We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world forever, it seems.
41% of us have set new years resolutions during the holidays. Many of these dreams have gotten lost in the shuffle of everyday living. Only 9.2% achieve their goals set. The most common performance barriers holding us back are as follows:
- lack of integrity
- indecisive
- poor communication skills
- poor listening skills
- lack of passion
- low self-confidence
- lack of empathy
- overly dependent
- poor work-life balance
- negative, pessimistic thinking
3 Proven Tactics that work
We will not address all barriers here today, but we will touch upon the ones in bold above. In his book Derailed, Tim Irwin states that “There are 4 dimensions to character: 1.Authenticity 2. Humility 3.Self Management 4. Courage “. The 3 tactics I am going to recommend tackle the inner Intelligence of character. Understanding these will be the guard rails to keep us on course after the clock has struck midnight on New Year.
1.Write Down Your Dreams/Goals
- Clarifies Dreams. Dreams are not goals. Dreams are visions, wishes, and desires. Dreams are just dreams, but goals are clear, specific, and prioritized plans with deadlines. Once you put that dream on paper, the paper will become the crucible, and your mind will be the Bunsen burner that will crystallize your dreams into goals. It is imperative to know why you want this. The miserable middle ahead will need your purpose to stay the course. See SMART goals.
- Frames positive thinking. Once you understand why you want your goals, you now understand your real purpose. Believe in yourself, even when no one else does. What you vividly imagine, ardently desire and enthusiastically act upon must inevitably come through. Be like Roger Bannister, who broke the 4-minute mile when everyone thought it was impossible. Only your confidence can break the barrier. Be the stone cutter who eventually breaks the stone after 2000 continuous strokes. SELF BELIEVE, the most convincing character of a person. Shattered your personal truths that are holding you back. This is your truth until that belief system is trashed. The know-er will always win against the believer when they meet. It is not fear of failure; it lacks confidence in yourself; otherwise, you would push on because you truly believe that you will make it. Fear is in mind, linear, and localized. Fear thinking will not encourage exponential and globalized action or positive changes.
- Stays top of mind. Once on paper, you have it front and center in your life. It will help in self-management and self-encouragement over internal and external criticism. This helps you improve your willpower to attack issues and not beat yourself up or let fear in.
2.Head into Action
Block a date and time in your calendar. Schedule some action, a next step. Stop the “I Should attitude” if you believe, then you MUST DO. There is no other way.
Decompose your goal into the skills needed to achieve your dream. For each required skill, find the micro-skill of that skill. For each micro-skill, find an expert where you can get solid advice. “Niche” communities exist in the form of blogs, podcasts, and videos which are free or low cost on the internet.
While you will have a primary teacher, find mentorship from various sources with varying perspectives. I have some templates I created and can freely share on decomposition. Just subscribe to this blog and correspond with me.
Now, take action on the immediate knowledge acquired and the next step in front of you. Your success today is just getting these small steps done. Be patient as you conquer each micro-skill. Consistent efforts will begin to compound over the next three months.
When you resist sharing, it stunts your growth, and it’s usually because of shame. Shame is the insidious voice telling you that you’re not good enough.
Purpose and Courage are needed; without courage, wisdom bears no fruit. Knowledge and courage take turns at greatness.
Courage is a learned trait since we are all scared. Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm—the courage to face fear, confronting it head-on, and then stick with it despite the immediate results. Success is not final, and failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. Victory is not WINNING. It is on-going.
Courage is a critical feature of success. The art of success is to watch fortune ride on the wings of courage and virtue using the timing of luck. Humility and Courage give birth to Integrity; Integrity gives birth to 2 things Wisdom and Abundance mentality. Wisdom comes from following the truth willingly and courageously; it is only there we find our purpose.
Purpose is something that makes you block time on your calendar. Goals are no good if there is no purpose or impact. Everyone wants to be able to measure their impact. We all want to make something we believe in, love and have a purpose.
Purpose becomes a more enduring and powerful energy source when its source moves from fear to love, moves from negative to positive, moves from external to internal approval, and self-focus to others. Purpose moves directly alongside incentive motives: profit to reach the purpose, words beyond self-interest, in policies that pursue purpose on their own terms. If you believe in something, defy the social norms, follow your purpose and show your character.
Character is the courage and conviction to live by our deepest values; it is the key muscle for Inner Intelligence.
3. Share your Goals:
IF YOU WANT TO TO FAST, GO ALONE. IF YOU WANT TO GO FAR, GO WITH OTHERS.
Sharing our goals, achievements, and experiences makes us teachers and makes us accountable to others. The teaching experience is bidirectional. The teacher and the student learn simultaneously. We learn as we teach by clarifying questions and getting feedback. The endless loop of refining both questions and feedback is the ultimate teacher. Sharing your experiences helps you tap into universal truths or shared collective experiences.
Sharing also engages our Integrity. We want to be consistent with our words and ideally want to be viewed positively. We desire to have a reputation for doing what we say. We draw on Integrity to be accountable.
Many of my first memories as a child is of my grandmother and her aphorisms. One of my favorites is “You can buy many things, but you cannot buy character so protect it.” Reputation is more important than money. Reputation is the cornerstone of all power. Protect it with your life.
Trust and integrity are what people follow. Play it straight with integrity, and you will prevent stress and keep your passion alive and well. Integrity, authenticity, or wholeness is what makes people believe in you; it is what makes your reputation over time. Thoughts become actions, and actions become a habit; habits become your character, reputation, and destiny.
Your reputation alone can intimidate an enemy. Your credibility is the most important thing in any sale. Does the buyer trust you? When I refer to the reputation, I do not mean notoriety, which is a world apart. Reputation is a data-driven, proven, trusted expert sharing experience. The latter is famous and known widely in a community of interest.
The sharing and community aspect keeps you improving long after the initial goal has long been met. People like to be around optimistic people who believe that life is better than good and share those experiences.
If FEAR is your mainstay, the good people in your life will leave, and they will encourage other decent people to go as well. You will be left with only dregs in your life if you live in fear.
There are 3 core things to the story of someone’s life: Purpose, Truth, and Action. The question you ask yourself, ideas that come of it (that you write down), belief, and attitude you bring to your actions, passion for communication when sharing.
Sharing is Caring. Thanks for reading and Sharing ❤
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