By
Rick Forbus, PhD
Do you talk about what you are going to accomplish but never really take action? Achievement comes only after the act of achieving. More precisely, achievement is a series of acts of achievement. Achievement has the goal of making a decision to begin committing acts of achievement and sustaining those acts with determination until the goal is reached. The “dictionary” definition of achievement includes these ideas: (1) the act of achieving something; the achievement of an ambition; (2) the result gained by effort. (3) Also, achievement may be a great or heroic deed.
Most of us want to achieve things. Some us want to achieve great things. Many leaders that I coach can see what achievement looks like. The challenge for all of us is to determine to commit habitual acts of achievement. These acts look like steps. The barriers to achievement are such things as:
o Distractions
o Unclear purpose
o Lack of understanding of what is important
o Choosing to do good things rather than the best things
o Settling for mediocre
o Repeating old non-achievement acts
o Missing the target of life’s passion
o Resisting change
o Making decisions based on traditions rather than waiting for discernable indicators
o Lack of trust in others and yourself
o Refusing to ask for others’ opinions
The dictionary provides some great synonyms for the word achievement:
o Attainment
o Success
o Accomplishment
o Feat
o Triumph
o Realization
o Getting
o Reaching
Look at what Calvin Coolidge said about achievement.
Press on – nothing can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Perseverance and determination alone are omnipotent.
Calvin Coolidge
Most of the great inventions, artwork, songs, apparel design, and technological breakthroughs come by achievers. These are people who have repeated acts of triumph and accomplishment over and over until they reached achievement. This could be called grit!
Please ponder these questions:
o Have you thought about what you really want to achieve?
o Have you ever put a timeframe around those thoughts?
o Are you racing through life without a real focus on what you could achieve?
o Are you committing acts of good work but no real acts of achievement?
o Does it appear that your effort is not connected to anything of real value nor has any real potential for achieving something great?
One of the true-life stories I observed of achievement was of a lady I knew as a child. She was our church’s organist and was my piano teacher. She was famous in our town. She had the piano students come to her house once a month on Saturday to learn music theory and go deeper into musical concepts. Parents and students for decades admired her and had a lot of their successes attributable to her determination to go beyond the norm to help others achieve.
When she reached 70 years of age she decided to take up the harp. She had always wanted to play the harp but had been so busy teaching and playing the piano and organ she never really considered it seriously. One day she decided she could do it. She achieved. The next decade she played the harp for weddings, banquets and special gatherings. Why? She decided to commit acts of achievement and practice the harp and learn the harp. Each decision that led to her beginning the harp in her seventies was an act of achievement. She not only wanted to achieve this; she acted accordingly. The result: achievement.
The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still favorable. Favorable conditions never come.
C.S. Lewis
I like what Conrad Hilton says. He equates achievement with a series of acts that lead to the achievement. There really never is any great achievement without a step by step journey attaining the achievement. Action steps transform into achievements; big and small.
Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.
Conrad Hilton
My coaching style encourages specific steps to development, not, global claims of lofty hopes. Actually, my coaching style is rather directive and not so benevolent. Most people that hire a coach want to achieve some form of life or professional transformation. Any of us can hope to attain great things, but only the few who order their steps with acts of achievement accomplish. I have said this many times and written it a book – if you can design it, you can defend it, then, you can deploy it. Take your dreams, imaginations and hopes and connect them to strategic action steps. Ideas get a “life” when they are “walked toward a goal” each day, each week, each month and even each year. Get there one step at a time. Let your enthusiasm, passion and energy get you where you want to be.
There are no shortcuts to life’s greatest achievements.
Anonymous
This week try these things:
1. Define what your greatest life achievement could look like.
2. Write this in a journal and then prioritize your best practices that will begin to move you toward this achievement.
3. Now, let these actionable steps define your week, not continuing the former actions of your past weeks.
4. Set milestones at 90 days, 120 days and 365 days of action steps that incrementally take you to your defined achievement.
5. Find someone to hold you accountable.
Personal development is your springboard to personal excellence. Ongoing, continuous, non-stop personal development literally assures you that there is no limit to what you can accomplish.
Brian Tracy
Executive coach – rforbus@troveinc.com
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