Are you so ambitious that you want to be the best? Do you wonder how to make it first?

Accomplishing your goals depends on how much work you put into establishing and committing to positive habits that will drive positive progress in your life. Many people manage to become highly successful using the following 14 steps:

1. Fail fast and learn

No matter how hard you work, failure can and will happen. No one gets everything right the first time. Failures contribute to your success – even if it feels discouraging and embarrassing, it helps you to understand why things went wrong. Learning from your mistakes is priceless.

2. Goals setting

Set realistic goals. Don’t only focus on your long term goals. Break down your bigger picture into small chunks of smart, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely – S.M.A.R.T goals that see you producing results everyday. This will keep you motivated until your vision is achieved.

3. Create your own luck

Some people are successful out of luck, which is linked to being in the right place at the right time. However, don’t delay or waste your time waiting for the perfect moment to start acting on your vision. Dare to take a chance even when timing isn’t perfect and the odds of winning are against you.

4. Track your progress

Keep your eyes on the end goal while regularly monitoring your strategies, tactics and behaviors. You can’t make adjustments if you don’t know what you’re doing wrong. Be sure to check your progress as often as possible to hold yourself accountable and ask for feedback.

5. Keep moving

Self motivated people don’t always have solutions to their obstacles. Still, they keep moving forward by taking action and facing the unexpected head on instead of getting paralyzed by events that are not going according to plan.

6. Put the pieces together

To be the best, the ability to see the bigger picture and to focus on the details, is a must. As is, taking the time to review your overall progress and to establish where you are heading. This brings clarity on how much you have already achieved and on what more you can aim for in the future.

7. Be self confident

Do a self evaluation to have an understanding of what you can accomplish and use it as a source of motivation to stay on track. To succeed, believe in your skills.

8. Perseverance

Often, success doesn’t come without effort. Don’t be shy to go the extra mile, every morning and without any exceptions, remind yourself of the commitment you have made to your goals.

9. Stay on guard

If you’re out of touch with your environment, some opportunities will be missed. In any area of life, it’s wise to listen, learn, explore and keep your senses open. So stay alert by, following industry trends and knowing what’s being said about your field will improve your expertise.

10. Don’t give up

At times, even successful people feel like giving up however, they don’t. When things become complicated, they use their stamina to rise above doubts and complications, willing to work through them, they push ahead to overcome the challenges that block their way.

11. People skills

Once your vision is definite in your mind, communication is the bridge to fruition and expansion. You have to know how to convince and influence others in your favor without applying pressure or coming across as a manipulator. Most people would at least listen to you when you take a logical and polite approach to explain with confidence the benefits of your vision.

12. Stay humble

For some success seems to be pumping their ego till its explosion reflects back at them. This attitude is bound to make them fall flat on their face since everything that goes up must come down and vice versa. It’s more fulfilling in the long run to stay humble and focused somewhere in the middle. Nothing is set in stone so being humble may come handy if you ever find yourself in need of receiving help and compassion.

13. Leave your comfort zone

Try doing new things to get out of your routine. Being comfortable is great, except when you aim to absorb new knowledge and to expand your horizon to find interesting opportunities. Stretching your mental and physical limits to the maximum grows your consciousness and creativity.

14. Learn by doing.

Studying theories on paper is easy and reading is necessary, however, to breed success in its material form, practice and experience are much more important, especially for those of you who don’t wish to work for someone else. To take control over your goals, split your tasks in a way that leaves you more time for real life tests and action than for writing endless piles of notes to use later. The closer you are to what you want, the faster you will have it, so fake it until you make it because the time to be successful is now.