In all of my years in business, one fact has always been a constant. In every business situation, I’ve realized what I feed grows, and what I starve dies. Everything positive I gave my time and attention to flourished in a way that I couldn’t have imagined, and any negative aspect of my life I gave that same attention did as well. It was a hard lesson to learn and took many years to understand, but you have to ensure that you are feeding the right things and starving anything that could be holding you back in life and business. 

Easier said than done. But there are steps you can take in your life to ensure great success comes your way. 

Focus on the positive. 

If you focus on your worries, doubts, or lack of confidence, those things will continue to show up in your work and life. Stop spending time second-guessing yourself and allowing the itty bitty shitty committee to discuss how your success is impossible. Stop letting fear creep in and looking backward at your failures. Spending your energy dwelling in these negative spaces will only lead you down a negative path. When you give your time to negative things, things go negatively. You create your reality, and if you are always waiting for the other shoe to drop, it will. 

Stop showing up as a victim. 

There was a time in my life when everything seemed to be going wrong for me. I got involved in office politics, had a successful business pulled out from underneath me, and my bank account was empty. In the pit of my despair, I hired a coach to help me see my way out. They helped me see my blind spots and demanded I stop showing up as a victim because I would always be one if that’s how I was showing up. They explained that I was the common denominator in everything going wrong and that I was the only person who could reprioritize and change the trajectory of my success. Find the tools to get out of bad situations and choose success. It can happen in a second, and that second is the moment you decide it will happen. 

Put positive attention on relationships, clients, finances, and business. 

Positive attention will lead these areas of your life to grow. You can actualize positive things and begin to see the success you envision. The opposite is also true. So when you feel that meeting of the itty bitty shitty committee commence, throw your attention to the people, places, and projects that will shut them up. Avoid surrounding yourself with people who bring negativity into your life; instead, find people who hold you accountable, lift you up, and model positivity in their own lives. 

Find your passion and make it your career. 

It’s easy to place positive attention on something you love. However, your career shouldn’t just be something you do. I found the least success in my life in jobs where I was just showing up. Success becomes easy and inevitable when you start spending your time and energy positively feeding your passion. 

Have clarity on a plan and people to hold you accountable.

Without a plan, you plan to fail. It is so important to have clarity on your goals and a plan to execute them. This way, you know what to feed and what to starve. You only have so much time and energy; if you spend it “feeding” things that don’t need to be fed (or really need to be starved), you will never get the success you deserve. And find someone to hold you accountable for these plans. These people will help keep eyes on your blind spots and help to put you in positive environments where your success can grow. 

When I look back on my career and all the time I wasted feeding the negative feelings, people, and places in my life, I wish I had taken this advice earlier. But I also now understand that all of the things that went wrong led me to success more significant than I imagined. I’ve spent so much time feeding the positive aspects of my life and starving the negative that it is second nature to me now. If you want help prioritizing what to feed and what to starve in your life, sign up for Successology™ Virtual Boot Camp on January 13, 2023, from 10 am-1 pm PST. Use code SHIFTMD to pay just $97. That’s a $100 savings!