Failure. The most successful people do not fear failure. They fail often and learn quickly. Failure informs uncontested success. If you want to succeed, embrace failure as a necessary ingredient to achieving greater goals.
Tag Archives: Goals
The Perception of Obstacles
Track runners do not see hurdles as road blocks; they see hurdles as an extension of a normal step. Sure, it may take practice to build the confidence necessary to jump hurdles. Even to start practicing, you need to set aside any fears or trepidations you have about the road ahead. You need to ignore the fact that hurdles are obstacles. You need to see hurdles as a part of the game. If you signed up to play the game, learn to love the hurdles. Obstacles are only obstacles if you see and treat them as obstacles.
Pick Your Battles
Let’s face it: you are not proficient or informed about hundreds of thousands of things. No single person knows everything or masters every skill on the planet. There are countless battles you cannot win. That’s difficult for many people to hear, especially me; I am as competitive as they come. But you must face the facts and learn to let go. I am not very athletic or musical; I tip my hat to and tap out of matches with people who are. Choose your battles wisely. Know what battles are worth fighting. Know what battles you stand a chance to win. Invest yourself completely. Focus on meaningful, personal battles. Discard and ignore the rest. It’s far less stressful and humiliating to accept failure before you actually fail.
What You’ve Never Had
Want something? How badly do you want it? Are you prepared to take a chance? Are you willing to try something new? To get what you’ve never had, you must do what you’ve never done. Think outside the box, open your mind, and approach your desires from a different angle. If you’re doing it the same way you’ve always done it and you’re not winning, then you’re doing it wrong. It’s okay, but stop wasting time. Give it a different go.
Humility Goes A Long Way
Want something from someone and think you deserve it? Do not boast or nag. No one responds well to ego. And whether you deserve it or not, you haven’t gotten it yet. The first step to getting something you think you deserve is to think you don’t deserve it. By humbling yourself, you inadvertently raise the stakes and fight harder for what you want. If you humble yourself enough, the fight will be clean and the other party will join your team. Before long, people will come around to your perspective and merit. The key to getting what you want is inspiring others to genuinely believe you deserve it.
Your Dreams, Not Theirs
You prescribe your own dreams; do not let anyone else do it for you. Listen to the advice and wisdom of others, but form your own opinions and goals. Do things your own way. Do not be afraid to do things differently. After all, different is key to making a difference.
Accelerating Forward By Dropping Stuff
Sometimes the most effective way to move on in your life is to let things go. Identify the people, places, and things that make you unhappy or hold you back. Surmise a life without them and calculate out how to get there. Throw away the trash, any relics that tie you backward, your toxic environment, or regressive relationships. Dump all the weight on your shoulders over the side. Only then will you truly feel free to take the next step in full. The more you let go of at once, the more dramatic your acceleration forward will be.
Like monkey bars on a jungle gym, you must let go of the old to reach the new. Empty your pockets, cut the ropes, and ignore the shouts as you leap forward. The only person who can move you forward is you.
Why Before the How
Contemporary business culture moves faster than light. Every day, we’re bombarded with tasks and decisions. We are often forced to dive into problems and projects without context. Managers ask us to do things without explaining why. To protect our job, we do not ask questions. But we really should.
If you believe in what you do, you will perform better. To believe in what you do, you need to understand what you are supposed to believe first. Arbitrary assignments without context make it near impossible to connect with the material. Leaders are responsible for setting the stage, helping you understand why, and inspiring you to deliver.
If your boss fails to inspire you, take a moment to reflect on the tasks you’ve been asked to do. Avoid complacency at all costs. Know the “why” before approaching the “how.” If you cannot figure it out, ask for an explanation. You will do yourself and your company a favor.
Persistence
Persistence does not take a break, does not take a nap, does not quit until the job is done.
Persistence is blogging every day for 150 days straight without a day off, even if you’re a little intoxicated and lack insightful wisdom once in a while. Sober or not, I am running 34,000 words strong with 11,481 unique visitors to date. And I am damn proud of it.
Persistence. Give it a shot. It’ll be good for you, I promise.
Internalize Your Goals
What’s the point of telling people your goals?
You could tell to collect feedback or talk it out. But do you really want to risk someone dissuading you or talking down? It could hurt your goal.
You could tell to seek praise. But you haven’t succeeded yet, so what is there to praise? Few people in your life will really care enough to give you the glowing support you are looking for. The lukewarm response might put you down and choke your inspiration. It could hurt your goal.
You could tell to keep people updated or manage expectations. But what if your plans conflict with the interests of others? They might try to talk you out of it. If you mislead others with your plans and then fail, you can damage your relationships. The pressure and uncertainty can bog you down. It could hurt your goal.
You could tell to have others hold you accountable. But what stake do other people really have in your goal? Are they reliable? By passing off accountability for your goal to another person, you pass off responsibility for your goal and distance yourself from it. It could hurt your goal.
Think hard before sharing your plans with others. Depending on who you are sharing with and the reason why, it could be a good idea – or it could be fatal. I am often guilty of sharing my plans without purpose, and I am beginning to notice effects.
By telling other people, you separate yourself from your goals (as if you already accomplished them … but you haven’t). You only make it harder for yourself to succeed.
Craig Ormiston 