Unlike an investment, your past success can be an indicator of future success. Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, replied in the FAQ section of his book that Robert Burgleman, one of his favorite professors at Stanford Business School taught him, “The single biggest danger in business and life other than outright failure, is to be successful without being resolutely clear about why you are successful in the first place.”
Have you made a connection to the patterns of thoughts, emotions and behaviours that creates your success? A connection to WHY you are successful provides you with a keen awareness and a road map of familiar patterns of thoughts/emotions/habits that you can adapt to present day realities to improve your effectiveness towards desired achievements.
Like many people when faced with new challenges or adversity your initial thought is probably not…OH YEAH! another obstacle for me to overcome! Your initial thought is probably alone the lines of WHY ME? or WHY NOW? I’ll give you the answer that I state to myself once I get pass my moments of “this couldn’t be happening to ME!”… SHIFT Happens.
SHIFT Happens implies change. Most of us say we want change but then when it occurs without our consent our response to it implies just the opposite. Our acceptance and ability to adapt to changing realities can and often does dictate our level of progress in life. Consider the steps that it took for you to learn how to read at various grade levels, if you had not been flexible and open to new learnings you would have not been promoted to the next grade level!
At each new grade level you were expected to use what you had previously learned as the foundation for the next grade level of studies. Year after year you built a foundation of academic progress based on previous academic success. Your patterns of perceptions, feelings and actions from one year to the next influenced your effectiveness and progress as a student.
Your Action Plan: Make a list of your top five achievements. Underneath each achievement list three to five dominant thoughts, emotions and daily habits which led to your success. Decide how you can adapt these thoughts, emotions and habits into your present reality to create the desired progress and success you want to experience. Your success is a clue to what you can do!