Gaining Momentum | ADS | Chad Brooks | ADS is the leader in automotive direct mail and digital marketing.

We all have an innate desire to rise to the occasion, to improve our lives, to succeed. Our real greatness lies in this desire to move higher, to step beyond where we are, to keep aspiring for who we want to become and where we want to go in life. We are always becoming — setting goals, defining values, determining where we want to be in life.

The real question is how do we achieve that success? How do we increase our odds of winning? To answer that question myself, I had to develop a strategy for moving forward, a framework for making choices that could answer the question “What should my next step be?” I realized that if you take the element of luck out of the equation of success, then success becomes a matter of making correct decisions. The right choice moves us forward, and the wrong choice sets us back. But how do we know what the right choices are?

I believe you come to crossroads in your life that require you to chose the left or the right fork. Your decision depends on where you intend to go, who you want to become.

Where do you want to go?

Using the information you have, you choose the fork that is most likely to lead to your destination. If your goal is vague (“I want more car sales.”), it is much harder to make the right choice. If the decision you make is based on a well-defined destination (“I want a strategy to connect with customers that will drive more car sales.”), you are much more likely to choose the path that gets you where you want to go.

But before we can decide where to go, we need to know why we are going, what we expect to gain from reaching our destination, and how that will impact future success.

When you boil it down, success is gaining that which you find valuable. To achieve that gain, you first have to discover what it is that gives you value, which provides a direction. Then choose a destination that will move you in that direction. The destination you have chosen ultimately provides you with the answer of what the next steps should be.

Gaining Momentum is A Process | ADS | Chad Brooks | ADS is the leader in automotive direct mail and digital marketing.