Tag Archives: success

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

What’s Holding you Back?

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Your power to achieve is only limited by your fear of success.  Often this phrase is stated “…..as fear of failure” but surprisingly unconciously we are often cautious about achievement.

The thought process includes things like:
– Do I really want this change, it seems better, but?
– What will others think of me if I am successful?
– What happens next after this accomplishment?
– If I succeed, things will be different, do I really want that?

Change is Constant

A lot of the reticence to moving forward is related to change itself.  Change represents the unknown and although your objectives are things you desire (by definition) there is always the ever-present anxiety around making a change.  

As I have noted before, in numerous posts, change is inevitable.  Controlling the changes and managing your destiny might be a better approach but often the default to accept and move on is easier. 

Change is going to occur with or without you, would you not rather it be with you?  

Unconcious Anxiety

If your goal is to have a better entertainment experience you may consider replacing your current home entertainment centre.  Success will mean the existing electronics and technology will need to change. 

New skills will be needed to use the new equipment.  How you access and view entertainment will likely improve (that’s the goal) but the current state will be gone.

Do you really want to succeed with this goal?  Is not the current state comfortable, acceptable and easier?  Why make the effort?  There is a fear that success will tear you out of your comfort zone (in this case, relative to home entertainment).

Go For It

Ultimately, moving forward, making the effort and experiencing the results of your success might not always be as expected and could lead for some nostalgia for the pre-success state of things.  However, in the long run  do you really want to stagnate in the past?



Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Motivation

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Most of us practice some form of work on a regular basis.  That is simply performing  activities involving mental or physical effort.  As I have noted before, financial compensation is not a mandatory characteristic of work.

Being paid to work, while common, is just one way to provide motivation.  Work involves effort and so typically, I would say almost exclusively, requires some form of compensation.

Without a reason why would one undertake the effort associated with work?  The motivating factors run the gaumont from satisfying one or more of our basic needs  (i.e., Maslow’s heirarchy of needs) to simple pleasure seeking.

Most Powerful Motivator

Self actualization is at the top of Maslow’s heirarchy and simply put this is the drive to realize one’s full potential.  From the psychological perspective it is believed the need to excel is instinctive.

This compliments my oft stated observation that life is all about me.  It is a very useful observation when attempting to motivate both yourself and others.

While basic needs like food, shelter, warmth, security and sense of belonging have some urgency from moment to moment, overall self actualization is the key.

I interpret this as meaning the drive for success and accomplishment are underlying  all motivation.  It is therefore critical to plan to succeed before attempting the work (regardless of whom is undertaking the work – yourself or others).

Setting yourself or others up for success before undertaking work is not only a tired overused buzz phrase, it is really a critical truth.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Measuring Success

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We have many ways of measuring achievement.  The measure can be aligned with the objective directly or peripheral factors.  Also it can be highly objective or subjective or somewhere in between.

For example if you are  playing a game of golf the measure could be your score or it could be your score against the scores of others.  Both of these are pretty objective measures.

However, it could be how you feel.  This is a more subjective measure not necessarily related to your score but rather how much fun you had.   Did your level of enjoyment meet expectations?

Measuring your Daily Activities

Most of us spend our days performing  activities involving mental or physical effort, i.e., work.  (To clarify financial compensation is not required to classify  spending your time as work).

What is the success measure relative to this work.  Like the golf game, there are multiple measures.  You can objectively assess if the goal of your activity was achieved and to what level.

The subjective measure of accomplishment can also apply.  Was it a good outcome, high quality, appreciated, etc.?

However, Over the long term, I would argue, the subjective measure of enjoyment and happiness is the most important.

If you are laughing and having fun the lack of more concrete success, while not desirable or to be encouraged, can be overlooked and absorbed to some extent.

This is not to propose that achieving what you set out to do is not important, but it should not be at the expense of your personal happiness.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Patience

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A valuable but often overlooked personal skill is the ability to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.

Some demonstrate little patience and even proclaim “I don’t have the patience for this”.  This is not necessarily considered a negative trait  (i.e., lack of patience), but maybe to some degree, it should be.

Balanced Approach

Like so many things, the extreme approach is seldom most effective.  Which is better, being direct, forward and focused on quick results versus the analytic, patient approach?  This question has no definitive answer and the best way is often contextually driven (i.e., what is the overall situation).

