So many women wish they could be more successful in their lives, yet, when I take them aside and ask them what would constitute specific success in their lives; they would stare at me blankly. Sure they might cover the obvious success strategies they would imagine they would need in order to be successful – but all too often they are not sure themselves of exactly what they are trying to achieve. Most women could tell me that they wanted to achieve abundance in wealth, health and happiness – yet in order to execute effective strategies to achieve these objectives, they would possibly land up walking away with mediocre results because their frame was too vague.

You see, if you don’t have very clear and specific goals in mind, then no matter what strategies you initiate in your life – you will be running around in circles. As a professional coach, it is my job to make sure that my clients’ goals and objectives are crystal clear before we even attempt to develop suitable success strategies in order to achieve what they are seeking. Often we are in a rush to reach our success, we bypass as many possible points so that we can get into action and start seeing immediate results. But if we don’t formulate a foundation for clarity and develop a plan to implement the right actions aligned with our definitive goals – we will sink before we can even swim!

The very first tip towards developing powerful and pertinent action steps therefore lies in becoming clear on what you want. It is not specific enough to say I want to become wealthy. Wealth to you may mean something very different to what wealthy means to someone else. How wealthy do you want to be, what do you want to earn, when do you want to become wealthy by…? These are all questions that need to be thought through before you get out there and play the game. Being vague will give you vague results. Get specific, measurable and clear so that you know exactly what to set out to achieve and then we can move onto creating success strategies that are right for you!

Once you are clear on what you want, the second tip I would implicate is to formulate goals that are tangible and do-able. So many women set such high expectations of themselves that they devise unrealistic action plans that they need to implement and they land up getting stuck in over-whelm. We often debilitate ourselves before we even begin. It is true that we all want to be superwomen; however, we also need to look at setting ourselves up to succeed and not to get imprisoned by the anxiety of our own expectations.

The rule of thumb as a coach is to encourage clients to set themselves up to carry out success strategies that are 20% out of your comfort zone. So if you feel that leaving your job and opening up your own business is 100% out of your comfort zone, then you need to look at other alternatives that you could do that would push you to get there, but not keep you trapped in helplessness. Perhaps you could start the company whilst you are still employed and work on it in the evenings and over the weekends, until such time as you feel that the move over would be more aligned with 20% out of your comfort zone.

Thirdly, the biggest tip I can give you as a coach to enhance effective success strategies is the following: see failure as feedback. If you are scared to do something out of fear of failure – then chances are you’ll never do it and you will never be able to face the failure, receive the feedback and move onto becoming a success. Failure is a success strategy in itself. The only way past failure is to go through it and learn so that you can then come out tops! If you can change your perspective on failure, I bet you would be ready and willing to try a lot more things in your life! Successful people welcome failure and use it as a stepping stone towards reaching their ultimate dreams.

So are you ready to define your goals clearly, get 20% out of your comfort zone, and welcome failure? If so, you have three success strategies that will help you overcome any obstacles, and shift you into creating and getting into action towards achieving your dream life!

Samantha McMurtrie is a dynamic woman who has the passion and commitment to seeing that everyone she encounters comes out with direction, purpose and an incredible drive for life! She is a learning facilitator and a qualified Professional Coach, a member of the ICF (International Coach Federation) & Comensa (Coaches and Mentors of South Africa). Samantha is one of the founders and members of Pretty Powerful, a vibrant company that optimises the power of the internet to provide women around the world with affordable, accessible and quality online coaching programs offering tools, success strategies, guidance and support to help women create the lives they want. Samantha is the author and coach of the successful Pretty Powerful 90-Day Life Makeover program that aims to help women become the best that they can be – mentally, emotionally, spiritually and skilfully. Pretty Powerful reflects Samantha’s vision to enthuse women around the world to learn, live and love POWERFULLY! Visit Success Strategies to become 100% clear, confident and excited about your life! Secrets of success.

Remember when you were young your parents would tell you to always look neat and smart? Even at a young age, you were beginning to learn some basic lessons in marketing yourself. Back then, your parents were teaching you that looking neat and smart creates a positive first impression so vital to your success.

However, as you grew older and wiser, and life became a lot more complicated, looking neat and smart, while still vital, is no longer adequate. Whether applying for a job, meeting with a business client, winning the heart of that very special someone, or running for public office, you need to be effective in marketing yourself to win.

Here are five effective tips you may find helpful in marketing yourself:

1. Always look neat and smart:
As a tribute to parents who have always worked hard for your success, looking neat and smart will always be on top of this list. People will always gravitate towards a winner. If you look like a winner and smell like a winner, people will treat you like a winner. And you yourself will certainly start feeling like a winner. High profile politicians and business icons who have the money even hire the services of an image consultant just so they would have that winning advantage.

2. Appear bigger than you actually are:
Oftentimes, size does matter. Again, this boils down to people wanting to be with or work with winners. There seems to be this accepted mindset, actually a misconception, that winners should be big. This is why you see small local businesses adopting fancy multinational-sounding business names to make their small business appear globally big. Or they would have their business stationery printed with the flags of several countries to imply they have multinational affiliates. Maybe they do. Maybe they don’t. But they certainly look big. Having a virtual office “staff” makes you look big, too, even though your “staff” could be just your mother, sister or your wife. In Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki refers to his cat as his “business partner” whenever he has to enter into a contract subject to the approval of his “business partner”. Business Process Outsourcing and Contact Centers are there to create an impression that you have a big business. A business website is a very effective platform for marketing yourself as your website exposes your small business to a global market.

3. Highlight your achievements:
So what if you don’t have a Ph.D. on your resume? Or if you are just a start up business with very little credentials to show off? Do not dwell on what you do not have. Instead, focus on the benefits you can offer with what you do have and highlight these benefits when marketing yourself. Remember that almost all big industry players started out small at some point in time and were given the opportunity to grow.

4. Be a wide reader, research a lot:
Saying the right things at the right time leaves a very positive impression when marketing yourself in front of your business clients or when applying for a job. Reading and researching on a wide variety of topics gives you a wealth of information that you will find tremendously helpful during business negotiations or job interviews. Sometimes, just one brilliant remark can be all it takes to break the ice or seal the deal. In election debates, the candidate who gives the more intelligent, more relevant answers usually gets the votes. When marketing yourself, it is not enough to just look smart, you also have to talk smart.

5. Be multi-lingual and multi-cultural:
In today’s global economy, marketing yourself often requires the ability to speak several languages and be sensitive to diversities in cultures and traditions. Showing your clients you have taken extra efforts to learn about their language and culture earns you their respect and that all-important positive first impression. You can also get a lot of referrals from these clients as they usually are clannish and closely-knit.

A bounty of opportunities await you if you are effective in marketing yourself. You need to constantly keep your best foot forward, highlight your achievements, be sensitive to your markets’ needs, and always have that winning positive first impression.