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“Action is the foundational key to all success.” - Anthony Robbins
Yesterday we were talking about “thinking outside the box.” The trouble with thinking outside the box is that if it doesn’t result in action the effect is exactly the same as not thinking outside the box!
This is the bottom line when it comes to your success and mine, we must take action! If after taking action, the action hasn’t brought you nearer to your goal, then a wise person would learn from this apparent “failure” and rather than give up, it would be wise to have another go, but this time to take different actions.
Like an aircraft that makes many inflight corrections to avoid weather systems and other aircraft, still arrives at its destination. Famously Thomas Alva Edison made over 10,000 attempts to discover how to create incandescent light. Maybe we won’t go as far as Edison in the pursuit of our dreams and goals, but his example of not giving up is one still worth taking note of.
And what if we did? What if it took over 10,000 attempts to get where we wanted to be in life, maybe your name or mine would become as famous as Edison and we like him could light up the world with our tenacity and determination? Action, action, action is what we need to become a success at whatever in life we chose to do!
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“Successful leaders recognize that great innovation comes from observing the same ideas as everyone else and seeing something different.” - Reed Markham
Can you think outside the box? Do you think outside the box? It’s easy to play “follow my leader” but the question must always be: “Where is the leader taking us?” If we are not careful we could be following someone who hasn’t understood what is happening and then we may end up being “lemmings off the cliff.”
Thinking independently of others may not only become the path you can take to becoming a leader; thinking for yourself, may even save your life! Just because the crowd is running in a particular direction in a fire, doesn’t necessarily mean that they know the best way to escape the burning building.
Innovation is something worth getting involved with, but to become innovative yourself needs you to step away from the “way it’s always been done” and ask how could we do the same things better or differently next time?
When I was a child I used to play a game called “Country, County, Town,” the person who ran the game picked a letter of the alphabet and asked those playing to write down the name of a country beginning with that letter, followed by a County, Town, Fish, Fruit, Flower, Animal, Bird, Tree, Boy’s Name, Girl’s Name, Colour etc.
Points were awarded as follows: one point if you wrote down an answer that was the same as someone else’s; seven points if you got the same answer as the person whose game it was and ten points for an original answer. I didn’t realize it at the time but it helped me to begin thinking outside the box! It’s a game worth sharing with your family and friends.
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“Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing!” - Vincent Lombardi
When our four children were growing up my wife Anne and I got into many heated discussions. As I played games with them, first Snakes and Ladders, then Ludo, eventually Monopoly I always played to win. Anne said “Why don’t you let them win once in a while?” My reply was “You never let me win at Othello!”
Anne pointed out that in her opinion playing a board game with an adult and a child were two different things. I disagreed, I said they must learn that life is difficult and that every time things don’t work out for them they have to learn what went wrong and how to get things better next time round.
“You just like to win!” she said and smiled. Well I do like to win and so do our kids, who have learned from me all my tricks and some more besides and they can beat me fair and square. Anne even let me beat her at Othello the other day, or so she says! 
Who wants to lose? Who doesn’t want to learn and grow from the experiences life gives them? Think of it you are the one who won the race to the egg, you were born a winner! It’s a fact that if you weren’t a winner you wouldn’t be here!
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“The man who moved a mountain was the one who began carrying away small stones.” - Chinese Proverb
A friend of mine used to say “Inch by inch it’s a cinch! Yard by yard, it’s hard!” We need to do the small things and the big things will take care of themselves!
After our initial goal setting session, I explain to my clients that next we will in our second coaching session together, need to break the goal down into manageable bite size chunks, and once these mini-goals or milestones are defined, we will break the goal even smaller into action steps. In this way, we are all able to “move mountains!”
Make sure every day that you are a little closer to your goals and one day you will arrive at the achievement wondering what all the fuss was about!
So when are you going to pick up the first stone and start moving your mountain?
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“The only difference between a success and a failure is that the successful person is willing to do what the failure is not willing to do.” - J.R. Ridinger
Yesterday we considered our desire or lack of it as that which may be separating us from success. Today we take a look at our willingness to act on our desires. Desire comes before action, but desire which isn’t followed with action has the same negative result!
What has to happen before you are willing to take action? Do you need to be bullied, cajoled, encouraged or are you a self-starter? Are you willing to make the effort without having a deadline to meet, or an angry boss to contend with? If you desire success and you can also motivate yourself to take immediate action, the route to your success is made so much more likely!
The difference between those who succeed and those who fail may not be a lack of willingness to take action. According to J.R. Ridinger those who fail may be willing to take some action, but it is the actions that they are not willing to take that separate them from their desired success. We need to take consistent action, both the actions we enjoy and those we don’t to make sure of our success!
