We humans are constantly chasing something or the other, endeavouring to achieve goals. It is just our nature. Yet many, fail most of the time, in the bargain paying a huge price in resources, time and well being.
Success is achieving what one set out to achieve, and therein lies the problem. We are in such a hurry to achieve success that most of us are unclear about what exactly we are pursuing. While our self confidence may be high, our goals are usually fuzzy.
To achieve success one has to consider the endeavour as a journey.
And like all journeys, we need to know the starting point and the destination. We need to know how we will make that journey, the route to achieving the objectives. Finally we need to know what we will need in terms of equipment, resources, skills, knowledge, networks etc. and how we will get them.
Too eager for action, supremely confident of ourselves most individuals and organisations not only fail to plan they rarely address the fundamental questions.
Where are we? (Reality check)
Where do we want to go? (Set the goals and milestones)
How do we want to get there? (Tactics and Planning)
What do we need to get there? (Obtaining and mobilising resources)
These steps appear obvious, yet it eludes the majority. as a result failure is guaranteed even before starting.
It is easy to be impressed and misled by bluster, glitter, pomp, money and style, however confidence is not a substitute for planning and effort. The devil is in the details.
Suppose we want to go on a journey.
We would need to know where we are, (point A).
We need to know where we are going, (point B).
We need to know how we are going to get from point A to point B
We must be able to verify whether we are making progress towards our destination point B and make course correction.
It's shocking, that most individuals, managers, owners, and so called leaders often cannot answer these fundamental questions. What then would be the future of an organisation or even a nation under such leadership?
Not everyone is born to lead and sometimes we have to to be good team members working along with a good leader. We have to be careful of the choice of leader, for we often support someone with just charisma, but that by itself is insufficient.
Leaders who possess, capability, integrity, agility, capacity for envisioning, planning, detailing, ability to raise resources and effectively deploy with hard work and a dash of luck are inevitably almost always successful.
A goal, without a well thought out plan is a mere fantasy.
Interesting Links:
Planning to fail? ~ Guru Wonder
Are they goals or fantasies? ~ Guru Wonder
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Ref: G0747