How to Make Your Mark

All human beings desire to have success in life. The success desired may be defined in different ways by different people. To many, this may simply mean making a difference with their lives. I call this ‘greatness’ - the act of being able to make a difference with one’s life. There are eight steps to achieving this.

To make it easier for you to memorize the eight steps, I have developed them in the form of an acronym - DOCUMENT. Why document? To document is simply to make a mark. Documenting your greatness therefore means making a mark or providing evidence of your greatness. These eight steps are:

1. Define What Success Means to You
You have to define exactly what success means to you in each part of your life. This enables you to have a solid picture of what you want greatness to look like for you. Every single human being has a specific purpose and therefore success will mean different things to different people.

2. Outline What it Will Take to Achieve Greatness
Once you have defined what success and greatness mean to you, outline what it will take to achieve that. What skills will you need to develop? What must you give up in order to attain greatness? What kind of goals should you set? Who do you need to connect with? Where should you focus your energies? Outline what it will take to achieve greatness.

3. Create Targets that You Can Aim For
Develop some targets that you can aim for. These targets should be graduated in nature, such that once you have hit one target, it naturally leads you to start pursuing the next target. Having targets is very different from setting deadlines. I do not advocate for deadlines because I don’t find them to be motivating. Create specific targets.

4. Underline What You Need to Focus On
Underline what you will need to focus on. Not every target that you created can be pursued at the same time. You have to focus on one specific taget at a time. Focus is essential because it determines your level of productivity. You have to clearly underline what you will focus on. 

5. Make A List of Priorities That You Will Pursue
Priorities are the pathways to success. I like the pareto principle and how it enables us to make the most of our goals. You have to organize all your goals into concrete priorities that you can pursue step by step. List all the targets that you intend to aim for then prioritize them so that you can make the most of your time. 

6. Expect to Succeed
Your exploits in life are directly related to your level of expectation. If you expect to succeed and achieve greatness, then you will succeed and achieve greatness. You have to firmly believe in yourself and your ability to do that which you need to in order to attain what you have defined as success.

7. Nurture A Passion For Helping Others
The truth is that we achieve greatness through serving and helping others. Within your definition of success there must be a clear guideline on what you will do to help others. None of us is an island. A famous quote that I like is: ‘You can have anything you want in this world if you will help enough other people get what they want’. Nurture a passion for helping others.

8. Take Action Daily
Lastly, do something every day that moves you in the direction of your most important priorities. You have to embrace the discipline of doing something every day of the year that is moving towards your greatness. You can accomplish so much if you utilize this formula in your life every single day. Take action daily.

DOCUMENT your greatness and you will definitely achieve success in life.