Develop That Passion That Got You Excited in The First Place
Face it guys, entrepreneurs think differently. We aren’t content with the status quo, we yearn for something different. There is something inside you, perhaps even in your subconscious, that drives you to accomplish those great things. You read the title to this article and are now reading this article because you feel a need to succeed at something. That “some-thing” can be achieving success in a small one-time investment, getting out of the rat race or starting a large entrepreneurial endeavor. Either way, your “some-thing” is big and important to you! That something brought you to read this and what you need to do is develop that passion and make it tangible.
I challenge you to write down why you became passionate in the first place for this “some-thing”…
- Write out where you were when you first realized you needed to succeed.
- Write out when you first started feeling the need to succeed at it.
- Write out what prompted the need to succeed.
- Write out who factored into the need to succeed.
- Write out why you need to succeed now.
By writing these out, you are affirming where your desire came from and why it’s burning a hole in your soul. By affirming these you are telling yourself and God that this is important to you and you are going to make this a priority in your life from this point forward.
The Success Mindset Boils Down to A Choice:
One Day or Day One? You Decide!
Get your team together
Now that you’ve established your clear vision and the reason why you must succeed, it’s time to build a force of people who can help you realize your success. We all need support from time to time and having a network of people supporting you is not a sign of weakness but a badge of wisdom. 99% of all successful people didn’t get to where they are today without the help of others in some way, shape or form.
Not a numbers guy? You may need to recruit your buddy who is or your local accountant. Do you need to get in better shape? It may be time to get a personal trainer or a nutritionist on your team. Don’t understand the ins and outs of certain investments? Then you need to get someone on your team who has experience in such matters.
You also need someone on your team who can keep you accountable, perhaps even a mentor, someone who has done what you are trying to do and battled the same demons you are going to be dealing with. There are so many people willing to help, you merely need to have the courage to ask.
I would recommend recruiting or partnering with willing friends first before hiring. Although, if you do need to hire or partner with someone, it is not a waste of money. Think of it as an investment where you are trading money for some needed skill, that you will leverage, which in turn will magnify your hard work, thus generating you a higher return for your effort. I struggled for months to convince my wife to hire a personal assistant and it has since increased her return on investment by at least 5x coupled with much extra free time.
Create a strategic plan of attack
Once you have built a team that will be the foundation to your success platform, it’s time to create a plan of attack—it’s really a plan of “ACTION” but I want you to pursue this plan with the fervor of an attack!
You need to get your passion ignited and fight for it with your plan of attack!
There are many books on the subject of creating a plan to achieve a purpose or goal, however, I would suggest The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington. My wife and I have used these countless times to shorten our execution style in achieving our goals.
There is no perfect planner or way to achieve your specific goal. You must be fired up about your plan’s tasks and the timetables you have afforded yourself. You don’t want to make them too short, or you may get frustrated. You don’t want to make them too long, as you may get discouraged and or burned out if you do not see motivating progress.
Imitation is flattery. Just to get a place to start, it may be a good idea to see what other successful people have done recently. How much time did they put aside each day to complete their vision? What metrics did they use to keep themselves accountable to their goals?
I recommend crafting a plan that is an amalgamation of exciting planning styles that you’ve read about and are also approved of by your teammates. Remember, your teammates have knowledge that can help you in your specific endeavor, so inquire with them to assure your allotted timeframes are not too demanding or too lax.
We have a burning desire to achieve something great. We are competitive and that can be a great thing. We “need” to compete. The best person to compete against is yourself…so that is who you are going to be fighting in your plan of attack. Do not try to compare yourself to others. There is always someone better than you or I, but there is only one person gifted, by God, to do what you were meant to do – and that’s you!
Implement Action
The fourth step is the easiest once you make the decision to start. It’s simply to “act”, get moving, and create forward motion. You need to get out there and start implementing your plan of attack. Sure, you may have a few steps backward for every step forward but it’s your commitment that will deliver you to your success. There is nothing wrong with making a few mistakes and experiencing failures. Those who succeeded credit most of their current successes with the learning from previous failures.
Giving up, that is the only true failure there is. DO NOT procrastinate taking action. Most people are afraid of one or both of these:
- Fear of Failure
- Fear of Critics
Fear can hold you back. You need to realize that you are an entrepreneur, so you need to remove emotion from your decision-making process. There is no “perfect” investment deal, business or any endeavor worth doing. Each opportunity must be analyzed with more of a cost/benefit relationship in mind and less emotion.
Let me give you a long, but GREAT, quote:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. — Theodore Roosevelt
Do you want to end up wondering if you could have been successful? Do you want to look back later in your life and ponder at what could have been? Don’t be one of those timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat!
Remember your teammates? You are who you hang out with. Make sure you choose people to surround yourself with that you want to emulate. People that will motivate you to take continuous action and make yourself, your best self, which will give you the best shot at success in your endeavor (and life).
Take Action Now! Stop dreaming and start doing. Again — One Day or Day One? You Decide!
Here for you in success.
