Let me share with you a 3-step formula I’ve been using for many years. It’s a formula I have also seen other people use in order to achieve the goals they want, anything from a simple goal, through to a major life achievement. It has helped me, for example, choose the right A level subjects, emigrate twice, become a national champion speaker, and win an international writing award.

Step 1: Passion
You are endowed with various skills, abilities and passions. This didn’t happen by accident. There is a reason why you were endowed with these, and others weren’t, so it makes sense that you follow your passions and do things which are right for you, rather than doing things which you feel you should do.

Think now - what would you really like to be doing that you aren’t? Take some time and imagine how it would feel if you were doing it.
Sometimes we don’t follow our passion because it seems a scary step to take, or because it looks too difficult.

One of the ways of coping with this is to ask yourself “Well, how difficult can it be?”
Sure, there will be challenges, but that is how life works. When we start off on a new venture, life helps us grow by putting challenges in our path for us to overcome. If we went from A to B without challenges, we wouldn’t grow and develop as a person. The best way to deal with this is to know that challenges will occur on a new venture, understand that they are there for your benefit, that they are challenges you can cope with, and that they will pass.
If you are following your passion and looking forward to the end result, the positive energy will win out!

Step 2: Side Roads
For you to achieve what you want, may mean that you come off the main highway of life and take some side roads.

This means you will be doing things differently to people around you.
Many people are afraid of being different, but successful people understand that this is a step that needs to be taken.

A wise person once said “To get what others haven’t got, you have to do what others don’t do.”
I love taking side roads! There are many benefits:
•    It builds your personal strength knowing you can take a different path to others and be successful
•    It builds your confidence for when you decide to take another side road in the future
•    You always meet other people on the side roads – interesting, successful people
•    You act as an inspiration for others who would like to take their own side roads

Step 3: Pay the Price
So, you are ready to achieve – you are following your passion, you are taking some interesting side roads …. and you will most likely be paying a price.

My belief is that there is a price to pay for everything.

Let’s say you are bored in your job. You would like to leave and spend time studying, in order to move into a new type of work. The two main choices you have are to leave your job, or stay in it.

Let’s say you choose to follow your passion. The price you are likely to pay is that you will lose income and will be committed to studying for a while. The reward will be that you live your life doing what you really want to do.

If you choose not to pay this price, you will just pay a different price, one of being stuck in a job you find boring, along with the subsequent feelings of frustration. The reward will be……..?
There is always a price to pay, so you may as well be paying the one that is helping you reach your goals.

Note that there are different prices to pay, some for example may be temporary like the one above, some may be a ‘forever’ price, for example if you have a health condition and need to do regular exercise to keep healthy. Some prices may be ones you enjoy! When I was training for the national speaking competition, I enjoyed all the times I spent learning new skills and practising them.

Let’s look at some examples of people who have used this formula:
•    One woman I know is passionate about having overseas holidays. She doesn’t have a lot of money to spend, and so unlike other people who go to a travel agent when booking a holiday, she does something different. She spends a lot of time on the Internet seeking out bargain trips. The price she pays for this is spending a long time researching and waiting for special deals to appear, but the end result is that she has had several wonderful holidays, often costing half of what most people would pay.
•    Another woman I know was in a job that she enjoyed, but was passionate about setting up a recruitment agency. People told her that it was a difficult market to break into and that she should stay in her job, but she believed she could do it. It took 6 months of hard work, rejection, and no income until she secured her first client. However within 2 years she had a successful city centre business with several staff and a million dollar turnover.

What is one of your passions that you are not yet living?
What side roads will you have to take?
What price will you have to pay?
Think of the feelings you will have when you have achieved your goal – it will all be worth it.

Kim Chamberlain is a motivational speaker and training consultant.
Contact her on kim@successfulspeaking.co.nz
www.successfulspeaking.co.nz

About the author

Kim is a professional speaker and trainer in communication skills. She is the founder and principal of Successful Speaking, a speaking and communications training business.