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Simon says, “Success is reaching goals changing your life.”

Your success is too important to accommodate anything else. Most everyone has smaller goals and they even reach them most of the time. For them, that is enough. Being able to pay the bills, having an adequate place to live, driving a dependable car, holding down a good job, being able to provide for their children, and perhaps a yearly vacation is about all they expect of themselves and is about all they ever have.

Limiting themselves to such timid goals works for them and for others who are not totally and unequivocally committed to success; but for you and the rest of the creme de la creme who will never be satisfied with mediocrity, such mundane goals are hardly worthy of being called goals. They are simply part of taking care of business while you get on with taking care of your success. You expect to use your internal resources, your potential to develop a services line taking you into realms most people can but dream about, if they are even aware of the possibility.

“But Simon,” you ask, “Where are these realms, how will I have changed when I get there?” Simon can be your coach but cannot tell you either where or what those realms are for you. They are your life-changing goals, not Simon’s; but there are a few truths pointing you in the right direction.

•You cannot reach goals you do not have.

•You cannot reach someone else’s goals.

•Plan on where you are going before you plan on how to get there.

Goal setting starts with understanding you cannot succeed without them. Not having success goals is like jumping off a thousand foot cliff into a raging river without knowing being able to fly is sometimes more important than being able to swim. You are at a point in your life where you have never been before and your success lies ahead of you. For most people, there is no real issue in this. Their plan is to simply keep doing more of what they have been doing and then retire. For you, though, there is much more at stake.

Your interest goes far beyond merely moving into your future without too many problems or unforeseen circumstances. You expect to have a lot of both. You thrive on problems; and if there are not a few big ones on your plate today, you are losing focus. The challenge of expanding and enhancing your internal resources and improving your services line is always there, complete with problems to solve and opportunities to exploit. You are always moving into new realms and cannot anticipate everything. There are always unforeseen circumstances requiring all of your concentration and imagination. For you, big problems and new territory are integral to who you are, to what you do.

You just assume the thousand foot cliff is out there somewhere and you have to jump off of it sooner or later; and jump off of it you do. In the meantime, you make sure you know how to swim and how to fly when the opportunity to jump presents itself to you.

What are your success goals? Nine out of ten people’s response is, “To be rich, to have a million dollars.” Well, okay. That would certainly change your life, assuming you do not already have a million or two laying around; and if that is your success goal, what have you done today to get yourself further down the million dollar track?

While you are contemplating your next million dollars, take time to consider other possibilities. For you, being a totally competent parent, leading a winning team, being sure your community has the highest quality schools, eliminating hunger, or writing the next best-selling novel may be more important. How you define success is up to you. They are your success goals, not someone else’s. Your challenge is to;

•Develop a range of success goals, not a single win/lose success goal,

•Set success goals exceeding your reach but not your vision,

•Be clear about what success is for you, how your life is changed when you succeed,

•Be clear about what you need to do and what you do to succeed,

•Be persistent and consistent in your pursuit of your success.

Simon has some tips you may find helpful. Wherever success lies for you:

•Make something bigger

•Enhance its function

•Increase its flexibility

•Make it more efficient

•Make it more distinctive

•Make it work differently

•Make it more effective

•Make it more affordable

•Make it more appealing

•Make it more convenient

•Develop a substitute

•Do it faster

•Combine it with something

•Arrange it differently

Simon says “Perspiration is only preparation for your success.” This is a fact of success life easier to accept in principle than in practice. The problem is just because you are succeeding does not mean you are enjoying the trip.

Most people associate success with “the good life” or with “having it made.” For them, people who are successful only work when they want to work; and when they do work, they only do those things they like to do. The rest of the time, which is most of the time, they do mostly whatever they want to do, whenever they want to do it. The principle is being successful makes it possible to be self-indulgent.

Success is about as far from self-indulgence as winning the Indianapolis 500 is from liking to drive. It helps to enjoy a lot of the thousand things you do to succeed; but it is very unlikely you enjoy them all and equally unlikely you enjoy even things you do like all of the time. Success is not about having fun; it is about succeeding. In the long run, this may be the single most important factor separating you from people who only dream about success.

The dreamers believe enjoying what they do is truly important. You understand your success is the only thing that matters. The ironic twist is you are having a lot more fun succeeding than the dreamers are having complaining about what they have to do in order to have time to do what they like to do. You are succeeding and by any measure, success is a lot more fun than the alternatives.

There are two additional elements separating you from the dreamers. First, they save their personal best for those things they think really matter. Second, they adjust their level of effort to how important they think something is. The result is most of what they do does not reflect their best work. It is more enjoyable or at least not as unpleasant for them that way.

For you, though, a different standard operates. Your self-discipline rules are:

•”If what I am doing does not warrant my personal best, I am probably doing the wrong thing.”

•”I do whatever I am doing as if it were the most important thing I have ever done.”

You have likely heard the story about the self-made-man.

“I am a self-made-man.”

“It does look like after all these years you would have gotten better at it. The next time, you may want to consider out-sourcing the job.”

Since you cannot out-source your success, everything you do matters, nothing you do is unimportant. You are working for you; nothing but your best effort will ever do. Your success deserves no less than your best, the first time, on time, every time, with everything, no exceptions, no excuses.

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