MURURWANI – Many people want to achieve success in life and because there are so many distractions this could be a challenge.

By keeping the following advice in mind, however, you can dramatically increase your chances of becoming successful in whatever endeavour that you choose to pursue

Management Concepts – The four functions of management
for any kind of organization or any person to be successful or run smoothly they need to implement core management concepts namely: planning, organizing, directing and controlling.

Many people believe the four functions of management should be only be understood by the organization only.

Planning for Success

Planning is the first phase one cannot do successful without the act of planning, Imagine yourself being successful.  Imagination is more important than knowledge. The more vibrantly and accurately you imagine your success, the easier it will be for the rest of yourself to follow through.

The same way engineers first imagine a bridge and then build it so you too can be the engineer of your success. Find the purpose or goal of your life. Identify the things you love to do, the things that give you satisfaction. Once you identify what you love to do, use this information to find the purpose of your life or the objective of your life.

Define the meaning of success as you see it. You cannot have success if you do not know what it means for you. Everyone views success differently and using someone else’s standard for success is like eating another person’s lunch and expecting to love it. Instead gather as much information as you can. Listen, study, understand, learn, and repeat. Humans are amazing creatures because we can look at the world, make intellectual connections, and use those connections to make our lives better.

This is what information allows us to do. Never turn your “learning switch” off. You never know when your flash of insight will come!  Find a mentor. A mentor is someone, usually with a bit more experience than you, who knows the trade, offers advice, and helps you in your pursuit. Behind many successful people are mentors. Mentors get satisfaction out of knowing that their guidance has literally bred success.

When choosing a mentor consider a mentor in your career.

Set a timeline if you don’t know when you will achieve your objective by, then it’s hard to know whether or not you have failed. Identify the skills needed to achieve your objectives.

The resources you need are very vital and thus organize all the resources in order to achieve your desired outcome. The preparation stage is for the next one called implementation stage. For example, a person cannot say next week I will buy a car without a single cent in the bank therefore, one has to prepare otherwise you fail. The most difficult stage to become successful is the leading stage called implementation. Remember after resources are available you need to put them into practice.

There is no guarantee that you will automatically be successful in whatever you do. Many challenges will come as some people “will” talk about you, people “will” hate you, people “will” try to discourage you, people “will” try to stop you, people “will” try to bring you down. And to that your response should be I “will” not care who talks about me. I “will” love those who hate me. I “will” always be encouraged. I “will” not stop no matter what. I “will” stand up in this world. All of this can be achieved by having:

• ·       Confidence not the confidence of boasting seeing other people not as good as you are. I’m talking about a confidence so unmoved by circumstances that circumstances begin to move and change because of your confidence in action.
• ·       Courage, the other things will be courage, no matter what happens one has to have courage. I failed grade 12 in  2000 with 15 points and I knew I could not manage even if I enrolled at Namcol and my parents advised me to go for upgrading at Namcol, and I told them it is better if I go back to grade 9 to start afresh.

Thinking how long did it took me to reach grade 12 and for me to start in grade 9 again? In Isaiah 41:13 it states: For I am the Lord your God, who takes hold of your right hand and say to you, do not fear I will help you.  I managed because of courage, When we live with courage, we are not ignorant of what we can lose we are simply more willing to risk losing it in order to win.

In order to be successful we should not be afraid of risk because risk makes us get prepared for the future.

• ·        Self-Discipline

Self-discipline is the ability to get yourself to take action regardless of your emotional state. Picture yourself saying to yourself next month when I will get paid I will buy 20 chickens to raise, when the day comes reaching the shopping mall you see sales at Street House for clothes and shoes, instead you decide to buy the items using the money you budgeted for chickens.

The height of self-discipline is when you reach the point that when you make a conscious decision, it’s almost guaranteed you will follow through no matter what comes in your way. Changing direction every moment like a climate changes it will never guarantee you success in life at all. This brings us to implementation stage as a very challenging one but with self-discipline you can achieve this.

It includes the ability to work well with others, I ‘tell you we need other people to be successful’, no way will you become successful without the help of others as the road to success requires us to work with others in a compassionate, professional manner.

The last stage is controlling or evaluation. You evaluate if your desired objectives or goals are achieved or not. In my case I wanted to pass grade 12 with minimum points of 32 for which the outcome was 15 points very far away from the desired outcome. As I stated already there is no guarantee of easy success in life.

If you fail, think where you went wrong, rectify and carry on. Remember no matter how many times you fail achieving the specific outcome sets of goals don’t give up even if it’s 100 times. Rather keep in mind that you only tried some 100 ways of achieving something which didn’t work. If and when you fail, don’t be fearful about starting over, be happy that you have been given a chance to be more successful

Remember success does not guarantee you happiness but the ability to cope in this changing world and the skill of problem solving in your daily life is the key to success. Not everyone will be happy for you and your success. Some people are insecure and jealous. Be prepared for them, and look past them until you find the people who are happy for you and who support you.

 

By Mabuku Kennedy Kaumba