“Starting today, I need to forget what's gone, appreciate what still remains, and look forward to what's coming next.” Anonymous

Today I have a question for you – can you name the one game-changing thing that Carl Sagan, Richard Branson, Kim Kardashian and farmers all have in common?

To succeed they focused on one simple question: “What’s next?”

I realise that it may seem as if I am oversimplifying and that you might believe their success would be better attributed to a complex mixture of brains, beauty, business acumen, weather patterns and blind dumb luck. But you would be mistaken.

To see the truth of this, simply strip away everything you think you know about these famous people and simply focus on what they have in common with a farmer – a person who regularly makes miracles happen with nothing more than mud and water.

You quickly realise that the success of a farmer has very little to do with his IQ, how beautiful he is, the size of his Instagram following, or the amount of money he has.

It depends on something he has come to do so automatically, that he might find it hard to believe that other people don’t naturally do it.

It is simply that he naturally gets out of bed each morning and asks himself: “What’s next?”

And then does whatever it takes to get the job done because he knows that he won’t have a successful harvest unless he does.

So, what’s the point? If the mega rich, uber famous and super successful have one advantage over the rest of us it is simply that they too constantly ask themselves the same question.

Everything you need to know about what to do and how to go about it is already locked up inside you.

You don’t need to be able to see the entire path in order to be able to reach a goal, you only need to be able to keep asking yourself, “What next?”

And if you come up against an obstacle (or the next step seems un-doable for moral, ethical, or legal reasons) just ask yourself, “And what else can I do?”

Then wait. An answer will come.

There is never an excuse for doing something that you know to be wrong.

Don’t allow yourself to get away with saying you have no choice – that’s a cop out.

You always have a choice, you might just have to work a little harder, dig a little deeper, pray a little longer for that better answer to come.

But trust me it exists and really believing that it is there inside you is all that it will take to bring it out.

Above all else, believe that there are no shortcuts or failures, only bad decisions.

And when you make one, and eventually you will – either inadvertently or by design – don’t give up. Just get up out of bed the next morning and ask yourself: what next?

And finally remember the words of Bakare Mubarak, the tallest male model in sub-Saharan Africa: “The only way to make something amazing happen is to go out there and make something amazing happen.”

Amen to that people.

Robin Trimingham is the managing director of The Olderhood Group Ltd and a business consultant, journalist, podcaster and thought leader in the fields of life transition and change management. Connect with Robin at https://bit.ly/3nSMlvc or robin@olderhood.com