Intermediate Steps: What You Need to Succeed

We covered the basics of success in the last post. Here are some intermediate steps to speed you along to your goals:

• Have a plan. You need a goal or vision of what you want to achieve so you will know what you are striving for. If you don't know where you are going you won't get there. Instead of saying "I want a year's worth of food stored in case of an emergency", write down exactly what that year's worth of food would look like. It is much easier to have five bushels of wheat stored in your garage if on your shopping list it says "five bushels of wheat" and not just "food".
• Get educated. Whether formally through schooling or informally through books and websites, you need to continually improve your skills in your chosen field. Sure you learned Basic in 1985 but that won't keep you in the computer programming field today. Every field, from preparedness to nursing to electronics, continues to change and evolve; you need to be right there, learning as each change is made, so that you will keep your knowledge and skills sharp.
• Be useful to others. You get "paid" whether with money, a job, opportunities, gifts, job tips, stock tips, helpful information, etc. by how useful you are to others. If someone finds what you do helpful to them, they will reward you. If you are a beautiful 20 year old female and a middle age man finds you attractive, he is likely to reward you with trips, cars, money, and clothes. If you are a 12 year old boy who just posted the funniest video anyone has ever seen on YouTube, the media/your friends/advertisers are likely to reward you with fame and/or fortune. If a guy comes out to the range with a new handgun and zero information about how to use it and you educate him on the basics of safe shooting and responsible gun ownership, he will remember what you did for him. He may not reward you today but who knows, the next job interview you walk into may have that guy sitting on the other side of the table.