You can see your finish line, but you are still standing at the starting line, miles away.  Along the route, you can also see the twists and turns, the potholes, the forks in the road and the debris that appears to block your path to your destination.  You start to doubt your ability to get through these obstacles; the voice of your invisible gremlin is getting louder, reinforcing the doubts of your strength, willingness, motivation, and courage to forge ahead.  You are ready to retreat, to waive the white flag and succumb to defeat before you even take your first step.  But wait ….  there IS still a possible path to that finish line.  You pause, willing yourself to open your mind to a different way.  “OK”, you say.  “I am ready.  Let’s do this!”

THE 4 A’S TO A+ RESULTS

1.  ADMIT:  You have likely heard the common saying that “Admitting you have a problem is the first step in fixing the problem.”  While this is often true, we are not focusing on any problems in this first step to get to your A+ results.  We are focusing on your future.  To do this, you must dig deep.  Ask yourself some questions to stimulate this process: What do you want?  What does it look like?  Where will you be?  Who will you be with?  How will you feel?  What will be different then vs now?  When you start feeling comfortable with your answers, when your answers remain consistent over time, when your future starts to crystalize into a clear, focused picture, you are ready and able to ADMIT what you want for your future.
2. ACT:  Admitting what you want first helps you to make conscious and deliberate decisions on how to act on moving toward your desired direction.  This is the process of setting up an action plan, of identifying the steps needed to get there.  Remember seeing all those potential obstacles that could get in your way of reaching your finish line?  During the ACT step, you will anticipate those possible pitfalls, and plan accordingly.  You may run into some detours along the way, but your plan will not allow you to become derailed.  You will become empowered by the control you have in your ultimate outcome; you will learn from the challenges along the way, and you will celebrate the small victories as each step successfully accomplished brings you closer to your eventual destination.
3. ACCEPT:  Once you admit what you want and begin acting on the steps in your plan to get you there, it is critical that you accept ownership and responsibility in your ultimate outcome.  This is YOUR journey as you have already determined in step 1.  Your journey may not be supported by others in your life, it may not invoke popularity amongst your family and friends, and it may actually alienate loved ones.  Should you encounter this juncture, are you able to accept these consequences to be true to yourself?  Are you able to accept all outcomes – whether positive or negative, good or bad, to be authentic to your dreams and desires?  Are you able to accept the awesome opportunity that you are in control here, that you are in the driver’s seat and that you, and only you, have the power to get to where you want to be?
4. ACHIEVE:  Congratulations!  You have admitted what you want, you have created and acted on the steps necessary to get to where you want to be, and you have accepted that you are in control of your outcome!  You are ready to achieve your dreams, you have reached your finish line and you are ready to cross over.  Because you put in the hard work, you stayed true to yourself and didn’t give up, you get an A+!  

Working through the 4 A’s is not an easy feat.  It takes courage and perseverance to take that first step, the last step, and every step in between.  There is no “one size fits all” to this process, but there are commonalities to reaching the outcome – when you believe in yourself and achieve your goals, you succeed in reaching your dreams!