I love former Navy Seal, Jocko Willink's personal mantra: "Discipline equals freedom." The development of and rigorous attention to discipline in every area of our lives is the difference-maker when it comes to succeeding or failing. Through out the resolutions and instead, start by developing discipline around one small activity. It's contagious.
This post is excerpted from my collection: Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development. There's a definite difference between focusing on not failing versus striving for success.
Too many people fail to overcome resistance and start moving forward. Instead of heeding Drucker’s advice, fear rents space in their minds, creating a never-ending litany of excuses that help ensure that their feet remain firmly planted in place.
Woody Allen famously offered that, “80% of success is showing up.” In my opinion, about 99% of success is Sticktoitiveness, which is much about being doggedly persistent in the face of overwhelming obstacles. That awkward non-word is one of the attributes that I look for in hiring talent and one that I’ve observed over and over again in the most successful professionals that I’ve encountered.
I’ve been harping on personal responsibility at least once per week recently, and can’t quite get it out of my system. I’m bombarded daily with too many examples of people that fail to take responsibility for their actions and in the process, often stop one step short of success. One of my as yet unresolved points of personal inquiry (and wonder), involves those individuals in businesses and in graduate and undergraduate classes that are seemingly armed with their fair share of intellectual gifts and raw capabilities, but that still manage to metaphorically shoot themselves in one or both feet with alarming regularity.
The old adage of “you get what you measure” is an old adage for a reason. It’s generally true.
Suggested links and resources on success, career growth as a product manager and leading. Check out the review of Gladwell's Outliers at Three Star Leadership, Career Growth and the Product Manager by Art Petty and a podcast summary of Leading from the Edge by Dennis Perkins.
Welcome to the first work week of 2009. There are no more opportunities to hide behind the holidays. It’s time to face the worst economy of our lives head on with a steely resolve to overcome and succeed. It's also time to quit preoccupying on the negative news that bombards us and to focus on generating victories.
It is always great fun to work with management groups interested in growing their businesses, pursuing a new and bold vision or embarking upon new strategic directions. More often than not, these groups have enjoyed success, established themselves and their firm in a favorable position and have a common excitement about what the future might hold. They also talk about the fact that change will be necessary for growth, and it is usually about this point that the wheels start wobbling.
One of the things we often lose as busy working adults is that sense of excitement about learning. It’s easy to let years and even decades slip by and focus on everything but our own self-development. Sure, we attend mandated training in our company and possibly even the periodic seminar to earn the Continuing Education Units (CEUs) mandated by our professional certifying organizations. Unfortunately, neither of those formats creates the exhilarating sense of learning and discovery that we may have had at some time earlier in our lives, but lost along the way to becoming responsible adults.
