Master Your Potential
“The quality of thinking and the personal development of key individuals is what differentiates the high performance culture from the majority of poorer performing organisations. It is only through careful and precise learning and development that key players lead and install a culture of personal growth that enables the organisations to achieve high standards with their customers and the clients. This article explores the secrets behind successful personal development strategies that enable businesses to replicate that culture.”
Directors and senior managers of large corporates would love to know the secrets that drive the very successful business. High performance organisations are all internally driven with leadership, strategic focus and direction, passion and energy with careful alignment of all resources. Organisations that experience superior quality and customer service, high growth in sales as well as profitability and the acquisition, retention and growth of new accounts, customers and clients are driven by one thing: the power of the mind of their leaders. The vision can only start with the key players in the business having the mindset and the behaviours of a Leader.
Key Drivers: Leadership
The key driver of success is a ‘disciplined will’ to achieve. It is not about a negative desperation to succeed, it is more positive than that. It is a strong desire to focus on a challenge and to know that, despite any and all barriers you will encounter, still you will have the ability to achieve your dreams. This comes from an inner motivation that very few people possess individually, but it can be created and sparked off with the entire work force given the application of the right behaviours and techniques.
We believe firmly that the organisational success is fundamentally down to the quality of personal leadership that key players in the business demonstrate and live everyday. It is no surprise when a group of high performing individuals form strong cohesive teams they will enjoy even greater success delighting their customers, clients and consumers. The $64,000 question is what will cause this to happen? What has to happen for the ripple effect of ‘continuous improvement’ to take place and to wash positively through the organisation?
Our belief is that personal Leadership should precede everything else in driving business improvement and change. It has to grow from within, so that key players are in charge of motivation and aspirations and can take the lead when others may not be able to see the way. The whole concept of Personal Leadership is the key challenge to which most businesses have not yet risen. We need to lead by example and model the behaviours that develop personal improvement, which is the cornerstone for organisational improvement. Many would say that the journey to Improvement and Change Leadership starts with ‘how to master the mind’[i]
Challenge: ‘How to Master the Mind’
The key to personal change is controlling the mind. A focused mind is very powerful in achieving goals. The secret to achieve anything is in taming the mind and focusing it in the right direction.
Mastering one’s mind and self is a goal set by many, but achieved by few. We firmly believe that many people never quite live up to what they could be, because they fail to take charge of their thinking. Thinking is not enough –it’s deciding and doing that is important. Too many dream of success but fail to put these dreams into practise. These people go through life hoping that ‘something’ will happen to them or they will magically be discovered by someone – they expect an ’ X Factor’ moment.
You will be familiar with the analogy of the brain as a super computer. We have an incredible potential resting neatly on our shoulders and, unfortunately, we do not have an owner’s manual for how to use it. We are lucky if we use 3-4% of our potential mind power to achieve our dreams. Most never try, they just accept their lot.
We hear personal stories of success and failure all the time – but mostly failure. The success stories told with passion and the outcome is positive. It is not always the case. Often with people who do not achieve their goals there is much regret - because they will never live their dreams. Time is a limited resource and as each day passes, we have less time to plan and to achieve our potential. So many people ‘fail to plan’ and therefore ‘plan to fail’. They don’t see the need to deposit a large injection of enthusiasm and planning to create a compelling future by ‘starting with the end in mind.’.
These non-planners go on hoping that something, like success, will just happen to them - like winning the lottery. They fail to take responsibility for their future and their life.
Research into Nursing Homes & Shocking Retirement Statistics
An interesting piece of research was undertaken in the USA with elderly people in Nursing homes. Most were in their late 80’s and when questioned and asked – “If you had your time again, what would they do differently?” Invariably the response was ‘Love more, and leave relationships that were not working; take more thoughtful risks in business, set up their own enterprise, avoid the safe comfortable route through life, and take charge of their life.’
We do not want to wait for our readers to hit their 80’s before answering the same question. Maybe now is a good time to decided whether you are willing to drive the process of planning to achieve your goals or just become a mere spectator of life? Make no mistake, the vast majority do the latter and let life pass them by. From our experience, only about 5% of people plan sufficiently to control their destiny. Phil sees it in occupational and organisation settings. Alan sees it with investors and private clients building a personal portfolio of assets.
We have always been keen to understand why some people are more successful and some are not? We have some the depressing news for you. Did you know that 87.3%[ii] of people who reach retirement do not have financial independence? Did you know that this large number of people are dependent on the State and their Families? With life expectancy increasing beyond the 78+ to the mid 80’s, many in the future will be virtually destitute and will experience a very poor standard of living and poverty in their later years.
After a lifetime of working, retirees do not in the main, have the resources to live a comfortable old age. The average retiree in the USA has only $1,500 dollars in savings with poor pension provision. In the UK the situation is worse. We know that fewer people are saving for their retirement. It is within their control should they decide to take action early enough. Planning for retirement must start in early life. It is a life skill that most avoid learning. Putting trust in others, including the welfare state or charitable institutions, is a very bad idea, as anyone in the UK has witnessed in recent years. What is important is that if you put trust in others to secure a future, you give away your power to influence. When taking personal ownership, you are responsible for your future and you can take all the required steps. The great pension pot that could grow for your retirement will be determined through your planning - not others.
Take Charge of Your Life & Your Potential Today
Most of us do not know how to use our mind or how to programme ourselves for results, and we can learn from others who have achieved more in life. We can model ourselves on others. This is desirable because it short circuits the process of learning. It is all about today taking control of life, and being responsible for our actions. To indicate how some lose control of their life, consider the time taken to do the following:
Many will spend a great deal of time purchasing a second family car, visiting numerous dealerships or sellers and looking at the variety of vehicles on display. When it comes to holidays many will state that they spend weeks doing this.