A complete lack of patience can lead to presumptuous actions while too much patience is not only frustrating but can be the result can be dissappointing as well. Carefully considering the options of each approach and employing the best mix is likely to lead to better results.

Waiting Patiently

Waiting patiently is an interesting approach.  Initially, it can appear indecisive, just waiting for the default to occur.  On the other hand, it can be a calculated method to gather enough data to inform proactive behavior, before actually acting.

Patience, by and large, results in either acceptance or a deliberate alternate action with a full understanding as to why.  As time progresses you have the ability to consider and ultimately decide to live with the way things are going or take an alternate.

 

 

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Maximizing Pleasure

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A life without purpose or meaning probably results in a low level of motivation to act.  When there is no reason to do anything (purpose or meaning) so one does nothing.

The exception to this is when doing nothing is your goal, i.e., it is what motivates you and so your behavior is geared to enabling you to do nothing.  If this meets your purpose, it is perfectly fine.

Your goal is yours to select, however, there is a primal driver that overrides your choice of purpose, meaning or lack thereof.  “Pleasure”.

Seeking Pleasure

Pleasure is simply a term to describe a state in which you have a feeling of happy satisfaction and enjoyment.  That is, pleasure feels good.

I theorize that pleasure is the primal driver forming the underpinning of my own personal motivation (and probably that of most people).  Simplistically, seeking maximum pleasure is a component of everything we do (i.e., feeling good).

It’s all about me

Pleasure seeking does come with some constraints.  If someone else is suffering at my expense I do not feel pleasure.  Fortunately, this is true for most of us.

Those who derive pleasure without regard to context are usually labeled as deviant even criminal in their nature.   Intrinsic to the human condition is a level of empathy.

Some are more empathetic to the plight of others, possibly influenced more by nature over nurture.   Generally though (excepting the aforementioned deviants and criminals) everyone exhibits some level of empathy toward others.

Embrace your inner desire to seek pleasure

For me, seeking maximum pleasure (as long as it’s not at the expense of others) is natural behavior and there is no reason not to both recognize but also embrace it.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Play the game for yourself

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Showing up and participating might get you a pass but if you want to win more is needed.  Viewing life as a game (yes, a tired and worn out analogy) places your role as a competitor.

Being part of the play can be very enjoyable.  I wonder though if something is missing.  If we equate success to winning, achieving your goal (i.e., success) should be a win.

Just being not enough

If your objective is just to show up, it probably is not a real objective and probably is not enough.  Building on the game analogy my suggestion is to study the rules, players and potential outcomes.

Based on this analysis, as your goal pick an outcome that will maximize your enjoyment, without negatively impacting others.  Don’t kid yourself, maximizing your enjoyment requires more than just showing up.

A servicable performance should never be taken as a complement.  The feeling of real accomplishment is like a stimulating drug, it feels good.  That is just basic human nature.

Play to win every time

The very key to the ideas proposed in this post is repeatable consistent behavior.  Whatever the activity of the moment never mail it in.  This is of little benefit to yourself.

Seize every moment with gusto, not unfocused energy but rather excitement and purpose.  I cannot think of any occassion when just going with  current is a worthwhile approach.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Failure is a choice

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Lack of personal success can be a result of many factors.  The things that impact success, or the level of success, that are within your control, are exercised by your own determination.

Failure is defined as a lack of success.  To what degree success is not achieved can be largely subjective; However, ultimately, for the aspects within your control the decision to succeed or not lies with you.

Of course the determination of whether the results represent an acceptable level of accomplishment depend on subjective analysis, both yours and others.

Deciding to Succeed

If you decide not to succeed does that equate to deciding to fail?  My own thought is yes.  While failure can arise due to factors outside your control it is just as likely to occur because you gave up.

In the second Star Wars movie (episode v) the character Yoda states this in a very simple way.   “Do or do not, there is no try.”   If you try there is a conscious acknowledgement a goal is being attempted and you may succeed or fail.

In fact, the decision to succeed requires you to believe in success.  You don’t try, rather you just do.  The things outside of your control willrestrict your ability to do things within the realm of the possible, the things within your control won’t.

