Victories
in life come through our ability to work around and over the obstacles
that cross our path. We grow stronger as we climb our own mountains
(Marvin Ashton).
In the article that follows, Keith Phillips advises us to
know our nemeses (opponents/oppositions) if we want to be successful in any
undertaking.
Today's armies of
life coaches and business gurus often seem to build their strategies on
a fundamental bit of advice from the 6th-century BC Chinese general, Sun
Tzu in his treatise, The Art of War—"Know your enemy." Not until we
identify and understand the attitudes and conditions that threaten our
success can we take the steps necessary to overcome them.
Lack of a
clear goal:
"What often leads to failure," says
entrepreneur and consultant Joseph Ansanelli, "is [the absence of] a
well understood, small set of very important goals."
"If you don't know where you're going, you'll wind up somewhere else."—Yogi
Berra
Lack of a
plan: It's
okay to dream of building castles in the air, but they won't become
realities without a realistic step-by-step plan for putting them there.
Today we have space stations, but they didn't just happen. "He who fails
to plan, plans to fail."—Author
unknown
Lack of
focus: Various
things can contribute to lack of focus, including low motivation, a poor
work environment, or being distracted by matters of lesser priority.
Identify interferences and determine how to best deal with each. "One reason so few of us achieve
what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never
concentrate our power. Most people dabble(experiment) their way through life."—Anthony
Robbins
Laziness:
We can have a
great idea and even a great plan for achieving it, but if we lack the
necessary dedication or we are not willing to put in the work, the idea and
plan are doomed. "Some people dream of success,
while others wake up and work hard at it."—Author
unknown
Rigidity:
Few things
undermine initiative and progress worse than holding on to the way
things have been done in the past. "A closed mind is not only closed
to outside thoughts, it is often closed to itself as well. It is closed
to new thoughts and anything that threatens the status quo. But if we
can open the doors, maybe just a crack at first, the ideas that have
been patiently waiting at our gates will flood in."—
David Straker and
Graham Rawlinson, How
to Invent (Almost) Anything
Lack of
enthusiasm: If an
idea is like a spark, enthusiasm is the wind that whips it into a
bonfire strong enough to withstand the rain of adversity. "Success consists of going from
failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."—Winston
Churchill
Accepting
defeat. Very
often, the battle is lost in the mind before the real action even
begins. If we expect defeat, we are already defeated; if we hope to win,
we give ourselves a chance; if we expect to win, we increase our chances
exponentially. Even the most seemingly impossible situation can be
overcome if approached positively, as a challenge. "Success seems to be largely a
matter of hanging on after others have let go."—William
Feather
Complacency: The
greatest danger often comes when things are running smoothly and the
pressure is off, because the natural tendency then is not to try as
hard. It may be possible to coast for a while, but valuable momentum
will be lost; if left unchecked, things will grind to a halt. "There is a very fine line
between confidence and complacency. If we win the first game against a
team, the worst thing we can do is fool ourselves into thinking that the
second game will be easier."—Dave
McGinnis
Overconfidence:The
hare and the tortoise, the giant Goliath and the boy David, the
Titanic—you get the picture. "Before you attempt to beat the
odds, be sure you could survive the odds you're beating."—Larry
Kersten
Procrastination:
The most capable people in the world, with the best ideas in the world
and all the financial backing in the world, will get nowhere until they
take action. "There are a million ways to lose
a work day, but not even a single way to get one back."—Tom
DeMarco and Timothy Lister
Disunity:
Joint efforts rarely come to full fruition without reasonable levels of
consensus and compatibility, so work at building those. Then when
opposing ideas and interests emerge, rather than becoming stumbling
blocks, they can be used as stepping stones. "Honest differences of views and
honest debate are not disunity. They are the vital process of policy
making."
—Herbert Hoover
Moral
compromise: The
credo of some seems to be "All is fair in love, war, business, and
life," but what works is not always what's right. Victories won
immorally are shallow, usually short-lived, and often have consequences
that cancel any success. "Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap"
(Galatians 6:7). "Success is more permanent when
you achieve it without destroying your principles."—Walter
Cronkite
Failure to
learn from mistakes:
Victory is very often decided
according to who has learned the most from past mistakes. "The real test is not whether you
avoid failure, because you won't. It's whether you let it harden or
shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you
choose to persevere."
—Barack Obama
If you want to accomplish anything in
life, you can't just sit back and hope it will happen. You've got to
make it happen.--Chuck Norris |