Achieving Personal Goals

The simple fact is this – having a clear plan is the essential, but it’s just the start. Having the discipline, focus and determination to execute the plan you create is everything.

Want to separate your self from the pack, quickly? The key is not having a plan, although that’s required. The key is being one of those rare people will simply follow the plan and do the work day-in and day-out. That will set you apart – fast!

“Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.” – Sir Winston Churchill

Regular Action Is Required

We should all view this as great news because while there are certainly plenty of good, valuable ideas are tossed around every day, the people who realize the promise of those ideas are the ones who have the ability to:

• Take regular, continuous action, and
• Execute their plan with focus, consistency and determination

It’s a simply requirement, but rarely done well and critical to achieving a goal. Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and many other successful leaders have been quoted as saying that the characteristic that had the greatest contribution to their success was their ability to stay focused on those things that mattered most, and not be distracted by all the “static” going on around them.

This is exactly how it should be, too. Having the determination to execute a plan diligently and with consistency is nature’s way to separating the pretenders from the contenders. If you don’t have the desire, willingness and discipline to stick to your plan until you achieve it you’ll won’t get there …. it just doesn’t work that way.

Focus, determination, consistency – these are the qualities that are required for achievement and that have defined achievers throughout history.

Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin. – Mother Teresa

It Takes More than Talent, Money or Luck

The good news is that talent, money and luck are not mentioned here. While those things are valuable assets to have, on their own they simply aren’t enough. History is loaded with examples of people who wasted talent, money and opportunity. It also give us countless examples of people who started with nothing but a dream, great determination, a sound plan and the willingness to execute that plan until it paid off.

• “The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion. It is the man who carefully advances step by step, with his mind becoming wider and wider – and progressively better able to grasp any theme or situation. ” – Alexander Graham Bell

And now, this is where it gets interesting! Because when we start doing, we inevitably begin to encounter setbacks and occasional disappointments. This page from the Practical Success Secrets website, discussing highly successful people, says essentially the same thing – consistent focus and commitment to the object of your attention (your goal) is essential.

The one thing we can be assured of as we set out to accomplish anything is that:

• There will be challenges
• We will experience failures
• We will become frustrated and face disappointment
• We will have to find a way to keep ourselves motivated

These are the challenges of achievement, but everyone who ever accomplished anything faced them, and always remember that persistence and determination defeat them.