Finding Success

Personal growth is often overlooked in the midst of pressing responsibilities and challenging schedules. We get locked into a pattern and then we become blinded by the pattern to greater possibilities, opportunities, and dreams.

Never forget how to dream. Our dreams give meaning and purpose to our lives. Living without dreaming is merely existing. Never forget what it feels like to wake up every day excited about the possibilities and the potential of our future. Do you feel alive? Do you have a dream?

People who have lost the ability to dream live with a sense of dread. The future looks dark and foreboding. The saddest sight I have seen in my international travels are poverty stricken people who have lost all hope. To look in the eyes of a child who has lost hope is heartbreaking.

Poverty is not an empty pocketbook, but a crippled mind. Success begins in the mind. We must start thinking successfully before we can start living successfully. Athletes learn to win mentally before they win in their chosen sport. Financial traders spend much time learning how to think right so they can trade right.

Learn how to dream again. Start thinking like a winner. Then learn how to set goals and plan. Success seldom comes at random. We must have definite goals and a plan for getting there. Nothing of value is accomplished without planning. Think and dream with a pen in your hand.

Along with planning, learn to manage your time effectively. There are some basic time management skills that will enhance the implementation of your planning.

1. Get an appointment book. Plan each year the year before. Plan each month the month before. Plan each day the day before. You’ll sleep better at night when you know you have a written agenda for the next day. Much stress is generated by fearing that we’ll forget something. Writing down our schedule also forces us to prioritize our time.

2. Plan your time in specific blocks of activity. Don’t answer every phone call. The important ones will leave a message in voice mail. The ones who don’t leave a message do not expect a return call. Set aside two specific times per day to answer phone messages. Answering calls randomly throughout the day will hurt your focus and effectiveness.

3. Set aside time to do details and special projects beginning with the most important. If you don’t get them all done, you re-schedule the tasks that are the least important for another day with the satisfaction that the most important tasks have been accomplished.

4. Take time for creative thinking. It has been said that the hardest and most important work we do is the hard work of thinking. This is when our planning is tweaked and perfected. This is when new ideas and breakthroughs are accomplished.

5. Leisure time is our decompression chamber that gets us ready to work again. This is your reward that makes the rest of your week worth it. We work harder and better when we know that there is a reward coming at the end of the week.

Finding success is a combination of re-training our mind, dreaming big dreams, planning, and time management. Be all you can be. Everybody trades their life for something. This is not a dress rehearsal for life, it’s the real thing. We have one shot at success. Make the most of it.