It's On You to Get Where You Want to Be

12 Ways to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

BY LOLLY DASKAL, PRESIDENT AND CEO, LEAD FROM WITHIN

When you're at a point where you feel ready to take yourself to the next level, how do you make it happen?

When you want to succeed in new ways, what are the next couple of movies you must take?

Here are a dozen significant ways you can help yourself get from where you are to where you want to be:

1. Don't let yesterday's mistakes make you afraid of tomorrow. Instead of getting swept up in the past, bring forward only the things that will help you succeed in the future. Everyone has setbacks, challenges, failures, mistakes and adversities, but you always have a choice of what you carry ahead with you.

2. Treat every experience as a resource. Think of all your experiences--good and bad--as a library of resources, available anytime you need the wisdom and accumulated knowledge they hold. Experience is your first and best teacher, a powerful source of information tailored exactly for you. Treat it as an asset in creating the life you want.

3. Know what drives you. It's important to understand what drives and motivates you, because that knowledge allows you to go after what you want. We all have moments in our lives that give us our motivation and our drive to pursue what we want. Stay connected to those moments so you can tap into them when you need inspiration.

4. Find your sphere of influence. Surround yourself with people you can work with to create a powerful network of like- minded people who can help one another go to the next level.

5. Think bigger than yourself. Now and then we all find ourselves at a turning point, a time when life seems to be asking us to choose between staying stuck in the same place and moving out to something new where the destination is yet to be determined. If you venture out, the tests and hardships you meet along the way will boost your courage and help you become more than we ever thought possible.

6. Grab your map and compass. Even setting out in a spirit of adventure, you need a map, so you know where you are, and a compass, so you know what direction you're moving in. Make the kind of plans you need to have both elements firmly in place before you take the next step.

7. Find your triggers. We all have triggers, and you're the only one who can defeat yours. The secret to permanently breaking through a trigger is finding something greater--whether it's faith or family or your desire to reach your potential and meet your goals. When you overcome your triggers, you overcome any self-destructive behavior that may be holding you back.

8. Remember that the pain of the process is temporary but the feeling of achievement lasts forever. Failure doesn't mean the game is over, it means try again--but this time with experience. Failures are part of life, so don't let temporary setbacks keep you from success. Persistence is the key, so simply refuse to give up.

9. Have faith in baby steps. As you know, you don't have to see the whole staircase to take the first step. Keep taking small steps, and watch them begin adding up to big results.

10. Find your line in the sand. Especially in times of change, you need to know who you are and what's important to you, what you'll tolerate and what you won't, where you can say yes and where you can never compromise. When you do, you can assure you stay on track by steering yourself away from the distraction of misplaced priorities.

11. Make friends with fear. Learn to be OK with failure, secure in your commitment and knowing you won't quite when things get hard.

12. Reinvent yourself as needed. Reinvention doesn't mean altering who you are or what you are about--it may be as simple as a new method of pursuing the same dream.

At the end of the day, if you want to get yourself from here to there, you need to take everything you know and everything you need to learn forward.