What is success? Each of us has different ideas about success. While some view at it as overall success in life, others compartmentalize it into various aspects of life such as success in their relationships, family, financial aspects, and so on. If you flip through the pages of history, you will come across many individuals who seem to have the Midas touch - being able to achieve greatness despite seemingly insurmountable odds. While some may attribute pure luck as the reason for their success, and others the result of sheer hard work, however, there is more to the successes of people like Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie. Following are eight essential tips to become successful in life. 1. Becoming Successful is Deciding on a Course of Action One of the first steps is to make the decision to achieve something. All of us know that nothing can move forward until that first decision to do so is made. The initial action is always the decision to go ahead, which is a rudimentary step, which many people tend to overlook. So, decide on moving forward, put your decision down in writing, just to keep it in focus, and then carry on from there. 2. Success Means Having Clarity of Vision and Purpose Having clarity of vision and purpose is perhaps one of the most important factors of achieving success. Without having a clear picture of what it is exactly that you want to achieve and how you are going to go about doing it, your goals will lack a sense of continuity. According to the Law of Attraction, we attract only those things that we focus upon, hence, if there is no clarity, the only thing we will attract is confusion. The fact is that most people simply have no idea about what they really want. Thus, lacking clarity of vision and purpose. So how does one acquire clarity? Well, introspection is the key. Ask yourself questions like: What is it that I really want? What does success mean to me? How will this accomplishment make a difference to my life? In other words, clarity means understanding exactly what you want, why it is that you want it, and how it will affect your life. 3. Becoming Successful Involves Setting SMART Goals Once you acquire clarity of vision and purpose, the next vital step of achieving success is to defining goals for yourself - specifically defining SMART goals. The acronym 'SMART' stands for Specific-Measurable-Achievable-Realistic-Time Sensitive. Identifying what you want and determining SMART goals that you set as mile/stones along the path is another key to achieving it. 4. Success Means Making a Plan and Staying Focused Staying focused means being able to accomplish what you set out to do with unwavering concentration. Life is full of distractions - newspapers, TV, family, managers and clients, e-mail and telephones - all of which can be completely overwhelming. So, how does one stay focused despite all of life's distractions? Well, willpower is one of the factors; although willpower alone will not be sufficient to stay focused. One of the best ways is to devise and then stick to a plan. Begin the plan with the goals you have in mind and then work backwards, mentioning each step that is required to achieve those goals. The plan should be made as detailed as possible. Make an effort to visualize every setback that can be possible, and plan for it. Write the plan out either in your computer or on paper, and review it on a regular basis, ensuring that each step that you accomplish takes you closer to your goals. 5. Achieve Success by Deferring, Delegating, or Deleting In addition to making your plan, you need to also develop a direction to the plan of action which will keep you motivated to keep going ahead at all times. Although you may require some self-discipline to do this, but it is a vital aspect of any kind of achievement. Prior to beginning any new activity, examine it to see if it will help in moving you nearer to the goals you have in mind. If it does not, you could put it aside for another time. To defer, to delegate, or to delete are the 3 Ds that are taught by many personal and business coaches. If a certain activity can be put away for later, defer it. If that activity can be done by somebody else, delegate it. And if it does not really need to be done at all, it can be deleted. This kind of close examination of each activity will help in keeping you focused on the things that are really important. 6. Success is About Having Commitment Commitment is about having the trait of steadfast and sincere fixity of purpose. This often involves being willing to pay the price that everything has. This is an important factor because no one wants to put all their effort into doing something only to discover later that the price they paid was too high. The price may not be in monetary terms; it could be sacrifice, effort, time, and also money, or maybe something else. The point is that in order to become successful, you must be fully aware of the price involved and be ready to pay it. 7. Success Involves Having Self-belief Lack of self-belief is one of the biggest hurdles that many people need to surmount in order to become successful. Most people have a lot of baggage due to their upbringing. This baggage generally consists of self-limiting beliefs, which can actually prevent them from finding the success they seek. People are often bogged down with notions like they are not good enough, or not smart enough, and even not worthy enough. Success can only be achieved by shedding these self-limiting beliefs and replacing them with positive self-beliefs. It is an established fact that if you think you can do something, you will, and conversely, if you think that it cannot be done, it will lead to failure. 8. Success Lies in Taking Action Nothing can be achieved until action is taken to achieve it. After all the above steps of deciding on a course of action, having clarity of vision and purpose, setting goals, making plans, staying focused, being committed, and creating self-belief, you will need to go ahead and act on what you want to achieve. By putting your plan of action into play, you will get to what you set out to achieve - becoming successful! Success can be termed as a state of mind, which anybody can aspire to and achieve. One of the first things to keep in mind is that success is a process. There really is no esoteric secret to it and neither is it reserved for only a few chosen people. Intrinsically, success is not merely about fate, coincidence or luck. It is basically about perceiving the steps involved in the process and then putting into practice those steps. Being successful is not rocket-science - all it needs is determination, tenacity and the urge to excel in whatever it is we choose to do. Hope the tips mentioned above help you on your way to success!