Effective Planning Solutions

Several years ago I was brought face to face with the very disturbing realisation that I was trying to manage and direct the efforts of a large number of people, who were trying to achieve success, without knowing myself, what the secret of success really was. That naturally brought me face to face with the further realisation that regardless of what other knowledge I might have brought to my job, I was definitely lacking in the most important knowledge of all.

Of course, like most of us, I had been brought up on the popular belief that the secret of success is hard work. This presented a paradox as I had seen many people work hard without succeeding, whilst others succeed without working hard. That convinced me that hard work was not the real secret even though in most cases it might be one of the requirements.

It was this realisation that led me to set out on a voyage of discovery to discover the secret, if in fact one existed. My voyage carried me through biographies and autobiographies and all sorts of dissertations on success and the lives of successful people. I finally reached a point at which I realised that the secret I was trying to discover lay not only in what people did, but also in what made them do it.

I further realised that the secret for which I was searching must not only apply to every definition of success, but it must apply to everyone who had ever been successful. In short, I was looking for the common denominator of success. And because that is exactly what I was looking for, that is exactly what I found.

The common denominator of success is so big, so powerful, and so vitally important to your future and mine that I am just going to “lay it on the line” in words of few syllables, so simple that everyone can understand.

“The common denominator of success - the secret of success of every person who has ever been successful - lies in the fact that they formed the habit of doing things that others do not like to do”.

It is just as true as it sounds and it is just as simple as it seems. You can hold it up to the light, you can put acid on it, and you can kick it around until it’s worn out, but when you are all through with it, it will still be the common denominator of success.

The secret of success lies in forming the habit of doing things that most people do not like to do. So let us start the boiling-down process by determining what are the things that most people do not like to do. The things that people do not like to do are the very things that all human beings, including successful people, naturally do not like to do. In other words, we’ve got to realise right from the start that success is something achieved by the minority of people, and therefore almost considered unnatural. Due to the fact that it is achieved by a minority it is not some thing that can be achieved by following natural likes and dislikes, nor by being guided by our natural preferences and prejudices.

First and foremost remember that people are controlled by habit, just as machines are controlled by momentum and that habit is nothing more or less, than momentum translated from the concrete into the abstract. Every single qualification for success is acquired through habit. People form habits and habits form futures. If you do not conscientiously and deliberately form good habits, then unconsciously you will form bad ones. You are the kind of person you are, not because of who you are but what you do. You have formed the habit of being that kind of person and the only way you can change is through forming new habits.
The emphasis is therefore based on two facts one is habit the other is change. Any perceived change based on a resolution or spur of the moment decision will not deliver the desired outcomes. to change. However any promise to yourself, which is not worth a tinker’s damn until you have formed the habit of making it and keeping it. Moreover, you will not form the habit of making it and keeping it unless right at the start you link it with a definite purpose that can be accomplished by keeping it. In other words, any resolution or decision you make today has to be made again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, and the next, and so on. And it not only has to be made each day, but it has to be kept each day for if you miss one day in the making or keeping of it, you’ve got to go back and begin all over again. But if you continue the process of making it each morning and keeping it each day, you will finally wake up some morning a different person in a different world, and you will wonder what has happened to you and the world you used to live in.

In making your purpose practical, be careful not to make it logical. Make it a purpose of the sentimental or emotional type. Needs are logical whilst wants and desires are sentimental and emotional. Your needs will push you just so far, but when your needs are satisfied, they will stop pushing you. If, however, your purpose is in terms of wants or desires, then your wants and desires will keep pushing you along after your needs are satisfied and until your wants and desires are fulfilled.

Never ever forget that whilst you may succeed beyond your fondest hopes and your greatest expectations; you will never succeed beyond the purpose to which you are willing to surrender. Furthermore, you will not be complete until you have formed the habit of doing the things that others do not like to do.

For further information regarding this subject e-mail: - info@epsolutions.com.au

Leave a Reply