Why, start
with Why?
Colin J. Campbell
Part three – How – Achieving Success
Asking yourself the question “Why” is a
novel approach; for most of us we haven’t done that since we were little
children. If you have followed the first
two parts of this article, defined your why and begun to set down your goals
you are now ready to take the next step, “How”.
How is the implementation phase.
Taking action, it is an essential requirement. Unfortunately, not everyone has the
opportunity to see their dreams become reality. The dreams of childhood get
shelved by the reality of life. Trying to earn a living, raising a family and
educating children consumes most of our
days and leaves little time to dream or to make a dream reality.
Finding your why, setting goals and
becoming more innovative are keys to all facets of life. Seeking to find happiness in a career and
lifestyle are part of our makeup, we expect to achieve these goals. We are all
burdened by the baggage of our upbringing and education. To move forward we have to get out of the present circumstance, the only way to do that
is to step forward and take a risk. That
does raise the possibility of failure, however failure is not the enemy,
failure proves what doesn’t work. It is
not a stigma it is a stepping stone. Not
being afraid to fail is self compassion. You have to like yourself and what you
are trying to achieve. We are often our
own worst critic, we expect perfection when perfection is an elusive
dream. Be willing to accept who you are
and what you have achieved.
For many the biggest fear is fear of
failure, it leads to inertia. It is a
trait that was learned, our education system with its rewards and punishment
taught us to fear failure, fortunately it can be unlearned. The best way to deal with this fear is to
face, it move towards it until it loses its hold. Many entrepreneurs will say that the fear of
failure held them back but when they faced up to it, quit the comfortable job
and stepped out on their own the fear disappeared and the act of taking action
empowered their success. When there is
no fallback position and the only direction you can take is forward it is
amazing what you can achieve.
Action is delayed by fear and learning how
to identify what is causing the fear and how to deal with it is very important
to success. Fear is an acronym for
False, Evidence, Appearing, Real.
Dealing with this unreality can be a simple as taking the first step
forward, and the false evidence will lose its hold. A good analogy is the efforts of a mother
eagle to get the eaglets to fly. Some of them will be eager to leave the nest
and with a bit of encouragement from Mom will take the leap and fly right away,
but often there is one who just doesn’t get the message and will not leave the
nest. Mom will encourage and cajole until finally she will solve the problem
with a good kick in the rear. Once the eaglet realizes that its fly or sink the
problem is solved. Similarly sometimes we need a good kick to overcome the fear. Often those with the
skills and the talent never succeed because of the fear of failure, while those
with lesser skills but the determination to face the fear and move forward
succeed.
If you study the lives of the great
achievers in history men such as Edison, Einstein or Bill Gates, the one
commonality is a very active minds as children, they dreamed big and they were
encouraged by a parent to try to achieve their dreams. Their parents were not
inclined to step on their butterflies no matter how outrageous they may have
sounded. What these men accomplished in
life and the impact they have had on our society is immense, they literally
changed the world.
Nothing is impossible. Whatever your why and your what you can
accomplish if you are willing to do what is necessary. You may have to develop
new skills to achieve your goal. It is estimated it takes 10,000 hours to
become an expert at something, such as playing the piano. If you were to chronicle the time that Bill
Gates put into becoming a very proficient programmer you would probably find
that the time invested was about 10,000 hours.
He chose to start early and give up a lot of other activities to achieve
the goal, such as sleep. It is estimated that Thomas Edison tried over 5,000
experiments that did not work before he succeeded in developing a light bulb
that would work for any length of time.
In terms of time, about 10,000 hours.
Can anyone become an expert at anything by
investing 10,000 hours? No, it requires some talent and aptitude for the
task. Which emphasises the importance of
Why, until you know your Why it is hard to decide where to put the effort. At the same time that does not mean you
should not take the first step, every great achievement began with feeble
forward steps, just like when you learned to walk. Getting started sometimes is the hardest
part, it takes more energy to get the airplane in the air than it does to
cruise at 30,000 feet. The same
principle applies, much of the skills you are going to need will be learned by
doing not by taking courses or attending seminars, the doing leads to learning.
How you achieve your goals and fulfill you
why is taking action to make it reality and it does not have to be daunting
task. Success requires courage, you may have to sever the ties with the old
ideas and with the safety net that will catch you if you fail. If you goal is to be self employed, you will
need to develop business skills to develop the business plan and find the
financing. Part four has a number of tools you can tap into and of course you
can find just about anything on the internet.
Developing a business may not be your goal it may be that your goal is
to find a better career path. Post
secondary education is expensive however with careful research you can find a
number of opportunities to reduce the cost, the online universities already
mentioned, scholarships that never get paid out for lack of applicants, grants,
work share programs and many more. It
may be possible to find a company in your field that will hire you and pay you
while you get more education.
Thomas Edison once said that the Universe
was the source of all his ideas, it was there waiting for him to get in
tune. That applies to all of us, we can
all tune into the universe and it will supply all your needs. Getting in tune
requires giving up some of the fallacies that have been foisted upon you over the
years, the how instead of the why.
Learning to embrace failure as a step to success. Learning to listen to
your inner self and allow yourself to dream.
Taking on the idea that you are Me Inc. and treat yourself in a manner
that success becomes common place, all because you know what your why is and
you have mapped out your plan.
Finally remember the golden rule, Do unto
others as you would have them do unto you
and be grateful for all that you have,
gratitude is the antidote for lack, for if you are grateful for what you
have you will be rewarded with more, even if all you can find to be grateful
for is the air that you breath.
Always remember, “ You don’t get a prize for finishing first in Life.” Rod Osiowy
Colin
J. Campbell, CFP, CLU, Ch.F.C. is Managing Partner of Guidance Planning
Strategies Ltd. in Cranbrook BC he can
be reached at colin.campbell@gpsbc.ca
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