The vast majority of cricketers leave their success to chance and hope. Why take that risk? If you want get your nose ahead of 95% of players then simply put these 7 rules in place for the coming season.

1. Picture success. You can't know if you have succeeded unless you know what success means. Take time to really visualise what that success will be and write it down in as much detail as possible. Focus not just on the outcome (promotion to the first team for example) but also the feeling of it. Be as vivid as possible to provide your brain with a map to your goal.
2. Make a plan. Once you have a vision of success work backwards planning each individual action you need to take along the way (like training three times a week). This will put the slightly wishy washy concepts into a hard nosed plan that you can stick to throughout the season. Keep the plan in your kitbag so you can refer to it as often as you need.
3. Make a commitment. Tell yourself, and everyone who will listen what your plan is. This will help you gauge if you are being realistic and give you support if you ‘fall off the wagon' at any stage.
4. Be realistic. If you have not had the success you wanted before, try and work out where it went wrong. Perhaps you were aiming to high, didn't plan or couldn't stick to your plan. If in doubt aim low (not too low) with your goals and plan in more detail than you need. Also make sure you are not taking on too much. One or two goals per season is plenty.
5. Be flexible. Review your goals and plans regularly. Weekly is best. Many things can happen over the season to upset or change your plans. If you are constantly taking a look at the ‘bigger picture' you can adjust or change things as you go along so you can more effectively follow the plans. If you ignore this step your goals can quickly become irrelevant and you won't follow the plan any more.
6. Remind yourself. Setup a system of reminders for all your actions. If you have to do something on a particular day then make sure it goes into a calendar that you check daily, if the action has no specific date pop it onto a to-do list to get done when you next can.
7. Reward your own success. If all else fails, promise you will buy yourself something you really want if you achieve your goal. The trick is to only do this if you succeed or it won't work, but a picture of a new cricket bat on your bathroom mirror might just be the motivation you need to get into the gym or nets.

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