Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Some Thoughts On Success

It's the Fall, and the concept of Success has come to the fore again as it usually does this time of the year. I have been hearing it in e mail, and in the blogs I read. Why now more so than other times of the year. I think it's because once you get into the working world and leave the school year behind, the Fall is when you start thinking about goals for the new year.

Here's some of the things I believe about what it takes to succeed. First, How are you going to know what success is if you haven't set goals? We can argue about what success is or isn't until hell freezes over and we will never determine what it is because it is different for everyone.

Making a list of things you'd like to do in you life is a worthy idea. It isn't a list of goals for you to achieve unless you are breaking them down into something you can do with your immediate time and effort. We need some 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 year goals. What I am positive of is that if you don't write them down, and review them once a quarter, they are wishes, not goals. You are either serious about this, or you aren't. Guess who gets to make the choice? If you haven't a clue, ask yourself where you want to be in ten years, then ask yourself how you're going to get there.

The trick is to make goals that are attainable. They should be relevant to you and what you want to achieve. Try to make your goals as specific as possible. Measurable goals, not fuzzy, and achieved within a time frame. I might do something like: I will write a romance novel by December 31, 2007 under the nom de plume Ann Charter. I plan to see if one my blogging buddies can be my agent and/or publish it for me. Also, maybe another one can illustrate it for me. Maybe I should have someone who's a better writer write it for me? I mean, I'm just an entrepreneur.

Want to go to France and drink wine and chat with someone meaningfully in a little outdoor cafe in Paris, make it a goal, provide the money, and the meaningful person and make the trip. Want to play golf? Use goal setting to help develop a swing, and your game.

You define success. You review. You follow up. You are responsible. Don't know what to do for a goal,ask Desiree who ran into that problem. She asked her friends. That's why you have friends too.

7 comments:

mist1 said...

It is time to review my goals. I will add that to my list:

1. Het Hobby
2. Floss
3. Review Goals

rebecca said...

it always seems so simple when one reads how to attain success by making acheivable goals that one is going to remember and actively work towards meeting. why don't i ever follow through?

am i afraid of success??

i'm rather good at failure, so that is possible...

perhaps, until now my goals have been just wishes, afterall.

MonkeyLover said...

I have dreams, goals, plans, and hopes.. I like dreaming big, and have a hard time sticking to "attainable" goals, so if you know which things fit into which category you can be pretty successful. And I have found that as the years go on dreams and hopes often shift to plans and goals and make room for new ones :)

Alison said...

Great post.

The CEO said...

I hear you all. Writing goals down puts you on a path. I'm going to write. I'm going into biology in some way or another. I want to be in photography.

I may not know what form of commercial photographer I want to be in, portrait, photographing food for magazines, glamour and fashion, architectural, scenic. I may end up doing one form of commercial photography to support a more artistic form, i.e. photographing food so i can photgraph nudes.

But, if you review those goals every quarter, you'll revise and refine your goals, and gain more focus.

I'm hoping that MonkeyLover ends up in some field where she solves the mystery of sleep apnia and gives me peace one night. Please.

mist1 said...

You mean I have to do this every quarter? Damn. Adding that to my list.

cmhl said...

I am all about goals-- I think it is a great idea. I keep a running list on my fridge, to keep those less motivated than myself (*ahem*) motivated.