In any job, no matter how mundane, there are always goals, tasks, and areas of focus. The difference is in scope. A job may have three or four main tasks, and focusing on your job is merely a matter of concentration, staying on task and avoiding distraction. But once you start to set ambitious goals for yourself, staying focused becomes a much bigger issue.

A company works by delegating tasks, and low- to mid-level employees have a predetermined range of responsibilities that they execute. But not so for the manager, who has many more things to think about. Instead of the three or four tasks that an administrative employee may have domain over, maybe you have thirty or forty, and you have a constant stream of distractions. How do you stay focused in that type of environment?
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Growing up, my family always taught me to keep my commitments, no matter what. It was always a matter of honor to do so, and my father used to say, “A good man always does what he says he will.” Usually, he said it when I was trying to put off my household chores.

What I’ve found over the years is that success goes far beyond being simply a matter of honor. Is keeping your commitments the right thing to do? Absolutely, but we’re missing half of the argument. It is possible, at least in theory, to keep your honor simply by not making any commitments—if you make no commitments, then you don’t risk not keeping them. But that’s the lazy person’s way out. The act of making the commitment has value in and of itself, and getting into the habit of keeping them is what makes your life successful and satisfying.

Let’s look at what the essence of a business is—any business at all. A business is just a set of commitments made by a person or group of people to deliver a product or a service. Wrapped around that main commitment of delivering a product or service, are several related commitments—you commit to delivering your product or service at a fair price, in a timely manner, or in as many colors, varieties or flavors as the customer wants. When you go to an ice cream parlor that advertises “33 flavors”, that’s what you get—there are 33 buckets of ice cream in the cooler. That’s a commitment, and what the ice cream parlor’s advertising campaign is based on. If there are only 32, you have to dispatch your clerk to the back room to bring out a new one, or else you might lose a customer that wanted that 33rd flavor.
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Do you think you can really just think and grow rich?

If so, you’re in for a rude awakening. I am sure that even Napoleon Hill would agree with me that you cannot merely think and grow rich. The Law of Attraction only works when paired with what I like to call the Laws of Action.

As a former manager of large building projects, I know that you can’t think a building into existence. That would be absurd. Yes, every project begins with a vision and inspiration. But you can only visualize for so long. For the building to take form you first need detailed blueprints. Then you need to assemble the right materials. And finally, you need to hire the right people with the right skill set.

Why would you think that’s any different to your business and life goals? I’ve talked to many people who visualize and use affirmations, waiting for the Law of Attraction to work, but they remain stuck in a rut.  They’re sitting around wondering why they’re not making any progress.

Why Most People Fail to Successfully Achieve Their Goals

They are missing ACTION. They are NOT taking steps to achieve their goals. It’s like they’re waiting for results to come on a silver platter just because they’re visualizing success.  I’m going to tell you right now – you get exactly what you put into it.

If you take action and you increase your speed of implementation, you’ll experience an exciting phenomenon. In fact, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to achieve more in the next 12 months than you did in the previous 12 years. Read the rest of this entry »