Posts tagged ‘leadership’
Success is Now!
I write this blog entry for my friends and families whom I’ve seen struggle as they chase something thinner than thin air called success.
The idea for most people is that success lives in the future. It is what you will gain – the big house, nice car; position – the big promotion, being in the C suite, and fame or network – the friends and connections you will have in influential positions. I want to emphasize that for most people, all these ‘things’ are in the future, that is, these are what you will have or will be in the future.
Here is an idea that may seem radical: That success is not in the future, but rather lives here, in present tense. You can be successful right now. You don’t have to postpone anything. The decision to succeed now can lead to you having or be all that you want to be.
One of the ways that success can be defined is as follows:
A successful person is someone who has made the commitment NOT to give up on goals. No matter what the obstacles, that person will push through. If this person falls 777 times, the natural reaction is to just get back up. That is a successful person.
I have yet to see anyone with this kind of attitude fail
Being successful involves adopting the attitudes, belief systems, and values of successful people. The person who does this is bound to achieve desired life goals.
Note that the definition above says nothing about what you have or where you are in life. I know of friends and family members in their 40s and 50s who are nostalgic about their 20s and what they could have accomplished. They see themselves as failures because they are not where they want to be. Consider this idea: That in the next 5 years, some people in their 20s will accomplish goals that people in their 40’s previously gave up on. So what’s the difference between people in their 40s and 50s who have given up on their dreams, and those 20 somethings who will attain those levels of achievement? Those in their 40s and 50s likely have more experience, more education, and larger networks.
Some achieve their goals with their efforts fueled by fear of failure. The fear to fail can be a powerful catalyst, pushing you to work so hard to avoid it. However, based on my experience this type of success could come at a high cost to personal relationships and health. There are no guarantees that the failure a person tries to avoid will lead to reaching the goal. However, there is no doubt in my mind that fear has a negative effect on the fearful and those around him. On the other hand, pursuing your goals from the position that you are already successful (because you have what it takes!) will serve as fuel and make the journey more enjoyable. Such an approach provides the confidence and the mental fortitude needed to overcome challenges that will come your way.
Success involves making a powerful choice in the present tense—now! That choice can propel you forward and sustain you for whatever goals that you have set out to accomplish. Wherever you are in your journey, take the challenge today– choose that from now you are successful!
On the Way to Being a Centenarian
A few months ago, I decided to go for the goal of being a centenarian.
It’s one of those things you don’t think about when you’re young. Everyone wants to live long or just assume they will. But how long? Most people would answer as long as possible. Since I believe in applying business principles to my personal life, I’ve decided to go one step further by stating a bold goal and taking the necessary steps to succeed in that goal.
Originally, I had set my goal at 90 years. But then I decided why slack off here? Why not go all the way to 100? So, here it is I am going for the full century.
I have a few good things working in my favor to start. The first is good genes. Both my parents are still alive and in relatively good health. My father is close to 80 and my mother isn’t far behind. Both my maternal grandparents lived past 80 years old. The second statistic working in my favor is that I have never smoked in my life.
However, I have a couple of big obstacles. The first is that when I stated my goal of being a centenarian, I met the definition of being obese—literally (which is a euphemistic way of saying that I was plain fat). Being obese is defined as having a Body Mass Index or BMI over 30. The second obstacle is that I have a lot of stress in my life, but I am working on reducing it by working smarter (more about that in a later post). There is a third obstacle which I believe will be easier than the other two to conquer. That is to increase my social interactions and connectivity. (Running a growing company doesn’t leave you much time to hang out with the guys).
I’d like to talk about my first obstacle to become a centenarian which is being overweight or obese. With the exception of those with certain medical conditions, most people are overweight because of poor nutrition and physical activity behavior. In other words, the reason I was obese was because I wasn’t eating right and I wasn’t spending enough time exercising.
During a talk I attended by an inspirational speaker Joe Dillon, he remarked that you will not find too many 90-year-olds who are overweight. I certainly couldn’t think of one 90-year-old who was overweight. This was probably the start of my quest to engage in better nutrition and physical activity behavior.
So, what am I doing now? For starters, I am watching my calorie intake. I don’t really walk with a calorie counter around me. But I know based on measurement done by a physical trainer that I need about 2,000 calories, and I try not to exceed that intake.
The second thing that I started is to exercise about five days a week for at least 30 minutes. To get me going, I set a goal of running a 5K in 29 minutes by December of this year. Originally, my goal was 25 minutes for the 5K but this would not leave me much time to work on my tennis or golf game. Re-evaluating this goal and adjusting it to realistically meet my desires and expectations was important to helping me succeed.
So, far I am on track. Since setting my goals I have lost about 25 lbs. In terms of exercise, when I started running a 5K, a few months ago I was huffing and puffing to make it close to 35 minutes. This morning, I finished a run of 3.03 miles in 30 minutes and 28 seconds. With some positive determination and willingness to work, meeting this goal was easy.
Won’t you join me in being a centenarian?
AyiPreneur 