Kathleen Sullivan

Fiona Harrold needs no introduction. As a high profile and highly successful coach, she clearly practises what she preaches.

"The 7 Rules of Success" is a how-to book on the steps you can take in your life to achieve success. The author interviewed millionaires, charity founders, politicians, human rights leaders, entrepreneurs, best-selling novelists and TV presenters to discover their secrets and strategies for a successful and fulfilled life and summarised these into the following 7 Rules.

Rule No. 1: Be passionate!
Find out what your 'signature strengths' are. As Martin Seligman asks in his book, "Learned Optimism": what are your 'inner talents' that drive you to realize your vision and find meaning and purpose in your life? In your efforts to find fulfilment in your life, be mindful that you don't leave yourself out of the equation of your own life!

Fiona Harrold invites us to ask ourselves: "What is it that you would not stop doing if you were sentenced to spend some time in prison?" She strongly urges the reader to get some of this into their life if it's not already there. This question can also be framed as: "What do you see as your signature strengths or inner talents?" "What do you do well and seemingly with ease that others always comment on or envy you for?" "What were you doing when you felt most like yourself?" Rule No. 2: Practise self-belief!
Be a product of your own making. It is all down to you. Go beyond the "if only" and the blame. Get over your childhood! Believe in becoming a self-created and self-determined individual rather than a product of your own circumstances. Caroline Myss also deals with this in her book "Sacred Contracts: Awakening your divine potential".

We are reminded that the extent to which we are not doing something in our life that we really want to do is the extent to which we are blaming someone else for our misfortune. Rule No. 3: Do more!
Put more effort into your life. Do not wait until you have the confidence and the self-belief to make your next move. Make your move anyway. Just do it. Now. Just do what you know you need to do. Now.

Rule No. 4: Take more risks!
Following very closely from the above point, Harrold points out that the confidence comes from doing something that you fear, not from reading about how to self-improve.Tell yourself truthfully what you really want to do. And then crack on and do something about it. Always be truthful with yourself. The fear of failure is the main thing that will hold someone back from achieving.

Rule No. 5: Persevere!
Linked to taking risks (and failing!) we are warned about making failure personal. Very successful people don't blame themselves if something doesn't work. Instead, they just say "we need to stop this now!". Be dispassionate, learn from it, move forwards.

According to Harrold, the enormous success of coaching pivots on the way clients feel accountable to their coach which enhances their chances fo achieving their goals. Get someone to hold you accountable! And break your tasks down into smaller chunks. Procrastinators and perfectionists give themselves too much to do. If you want to become a poet, set yourself a task of writing just 10 words a day.

Rule No. 6: Inspire others!
Your mantra should be: I fulfil my objectives in life by helping others to fulfil theirs. Successful people take good care of their staff (this is clearly disputable). They always make sure they have a sense of vision in their life. And they communicate this vision to their staff and make sure others share that vision.

Rule No. 7: Be generous!
This is self-explanatory. However, the essence is that if you live your life with a spirit of generosity, things will come back to you many times over. Just give freely to others (of your time, your energy, your wisdom, your talents, your 'signature strengths'). In turn, others will give back to you. It makes for a richer life for all concerned.

More details on this book can be found at: http://www.fionaharrold.com/articles/articles.html. Scroll down to the 'Archived Feature Articles' section.

Copyright Kathleen Sullivan

Kathleen can be contacted via her coaching practice, KS Coaching on kath@kscoaching.co.uk or 07980 899 586