What does it take to Achieve Excellence?
What does it take to become excellent at what you do? How do people achieve excellence and what sacrifices do they have to make to get there?
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These are questions I’ve asked myself time and time again. How are accomplished people different from the rest of the world? What do they put in their brains? What do they do in their spare time?
Up to now, these are a few of my observations on what the so called “over achievers” have most in common(and things I’ve chosen to make daily habits of):
#1. They focus on Effectiveness instead of Efficiency!
“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” – Peter F. Drucker Abilene Town film
One day I up and realized that efficiency per se wasn’t really as important as I had thought. In fact we waste a lot of time on things that never bring results. Being efficient in things that don’t matter are a complete waste of time. They both deplete our energy and create a delusion that makes us think we’re getting things done when in reality we’re merely busier, nothing more. Efficiency with out Effectiveness is pointless! Instead of thinking in terms of “how can my day be more efficient?” I started thinking “how can I spend my time more effectively?”
Successful people understand that their time is extremely important. The main focus is effectiveness, activity that propels you to success much more rapidly. It’s not about becoming a workaholic, or spending all your time with your nose to the grind stone. It’s about becoming more effective in your work, finance, relationships and daily interactions.
So what is effectiveness and what actions are effective? Effective actions get us closer to our goals, and are guided by our core values. So to be effective we have to understand what’s most important to us.
Balance is important in this instance. Balance is something that cant be achieved down the road. Success in business can not compensate for the sacrifices made in your health and family life. Just as success in your family life can’t compensate for business or job sacrifices. There needs to be balance between the roles you play.
#2 They have Vision.
“When you know what you want,and you want it badly enough,you’ll find a way to get it .” – Jim Rohn Intoxicating psp
Achievers have a desire to get to the next step, to get things done, to move forward. This is another area where regular “I’m just doing my job” type of people miss out. The reason for this is the few people doing what they really love. And so then the excuse “I’m just doing my job” is another way of saying, “I really don’t care, I’m not responsible, they’re just paying me to do this, so what the hell.”
And this is why I decided to become an entrepreneur, it brings meaning to the majority of my time, the time I spend working. This way I am responsible for my own success. I’m responsible for the mistakes I make in my own business because my work has meaning beyond a paycheck. Looking around it’s not too difficult to identify the people who just want to punch in/punch out and the people who have great pride in their work. The ones which the most meaningful jobs are ALWAYS the ones most likely to succeed!
#3 They’re Disciplined in their Thinking
Successful people are success minded. They’ve adjusted their attitudes to work for them. It’s not a quick fix but rather a something practiced and learned over time, which becomes habit. These are who you’d call positive thinkers. Possibility thinkers who search for ways to succeed rather than excuses why they cant.
Through out the past century there’s been a long line of successful positive thinkers who have built much of what we have today. The 5% who have dared to move out of line, and as a result accomplished more than they ever could have trapped in society’s mold. People who made it a habit to create possibilities have done great things. The car, the air plane, computers etc. were accomplished, not by pure chance, but with vision, attitude and hard work. It’s always been the 5% with the guts to stand out.
Self-pity or the “I wasn’t born with brains” attitude is mostly non-existent with them. They just don’t have the damn time! The main reason being their focus on goals instead of the current situation. One thing I’ve noticed about successful people is their ability to control their actions above feelings. Stephen R. W. Covey, author of the 7 Habits explains in his book, (Habit 1, Be Proactive: Principles of Personal Choice
) that we as humans have the ability to control ourselves despite our emotions. Unlike animals we have a self-awareness, an understanding of ourselves that enables us to overcome the feelings that set us back in our success.
This is important! Lots of people will fall into a rut or give up on their dreams because their current situation gets them down. They loose focus. But this is where the discipline comes in. Understanding that current situations don’t necessarily dictate the future, unless they’re allowed to.
#5 They view Failure differently than most people…
One super important factor in successful people’s lives is how they view failure. Failure among the 95% is often viewed as, “it didn’t work, I guess it’s the end of that”. They seem to think that if they can get by without failure “it was meant to be” and they hit the jack pot.
Success-minded people get something out of every situation.
Failure can benefit us in a number of ways. It gives us the opportunity to learn new things we would have otherwise never been aware of. Failure lets us live and experience things that eventually makes us better people. And if understood, It moves us closer to success. Henry Ward Beecher Naqoyqatsi: Life as War buy said, “One’s best success comes after his greatest disappointments.”
Becoming really good at something takes hard work and commitment. Hard work as in getting out of your comfort zone and commitment as in making sacrifices to take time out to become better at what you do.
I know there’s a lot more to this. I’d be interested in what anyone reading this has to add or comment on. Please leave a comment:)I Am David
Tags: achievement, Business Entrepreneur, money, success, vision
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There is obviously sooo much more to research about this. I think you made some decisive points in Features also.