You chose to live in the present.  Rebuild yourself.  Rediscover who you are.  So we can move into a meaningful and joyous future.  You say to yourself, “I am the greatest person.”  But you need to build your business. 

Acceptance is the first order of our well being that leads to your personal growth and success in your life.  Acceptance of the things, places, people, and situation in your current life does not mean to succumb to some of those defeating, undesirable conditions with resignation and victimization.  You may hate your job, dislike your boss and coworkers.  You may feel stuck in a relationship you did not want.  You may be very disappointed with what your kids are doing.  You may be worried and anxious about your financial situation.  Your self-confidence may be diminishing.

Acceptance has three stages:

[1] The first is to become aware of your thoughts, feelings and situation fully without any denial. In this stage, you will evaluate several areas of your life: spiritual, relational (family), physical health, financial (professional), and community (global) involvement. 

[2] The second stage of acceptance is to distinguish what you can change and what you cannot change and begin to focus on you own development.

[3] The third stage is to connect to our higher intelligence (universal intelligence, intuition) and create an action plan to change the things you can. Only when you accept, become aware and take actions, you  begin to live the life you aspire to.  But these actions must not be frantic or random.  You must plan according to your dreams from the inner soul, and heart’s desire.  You create our own blueprint of life.

Purpose:

Your definite purpose is a spiritual road map; your deepest “Why’s” in your life.
Acceptance initiates a realization that life is full of lessons for you to learn from.  Your current job, people in your life, situation are teaching you valuable lessons.  Your definite purpose will align with your current situation to transform to your dreams.  Give your full attention and commitment to what you are choosing to do right now.

When you become clear of your purpose, you begin to see the meaning of your life.  You begin to realize how your current situation is a very important stepping stone to the life you dream of.   You will get passed the negatives to find your “truth.”  The purpose is not something you can measure.  It is your deepest reason of being on this planet Earth.  One’s purpose in life is not like these following things: “to earn a million dollars, “to have a new car,” “to own a big, beautiful house in a prestigious neighborhood,” or “to be rich and famous.”  All these things only bought happiness temporarily.   When you can live with a definite purpose you will be satisfied and content every day in spite of setbacks and temporary defeats.  You are full of self-discoveries.

Vision:

Vision is the strategy behind the fulfillment of your purpose. This is a vehicle one chooses to travel by.    Claude Monet loved the beauty of French country side.  He particularly favored controlled nature as in his famous painting, “Water Lilies.”  After disappointing trials of several academic trainings and job positions, he realized his definite purpose: to communicate these beautiful sceneries and people through painting.   His vision then was painting through Impressionism.

Andrew Carnegie created a thriving steel-making business, consolidated various holdings and sold it to J.P. Morgan for $400 million in 1901 (today’s $7.4 billion equivalent.)  His definite purpose was to have success principles available to all individuals regardless of their background.  Carnegie’s vision was to find a capable, committed person to create a systematic development of success principles. Thus Napoleon Hill was chosen for this enormous task.

Bruce Lee’s definite purpose was to achieve inner harmony and happiness.
He chose martial arts, acting and top exciting performances as his vision.

Some people may have a definite purpose to make a difference in children’s lives.  Their vision may be realized by becoming school teachers.  Someone may love to work with his hands and build something.  His vision may be to work as a carpenter. When you find your definite purpose and work from your vision, you experience joy and pride in your work in your daily lives.

Goal:

Purpose, then, leads to vision.  Becoming aware of purpose is just a beginning. Most healthy people want to make a difference in life and create better world and make our Planet Earth and future sustainable.  We are in the flow; however, we are just floating in the ocean of life. Often we meander in life from relationship to relationship, career to career and job to job, not being sure, blaming our upbringing, society, the establishment, etc. When we become clear of our vision, we begin to connect to our daily lives that give excitement and meaning. Vision is the key connector between one’s daily goals and one’s lifetime purpose.

When we begin to focus and work on vision, then we begin to plot from point A to point B, where we are to where we want to be.  Goals planned give us courage to take actions.  These actions are based on good, solid thinking when we are in harmony with our definite purpose.

Laziness and complacency set in when we do not have goals and action plans.  Without having clear goals, we may stay in our comfort zone after we get few things we desired.

We may set our journey on autopilot for a while but not too long.  Earl Nightingale said that “success is a progressive realization of worthy goals.” Goals allow us to keep going consistently and growing steadily.

The important thing is to plan, set goals; and begin our journey immediately.  Over planning with too many details only lead to procrastination.  We must enjoy the process of achieving and never forget our purpose. How many people work so hard and miss spending precious time with their children?  How many people get rich and find feeling so empty on the inside?

Goals can be set and achieved.  The real goal of going through life with goals is to become worthy of the person who can truly live according to your definite purpose.  We must strive to live with worthy goals in alignment with our definite purpose and vision.

Claude Monet set a goal to paint daily and achieved a financial success and continued to paint.

Andrew Carnegie found Napoleon Hill to spend 25 years to interview the world 500 most success people and to publish his book, Think and Grow Rich and other books. Bruce Lee studied and practiced these success principles and became “the first highest paid Asian super star.”

Goals can be annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily.  The timelines set are our best educated guesses and can be reset.

Progressive Realization:

He was well known as the Dean of personal development.

You may be, as most of the people in the world, in a less than satisfactory life right now.  There is no need to be drastic and, in fact, it is not recommended to take drastic actions. You cannot find your dream by quitting your job suddenly or walking out on your family.  Acceptance of the people, places, things and situations in our current life allows us to move one step at a time to remove these negative obstacles in ourselves.  The deeper question to ask yourself is, “What Kind of a Person Will I Want to Be?

A purpose is your big WHY not just personal dreams.  Find your vision which is the vehicle to transport you on this journey. Set goals to guide your daily actions.  You will develop faith in this process and your confidence will be strengthened.

In “Think and Grow Rich”, Napoleon Hill wrote:

If one follows the science of success and does things in a certain way, riches will come.

In the Chapter of Faith, Hill declared his defining philosophy on attaining wealth.
This is how abundance manifests not just money but love and happiness.

Begin at once to immerse yourself in search of a definite purpose, vision and goals in your life.  It is a journey of following your burning desires and becoming the person you truly aspire to be.

You probably already own a copy of “Think and Grow Rich.”  This is not a quick book to be read like fictions or many self-help books.  Although there are many versions, I recommend “the Original Version, Restored and Revised” edited by Ross Cornwell.  The editor has turned Hill’s book into a reference and mini-history book by including extensive footnotes and end-notes which make it even more interesting to read. 

The community I belong has hundreds of like-minded people, and creating abundance in their lives.  They are making a big difference by helping achieve their personal and business goals.

If you are ready to accelerate and change your life;  and grow as a person and grow your business, Click Here and book a FREE BREAKTHROUGH Coaching session. 

To Your Happiness and Success,
Yukiko Iino