The month of December has been a month of reflection for me, with the year-end review of my goals and where I am regarding those. In addition, I have faced the need for re-charting the course of my professional plans for different circumstances.
For the last years, since I discovered my purpose and my calling, I have invested in equipping myself and start building my business as a professional coach, speaker and trainer. Coaching, leadership and the ability to manage change are the subjects that passionate me. As I wrote in my personal manifesto, I believe in more meaningful and productive organizations and society, where people fulfil their potential as human beings. And my way of contributing to that, where I can multiply value and make a difference, is by helping successful leaders and their teams achieve positive, lasting changes.
However, despite working on improving myself in the form of equipping myself, I realize that I haven’t reached several important professional goals in 2017. As I was analyzing the situation, I was coming back to my basics on goal setting and goal achieving. In 2017 I have been studying, with my mentor and friend Paul Martinelli, the book “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. The “secret” that Hill distills through his book, in order to achieve your goals and get your “riches” (whatever they are) is a distinctive quality, yet not very sexy word these days: persistence. Other key words appear in the book, like discipline, consistency and desire.
In the past weeks, as you may have noticed, I have been posting some snippets from the book “The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth: Live Them and Reach Your Potential”, by Dr. John C. Maxwell. He wrote this book to help people fulfil their potential in their lives. Now, as I was re-reading John’s work in the light of my search for a 2018 strategy, I found that he says in the introduction: “if you focus on goals, you may hit goals—but that doesn’t guarantee growth. If you focus on growth, you will grow and always hit goals.”
As I keep reading, John mentions a quote from James Allen’s As a Man Thinketh, another book I have been studying thru my work with Paul Martinelli. Allen wrote, “People are anxious to improve their circumstances but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.”
Suddenly I realize that, while I have been working on improving myself in the form of equipping myself, what has been bounding me and produced my results, was that I was putting my focus on how the circumstances were not working for me.
As I look into the “Growth Gap Traps” list John suggests, I relate to the #1, The Assumption Gap—“I Assume That I Will Automatically Grow”. I realize now that equipping myself was not enough to build a successful business in my sweet spot. And if I am not successful in my business, I will not be able to multiply my value and to fulfill my purpose in the long run. John mentions a quote from musician Bruce Springsteen “A time comes when you need to stop waiting for the man you want to become and start being the man you want to be.”
So that’s the key: the important thing with the goal is NOT to achieve the goal, it is to BECOME the person capable of achieving the goal. So, after redefining my goals for 2018, I ask myself… who do I need to become, to hit my 6 month goals? And how do I start being that person? The answer popped-up in my mind immediately:
- Reconnect your goals with your purpose, so you build strong desire behind each of them
- Apply discipline and consistency to the process
So what actions have I taken? First, I have made that powerful reconnection, resulting in me being fired-up by what I am creating in 2018; Second, I have I have decided to start a personal 90 day challenge to make me grow. To become the person I want to be by June 30th. So until March 31st I am specifically working my discipline and consistency. It takes the form of waking up every morning one hour earlier, reading some valuable content for my growth, reflect on it, write down my thoughts in the form of a post like this one and publishing it, so hopefully this content becomes also valuable for your growth. Discipline and consistency start today. With getting up at 6.00AM even if I was sharing time with my family until 3.00AM last night, celebrating New Year’s Eve.
Hope to see you there tomorrow morning too.
Have an intentional 2018. Grow. Reach your goals. Have an impact. Make a difference.
To your success,
Ezequiel
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