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“Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential.” - John Maxwell
This comes as a challenge to each one of us, if it happens to be true.
Our abilities are not to be questioned; each one of us is as capable as the next. What is in question is our desire to reach for our potential. And regardless of whether you agree with John Maxwell’s statement or not ; the only way to prove the statement incorrect, is by increasing your desire to reach your potential and seeing what happens!
Until you have tried and failed, you really don’t know what your capabilities are! And if you desire to be successful you won’t give up at the first attempt! Oscar Wilde said “If at first you don’t succeed try, try again and if after try, try, trying again if you still fail, then give up, there’s no need to be stupid!”
How many times have you given up without trying? It’s time to put John Maxwell’s words to the test and find out if you are more capable than you previously thought!
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“Your success and happiness lie in you.” - Helen Keller
What a concept! The story of Helen Keller is the story of a child who, at the age of 19 months, suddenly lost her hearing and vision, and who, against overwhelming odds and with a great deal of persistence, grew into a highly intelligent and sensitive woman who wrote, spoke, and laboured incessantly for the betterment of others. So powerful a symbol of triumph over adversity did she become that she has a definite place in the history of our time and of times to come. http://ht.ly/3U0Ah
If you follow the link to Helen Keller’s story or if you already know it, you will understand how deeply felt this above quotation was for Helen and that it was based on her own life’s experience! These are not empty words; they clearly define Helen’s experience and her certainty that you too can achieve success and happiness from within you too.
So many times we blame others for our lack of success, or our lack of happiness and yet the truth is we are always in control of how we interpret the interactions we have with others and the events of our lives. We can learn how to be content it whatsoever circumstances we find ourselves, if we chose to. There is an art to it, but it has always been within the reach of each one of us. If a blind deaf girl can do it, so can you and me!
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“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.” - Ronald E. Osborn
Here’s a challenge for us all from Robert E. Osborn. Ever heard of growing pains? Well here we are being encouraged to embrace some new ones! The truth is most people do what they are good at and leave the rest to somebody else; but those who are willing to take on a new challenge are those whose lives are more interesting and possibly more fulfilled.
Have you any unfinished business, anything you’ve thought you might like to do and yet you’ve never taken any action to make it happen? Maybe it’s playing a musical instrument, taking up a new sport or reading some of the books you’ve had sitting on the shelf since you bought them. If you aren’t forever learning new things and taking up new challenges, you’ll keep experiencing the same year over and over.
Life is waiting for you to embrace its fullness; don’t allow yourself to be short changed! Take up a new hobby, dare to dream and then go for it! Who knows where it all might lead, a new career, new relationships, excitement, oh and yes I almost forgot, growing pains too!
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“You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.” - Beverly Sills
Shakespeare said “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt!” We are in a daily battle with our dreams and the sense of reality that our lives have taught us. Our parents, our teachers, our peer group and the media, train us to think in ways that are not helpful to us when it comes to fulfilling our desires.
There is also the fear of looking stupid, if our plans come to nothing whilst everyone else looks on. Surely though, the perceived likely disappointment we may have is nothing compared with the acceptance of defeat without even trying? Disappointment or doom is the choice we are being given today by Beverly Sills.
Well, we might say in response, if you put it like that, I’d chose the possibility of disappointment (not guaranteed) over doom every time; and yet in reality many of us don’t! It seems to me that our thinking needs rewiring, so that when it comes down to it, we will always be willing to give our plans a possibility of success.
If we fail to achieve the outcome we desire, instead of feeling foolish maybe instead we might look at what has happened and see what lessons we can learn from the experience to enable a more favourable outcome next time?
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“If you have the will to win, you have achieved half your success; if you don’t, you have achieved half your failure.” - David Ambrose
Henry Ford once said “If you think you can, if you think you can’t, either way you’re right!” Our achievements and our failures are both intertwined in our thinking. The common denominator is our faith or our disbelief, which I’m sure you recognize are two sides of the same coin.
Your attitude towards anything reflects your level of belief in you having the outcome you seek. Self-belief goes a long way towards you having the certainty that things will work out in your favour. The “will to win” also gives you the edge on any goal or project you set yourself and the lack of it will harm your cause more than you know.
So the question for you today is; are you choosing your goals and projects wisely? In light of today’s quotation it seems the right thing to do is to make sure that whatever you set your dreams upon that you first examine whether you have “the will to win” or not. If you have then it’s time to forge ahead; if you haven’t then you need to think again.
At first glance the project you have in mind if you haven’t got the required “will to win” seems to be a non-starter and yet if you can find the resolve somehow, by finding new motivation and determination, then you can still succeed!
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