Trying restricts your success not only to the realm of the possible but also to your own decision to proceed or give up, “I tried but could not do it.”

Doing and not succeeding is always about factors outside your control.  An extreme example of this for illustrative purposes would be to enter a room without opening the door.

Most likely all you do to  get through the door would fail, not because of what you did, but rather because the door was stronger than you.

Succeed more often than failing by deciding that is what you want.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Seeing Answers

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Our lives are a series of events.  We get to choose how to interact with, embrace or even ignore these occurrences.  And of course we can create them as well as just being a passenger along for the ride.

How you percieve the things that impact you, including those that are self initiated, is usually either optimistic or pessimistic or some balance of these two extremes.

Optimism

This is a preconceived belief in a successful outcome.  Your perspective focuses on solutions, that is sucessful outcomes.  What answer, when applied to this event will result in success.

Of coures this approach relies on your awareness of what answers support your goals and objectives.  Your own happiness and pleasure can be achieved only if you know what you seek (the answer).

Pessimism

Your perspective leans toward believing the worse will happen and your confidence in the future is low or non existant.  This is a choice that can reduce disappointment but it diminishes the opportunity for enjoyment and pleasure.

Positive Attitude

As commented in a recent post, attitude equals behaviour.  Your behaviour, ( how you act) defines you.  Simply put, a slight varience on the old saying “you are what you eat” becomes “you are what you do”.  This accurately depicts how others decide how to percieve us, it is based on behaviour.

Optimistic approaches to everything you encounter forces a positive attitude leading to exemplary behaviour and voila you are a star.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Incremental Strategy

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Projects can be executed in a variety of defined approaches.  Waterfall being an sequential approach and agile being iterative, or variations of each of these are the most common practices.

Similar approaches can be applied to both creation and execution of an organizations strategy.   Strategies are just plans to achieve defined objectives.

Defining Objectives

The first step in any strategy is to define the goals and objectives.  Simply put what is the strategy intended to achieve.  These can be can cover one or many topics for example; financial, repetitional, risk aversion, resource focused and so on.

In a waterfall approach to strategy the objectives are determined first and then the plans to achieve them.  An iterative approach could be better defined as an incremental strategy.

We will figure it out

Incremental approaches to strategy appear at first to be contradictory to the definition.  Strategies are plans and incremental plans seem almost not to be plans but rather just acting in the moment.

It’s a Framework!

While strategies clearly identify what success is, that is when you reach the strategic objective you are successful.  If success is identified in an iterative way, are you not just making it up as you go along.

Of course yes that is the intent of both a project executed iteratively and and strategy approached this way.  The benefit is the ability to mold the ongoing goals according to what make sense at the time.

Rather than committing to a 3 to 5 year strategic plan the committment is to a framework which is reviewed, balanced and corrected iteratively as it makes sense to do so.

Don’t just laugh out loud at iterative strategies, there is some method to the madness.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Judging Results

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Is it good or is it bad.  Judging the answer can be based on or influenced by your personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.  That is a subjective view.

Alternatively the decision can be based on facts, putting opinions aside.  This is considered to be an objective perspective. The challenge with this approach is first obtaining facts at all Hsometimes these are not readily available) and secondly to interpret the facts logically and without bias is not always easy.

Measuring Results

Achievements and successes  whether arrived at through your individual or collaberative efforts, or perhaps by others efforts entirely, can be viewed positively or negatively.

The results can range from extremely bad to exceptionally good and everything inbetween.    The ranking method can range from subjective to objective and everything in between.

To assess results in the most objective way defining the specific and measurable expectations before hand is the best approach.

For example, the expectation could be defined as running a distance of one mile in four minutes.  When you start running a timer can be initiated and stopped when you reach a mile (the distance needs to be measured and marked in advance).

The timer provides an accurate result which could equal four minutes or more or less.  Whatever the result, it can be compared to the four minute objective to determine success or failure and even the degree of same.

This works well when objective measures are available, sadly for many things, from taste in food to your day to day behaviour the measure is often subjective.

That is things like, you look good, good work, nice tie.  Without a clear target to measure against ( define looking good, performing well, etc],  disagreement with the assessment of the result can be rampant.