There’s no secret to 2018. There’s no secret to success. There’s no secret to achieving your goalsThere’s no secret to A, B, C, X, Y, and Z. If that were the case, only a limited few could be truly successful. All people can be truly successful, whatever their ambition. However, only a few minority of people reach a high level of success.
Just because a minority of people are highly successful, we cannot assume that there is a secret to success. What we can say is that one’s success is equally matched by his mission, goals, and disciplined efforts. There is equality in success, in that those who are successful reach a level of success that is directly correlated to these three attributes. Therefore, those who do not hold these attributes constitute the majority of people who fail to reach true success. I assert that a minority of people are highly successful simply because they design, build, and walk across the bridge that connects true success with individual missions, goals, and disciplined efforts leveraged to achieve that success.
As we venture into 2018, forget those resolutions that die out quicker than they originate in your mind. Don’t read dozens of books on “finding yourself” or “creating a new you.” What’s wrong with what you’ve got? Answer: nothing. If you haven’t reached the level of success you want … well, the “secret” is super simple. The “secret” is your mind. Something you’ve had all your life. Since everybody has a mind, all people can be truly successful, whatever their ambition.
The truly successful use their minds to align their life mission, goals, and disciplined efforts. Many people walk through life without a clear purpose or understanding of their own existence (in other words, your mission). Many people shortchange their goals either by setting goals that are too low or failing to allocate enough time and resources to those goals (Grant Cardone’s book, 10X, illustrates this point well). Many people fail to dedicate their daily habits and behaviors (in other words, disciplined efforts) toward achieving their goals and fulfilling their mission.
This year, I will challenge myself, every day, to write. This disciplined effort, over time, will allow me to realize my goal in writing a book that ties together personal development and engagement. This goal supports my ultimate mission to influence others to achieve their goals by honing in on their vision, disciplining their daily habits, and prioritizing their value-adding activities. My mission, goals, and disciplined efforts are aligned. As I execute my disciplined effort in writing daily, I will accomplish individual goals that continue to actualize my mission.
View your mission as a strategy. Your goals direct your strategy, and your disciplined efforts are responsible for implementing your strategy. You’ll notice that I detailed my personal challenge from the ground up by connecting my disciplined effort back to my mission, as opposed to starting with my mission and ending at disciplined effort. I adopted this ground up approach AFTER I derived my mission and my goals. Once you figure out your mission and design your goals (which deserve individual attention in separate blog posts), you must ensure that your disciplined efforts are aligned by backtracking and validating each effort’s relationship with the corresponding goal and overarching mission. This ground up approach is an essential check-and-balance that guarantees connectedness and causality between your mission, goals, and disciplined efforts.
Here’s the bottom line: discipline your efforts! Focus on your habits and behaviors. Value the process over the outcome – an aligned process will take care of the outcome. Craig Ballantyne suggests allocating the first 15-30 minutes of your day toward pursuing your highest value-adding activity. Whether it’s writing, designing a marketing plan, or crafting an RFP, dedicate the first 15-30 minutes of your day toward implementation! Remember, implementation regards the disciplined efforts you take to achieve your goals and gradually actualize your mission.
Michael Masterson discusses the concept of “ready, fire, aim,” in which you are empowered to take meaningful action and utilize your action as momentum that guides future actions and decision-making in aligning your disciplined efforts with your mission. Many people fail to achieve their resolutions because they do nothing to ignite the fire of their pursuits. Once the initial flame strikes, that flame can grow and ignite the other flames that light up your continued efforts. The smallest deed is greater than the grandest intention; therefore, take your first step today to write 500 words of your upcoming book, or brainstorm your marketing slogan, or finalize the scope of work for your RFP. Strike your initial flame! Repeat this type of effort over time and your flame will continue to grow until you’re fully fired up and carrying light to both your goals and mission.
Commit yourself to writing 500 words every day for 30 days – that’s 15,000 words right there! Brainstorm your marketing slogan over the next few days and then work on other features of the campaign in proceeding days, as needed. Tackle smaller parts of your RFP over the next two weeks and gauge your overall progress on the 15th day. Your disciplined effort doesn’t have to be the same thing every day, but it must align with and support a particular goal that fulfills your mission. Goals often require multiple activities or facets for completion – every day, select your highest-value activity and knock it out in 15-30 minutes. This routine will become a habit, and you can stay motivated by moving through different activities that become of relatively high value as you progress in the pursuit of your corresponding goal.
The secret is simple. Your mind. Your mind controls and dictates your thoughts, habits, and behaviors. The mind itself is complex, and requires your disciplined effort to reorient your actions with your mission and goals. Once you master your mind, you master your reality. Think and Grow Rich is a great book to reference for an enhanced understanding of how your thoughts guide your actions (for me, “thoughts” regard both your mission and goals, and “actions” regard your disciplined efforts).
Best of efforts in 2018, friends! Best of disciplined efforts, that is. Life doesn’t come down to luck – luck is the intersection of effort and opportunity. You have complete control over your effort, and you have complete control over your reaction to external events and your openness to opportunities. When you align your disciplined efforts with your mission and goals, you will become truly successful and grow your success accordingly. You will become a part of the minority that Conceives, Believes, and Achieves. The CBA’s. Just like the ground up approach I mentioned earlier – make sure that the last part of your process (disciplined effort) is entirely aligned with the first part of your process (mission). Once the CBA’s flow as smoothly as the ABC’s, you’ll have the whole alphabet at your disposal, even all the way to X, Y, and Z.
