Much has been written about success. In most cases, the countless books, programs, and systems available focus on how to achieve a successful result. However, how do you know that you are in fact headed in the right direction? What are the small subtle signs of a healthy transition to success? Or how do you know it is time to pivot in another direction? We all know that persistence is of the essence to succeed, but you also need to address whether there is continuity for your project. The question remains, do you see the signs of a healthy transition to success?

The Push-Pull Transition

In this post, I will describe a feature found in all healthy journeys to success. It is what I call the Push-Pull Transition. This transition is very subtle and in many respects it is similar to finding the eye of the hurricane. By definition, it is the moment where you stop pushing for your project’s success to being pulled by your project’s success. When pushing for your project, you are actively making all the selling for your product, service, or cause. When pulled by your project, great opportunities seem to flow towards you effortlessly. When pushing, it feels as if all your energy is going one way and that is out! When pulled, it feels as if more energy is coming your way.

Example of a Push-Pull Transition

Imagine you are an unpublished author that is trying to get your first non-fiction book published. Your actions are all push activities designed to get your book published. Such actions may include: Setting up a blog, writing a couple of weekly posts, spending 2 hours a day finding and engaging with readers in Facebook and Twitter, writing a book proposal, and learning about all the different publishing options available. Imagine you do all of this work for about a year. As you start building a following of loyal readers, the first signs of pull start to happen.

These signs could be a growing community in your blog and Facebook pages where more people engage in conversation and find your site entertaining and useful. There will be more people talking about you, recommending you as a source of information, sending you praise, or other positive comments. You may also get constructive criticism or suggestions regarding how your content could be improved. These could prove to be the best pull events since they help you shape your content to better address the needs of your audience.

You approach the Push-Pull Transition as you develop a strong enough community of readers that enjoy your work and that would be willing to support your continuity as an author by purchasing your book. The actual transition starts to occur when a book agent or a established publisher offers you a book deal – that would be a major pull event. Then, there will be an additional year of intense push work to get the book in bookstores and into the reader’s hands. Then, the fact that you are a published author could motivate other pull events: One morning you could receive an email about someone that wants to interview you for a TV show, or you may be asked to be a keynote speaker in an upcoming conference. All these pull events will result in more incoming energy as you complete this Push-pull transition.

Identify the Pull Events to Build Courage

I cannot stress enough how important it is to build your project prototype, prepare a proposal, website, product, or service as soon as possible to start talking about it in appropriate venues. Do not loose your time in theory, take action quickly, and make your intentions public. Engage with people you consider potential clients and ask them what they think about your idea. Don’t fall in love with your initial conception and allow changes to take place. The art is in acknowledging the comments you receive from all well-meaning people while following your heart with confidence.

Now days, you have many vehicles for self-expression. You can choose to do it as a presentation, as a video, as a webinar, in a blog, ebook, music, or any other art form. You can reach people from all over the world using the Web and engage in rewarding conversations using Social Media sites. I assure you that you will find a lively network of able followers no matter what is your area of interest.

You will have to find the sites that best represent your niche and start contributing value to those networks. If you start early, you will be able to build relationships and create traction sooner allowing you to validate your project. You will have to pivot several times in your search for continuity, but knowing how to search for and identify the right pull events early will help you assess when to pivot or when to persist.