6 Changes you can make today to be more successful

There is self belief and lack of self belief. When you have self belief, that alone is not enough. That is only 5 percent of what you need to have to achieve success. We can "believe" in ourselves and talk ourselves into being the best, but there are a few more steps that needs to be taken if we truly want to reach the heights of success of the people we aspire most to be like.

1.  Vision

When you have a vision, a mission and a goal, and you write it down, break it up on how you are going to get there, and tick it off as you go - the chances are very good for you getting to where you set out to be. You need to be meticulous in doing so though and adapt when a challenge is put in front of you. Every time you feel like you may be defeated, go back to the basics. What was your vision? What is your mission? What is the end goal? Life is a long distance race, and sometimes that's the best race to be in.

2.  People

If you hang out with losers, drop-kicks, drug addicts, people without values and those who just aren't going anywhere, the chances are, they will rub off on you. Every time you tell them you are going to do something positive as a step forward, they will tell you that it's not possible, you're not good enough and the best one of all "you are dreaming". If you hang out with dogs, you get flees. Except my dog of course! But the saying has more merit than you think. If you surround yourself with people smarter than you, more talented than you and all of whom have the right attitude, you will find yourself falling in line, learning, developing and becoming the person you always dreamed of becoming.

3. Mind Aerobics

Read books on successful people, ways to train your mind, self-help books, business case studies, marketing - you name it, read it. Remember that few authors are experts, but there will always be one thing you walk away with from any book. Have you ever noticed that most successful people in business play chess? Or at least they did when they were a child. It tests your mind and makes you think strategically. That's what you need to do every step of the way on your journey to become more successful.

4.  Embrace Challenge

You may hate your boss, or your colleagues or the job that you do, but the challenge it presents you with will give you resilience, understanding, hindsight and importantly the ability to work through a challenge and turn a negative into a positive. Successful people have to do this every single day in one way or another. 

5  Envision The Person You Want To Become

For me, my role models are a mixture for different reasons. I have a number of mentors; Jack Cowin is one of them. He is one of Australia's and Canada's for that matter, most successful people. I ring him up with real challenges or just because I need reassurance that I am doing the right thing. Every single time, he challenges me back, reinforces that I know the right way to go about things and mostly is just supportive and kind. If I was ever to get to his position (I won't - it's not quite my dream), I would love the opportunity to provide such a stable mentorship that is both challenging and encouraging to someone else. The fact that a person this important gives up so much of their time is remarkable. Then, there are the celebrity role models, that sit there in my mind not because they are celebrities or famous, but for different reasons. Angelina Jolie is an brilliant example of someone who dares to change perception of third world countries and bring to light their problems. She puts her money where her mouth is, and is relentless in making sure she is making a huge difference to the world we live in. Just by adopting so many children from so many different places, she created enormous change in both perception and acceptance. So many people followed suit and now children from orphanages at varying ages are being brought into loving homes. She also ignites the need to connect that child to their homeland in some way or another, not just westernise them. Gwyneth Paltrow, is beautiful, smart, interesting, different and not afraid to be hated. She is living life on her terms and loving every minute of it.  Not only is she an Oscar winner, she is a business woman and someone who just seems like someone I would like to hang out with. Yes, I would pay $1,000 for a facial if it was going to give my skin the lift it needed. Last but not least, Reese Witherspoon. I never watched her earlier movies. My first foray into watching Reese on the big screen was Little Big Lies. The reason being is I labelled her falsely as a dumb blonde only due to the the promotional videos of one of her movies. How wrong was I? I love to be wrong, because that in itself changes you. Instead, she is brilliant. Sharp as a tack, and braver than most. She also has single handledly opened up the world to women and let every single young girl, woman and parent know that women are capable of big things, and no matter how many knock backs you get, all you have to do is get back up and look for the next person to pitch your idea, or tell your story. She is the new Oprah, that feels a little bit more real. Her speech recently touch me, and I wanted to be her. I wanted that girly voice that articulates life and being a businesswoman so perfectly.

6. Shift To An Exponential Mindset

No-one becomes successful by thinking small. Steve Jobs didn't think small when he brought out the iphone. Elon Musk didn't think small when he built Tesla. Mark Zuckerberg didn't think small when he created Facebook. If you want to truly reach to the top, you need to think so big that no-one else before you has ever reached that height. Dream the big dream. Give yourself freedom to have thoughts and a mindset that to everyone else seems crazy. It will take you to another level. All truly successful people in business think 10 times bigger than any normal person.