What does success look like to you? Think, picture it, and visualise it, go on, take a few seconds...

This blog post is about defining what success looks like before you start to work towards it. You can apply this article to any aspect of your life but as usual we are talking about developing reuse programmes. We are helping you define the success of your reuse project (or any project) so that you have more chance of the project hitting all the targets.

Success can mean many things. At the end of the article we have a download to help you actually define success for your project- (because we know it is not easy to define!)

Ready?

Ok, before you read on, have it in your mind what you think success is going to look like in a year’s time. Ask yourselves these questions… Are you going to change the world? Are you going to save your organisation? Are you going to make reuse mainstream? Are you going to build something? You know what you want to happen, but you have to picture it as close to its actuation as you can for this to work. You might want to start by asking yourself these questions, and then bringing in a trustworthy team for an implementation meeting to see what they think. This will build a very well rounded concept and develop your linear vision.

All this visualisation helps move things forward

When people can visualise what success looks like, it helps to formulate and formalise all of the requirements that are needed to be realised to push you towards that dream. You can change your mindset even by thinking less that you will be working incredibly hard to get to the end result, and more that everything you do simply brings the goal one step closer. The goals, aims, tasks, sub-tasks and ideas will all come to you too.

There’s a psychological theory that if you have the vision of success firmly in your mind, and can place yourself mentally in that scenario, it attracts the right thoughts planning and (woo woo alert!) vibrations and chemicals that you need to actually succeed. Top athletes don’t stand at the start line imagining what happens if they lose, they picture themselves popping champagne on the podium. They imagine themselves breaking the world record, they imagine legacies and admiration. 

Visualisation defines success

As well as visualising the point of success and planning all of the steps and processes to get there, you should also visualise what you may feel and what might happen after that point of success. Success doesn’t have to follow a target or a timeline or an exact figure, it can be a lot looser and more subjective, and once it’s achieved, it doesn’t have to be forgotten and archived to the past, it can be turned into a successful milestone for the next success.

Use your vision of success to inspire the team around you and drive motivation for the project. When your idea of success aligns with theirs, it’s going to be a lot easier to get there.

Are you ready to define success?