SUCCESS IS LIKE TAKING A JOURNEY

You have heard the expression “Success in not a destination, it’s a journey”. This statement presents us with a very useful parallel. "Success is like taking a journey." In the following series of blogs we will look at how we can successfully reach our goals with the simple formula we would use to take a trip. Now don’t confuse simple with easy. Everything worth having in this life has a cost attached to it. The more worth having the more the cost. Simple means it’s not rocket science. Anyone can achieve success if they are willing to pay the price.

Success, in any endeavor, whether personal, social, spiritual or work related, requires motivation. Usually that means self motivation. We all get discouraged and lose our motivation at times. The amount of motivation required is determined by the amount of sacrifice and pain we must endure to reach the goal or goals we have set. With each step I will include some techniques to help you stay motivated so that you can persevere and reach your goals. Enjoy the trip.

1. Before you start your journey you must know your destination. Where is it you want to end up? Be specific. “A nice hotel on the east coast” sounds good but more information is needed. What city, which hotel, what is the address? Try programming “A nice hotel on the east coast” into your GPS and see how fast you get there. “I want to go to New York, NY and stay at the Plaza Hotel by Central Park.” Now that’s something your GPS can work with.

If you are trying to lose weight: what do you want your final weight to be? If you are saving for retirement, how much money will it take to retire? If you want a new car, what car do you want? What options do you want on that car? How much is this dream house going to cost you? If you don’t specifically quantify the goal, you won’t know how to get there and you won’t know it when you make it. A vague dream is not a goal. To be a goal it needs to be much more specific.

FOR MOTIVATION you should specifically visualize the end result. What will I look like when I reach my goal weight? What clothes will I wear? What will I be able to do then that I can’t do now? What color will my new car be? How will it make me feel to drive it. Where will I go in my new car? Who will I take for a ride in my dream car? Close your eyes and visualize it. Cut out pictures that represent your goal and make a collage, a “Dream Board”. Use pictures that invoke positive feelings when you look at them. Place your dream board in a prominent place where you will see it every day. Have several. Put pictures on the bathroom mirror so you start everyday visualizing your dream. Use the picture for a background and a screen saver on your computer, your iPad and your cell phone. Drive a lot? Then put pictures in your car. Put them on the wall or on your desk at work. Carry a couple in your wallet or purse. Get a keychain with a digital slide show on it.  If you visit my house you will have no doubt in your mind what my goal and passion are. I even bought music that invokes visions of my dream. Do whatever it takes to keep the dream, the goal alive and on your mind as often and as much as possible.

Does Dude Have What You Want

We all have our own cabinet of trusted advisors. Your BFF since the 3rd grade, pastors, parents, brothers and sisters and others who have played significant roles in our lives. It’s to these “wise sages” we turn for advise when facing decisions and dilemmas . We seek them out because we trust them to look objectively at the situation and to advise us with our best interest in mind, seeking no personal gain or hidden agenda.

While trust and forthrightness are important when seeking out guidance, are they enough? Should you be asking you friend who just had his car repossessed to help you set up a personal budget? Should you ask your uncle who has lived in the same apartment for 40 years for Advice on buying a house? While my father could probably give me great guidance on how to get across to a problem student, I probably wouldn’t ask him the best place to drill an oil well.

If you have something you want to accomplish in life and you want to do it well, then you should seek out the most successful person you can find at that task and ask them how they did it. When I went into sales I started by reading books by people who had been leaders in the field. Then when I would start a new sales job I would find the top dog and sew my pant leg to his/hers. When in the Army, I talked my way into a job I had no clue how to do. I then went to the post library and checked out a couple of manuals on the subject. Every time I was assigned a task I had never done, I went and asked my counter parts in other units how they would do it. As a result I received awards for superior performance including a perfect score on a major annual inspection. All on work that was mostly plagiarized ideas from other individuals who had “been there, done that”.

Most things you are trying to do in life have already been done by someone else. When heading out on a trip, do you just start driving cross country or do you get a map and follow the roads others have taken? Remember this quote I heard from a really good salesman: “If you do what “Dude” says, you will get what “Dude” has. Does “Dude” have what you want?”

HEALTHY COMPETITION

I am by nature, a very competitive person. I like to win. I have found the older I get the more I realize, my favorite person to compete against is.....well, ME. I find we're pretty evenly matched, he knows how I think and he reads everything I do. Makes for some pretty fierce competition, but beating him is sooooo much more satisfying.