When it comes to Planning their life, the response we get is that many do not. In honesty, most people do not plan their life, they live it ‘day to day’ and many do not like what they live. If we fail to plan how we use our available time we may not get the results we want. Taking responsibility, agreeing personal targets and projecting ourselves on the right path will do much to improve our chances of managing and, more importantly ,creating our future.
Everything you are was once only an Idea
Everything you have just now - whether material possessions, an energetic career and a loving family was once no more than just an idea or a thought. You took these ideas and turned them into reality by taking decisive action. The more action you took, the more dreams and thoughts became reality. Your expansive thinking only become reality through taking massive action - the more action you are willing to take the more your ideas and thoughts become reality.
Imagine that whatever you do, the actions you take, the people you will influence, it is impossible to fail.
Imagine you are very highly gifted and excel at everything you do. It is impossible not to succeed. Imagine rejecting all self-limiting beliefs - now. Imagine you have no personal limiting beliefs about what you can achieve. Imagine what you would look like achieving everything you wanted. What would people say about you and to you?
What would you do that you are presently not doing? What changes would you make to your work life? What risks would you take? What challenges would you accept and win?
Construct that list. Would you change your career, more on to other things, take that risk, initiate new behaviours to make relationships more passionate and more positive, develop new interests, run your own business, spend more time with your children?
Rehearsal & Practice
Sam Torrance the Scottish Golfer said “the more I practise, the luckier I get”. Life is not a rehearsal and personal growth comes about through repeatedly using positive behaviours. You know most people give up even before they have got started. Lots of people buy MP3’s and books on self development. We know that only 5% of these people will use the material they have purchased. Many never get past the first chapter. Only 1% of people who buy the material will see it through to the end.
If you put into practise the ideas in this article in a period of less than 10 days you will accomplish a great deal. You will notice success within a minimum period of ten days if you complete all the exercises, write down your plans and take action, your dreams will become reality. More importantly, you will create a domino effect if you live and share the process with others. You can share this with your colleagues, your life partner and friends. Learning is about improving the community in which we live. It is our responsibility to share these thoughts with others and learn to develop a sound perspective to learning new behaviours. Very few recognise the power that they have within - maybe as little as 1/10th of 1% of the population actually really live their dreams.
To make matters worse, many give up and do not take action. They have a low opinion of themselves and do not adopt a goal setting and achieving frame of mind.
Goal Setters Are Winners
So why is it that some people are more successful than others, have more fun, more friends and generally have a great time? This is down to their ability to create a challenging future and there is no other way to do this than through planning.
Research spanning back to 1953 at Harvard has suggested there is a very strong positive relationship between planning and achievement. A graduating class were asked how many had mapped out and planned their future life. Only 3% admitted to have taken this very seriously. They rest relied on luck, opportunity and hard work. Twenty years later, the surviving members of the class were brought together again and the 3% of the class who had gone to pains to plan their life had acquired more wealth than the remaining 97%!
Planning and objective setting is the keystone of the effective person, whether the plans are for business expansion or for developing a meaningful relationship with family and friends.
We may not always get the result we want, but we will get a result. By trial and adjustment we can continually plan and organise ourselves to focus upon what we want. "If we don't know where we are going in life how do we know when we get there?"
Your Life Line
Think about your life and where you are going. Draw a ‘Lifeline’. A lifeline has a beginning, (your birth) and an end (your future death). In between we have life where you can log past and plan future achievements. What were the high spots? When did you feel a real winner? What have you achieved? When did you feel you had just conquered the world? Think now and write down all those positive experiences.
Assess your successes. Now comes the interesting part – plan your future achievements and goals. They can be focused on career, acquiring material possessions, building relationships, improving health and fitness, building a community, advancing personal development and spiritual goals
Success does not equate only with wealth, material possessions and career achievement. Success can be anything you want it to be. It can relate to being a loving and caring father or mother or friend. It can relate to your emotional contribution to worthy causes. It could be running a marathon. Goal setting and achieving those goals is what is success for you? Success is what you want it to be.
In seminars, Philip always discloses some of the critical incidents which make up his lifeline which include business, relationships and building a legacy. Nothing is as important as his family achievements, his consulting work and the publication of his books articles etc. Marriage to Ann occupies a special moment and the two additional most important events in his life are the birth and growth to adulthood of his daughter Sarah and son Jonathan. If his life were to end tomorrow, these are the events he would want to relive briefly and remember because they are to him what his life is about.
Now back to you the reader, I ask you to think back along your life line. What was important to you? Now, more importantly look forward and ask yourself , “What is important to me in the future?” Think into the future. “What do I really want from life? On what do you want to focus attention?”
Spend some time drawing your lifeline. Think of the ‘successes’ you want to create in the future? What are they? What is important to you? What do you want to do with your life? What will give you the buzz? Does it involve other people?
Draw a lifeline for your business and career. Now draw your life line for your relationships, your family and friends. Draw these now. Is your lifeline and achievements increasing or decreasing? Do you find your lifeline is a straight line with little up or down movement?
Think now of the people whose lives you touch and influence. Think of those people whose life you share. Share your lifeline with them - but before you do so, explain the concept to them and have them draw their lifeline before you show them yours. Now, share your views. Look for similarities. Look for synergies. Look for complementary aspirations and also examine areas where there may be some conflict.
There is no limit to what can be achieve din life if you are prepared to stretch yourself. In Philip’s Success Seminar he talks about eight key areas of one's life, noted below. They are in no particular order, but in today's high pressure environment we often find that the business and career issues do tend to predominate.
It is an extremely powerful exercise to develop your lifelines for each area of your life and also to spend some time completing the diagram above.
There can be an overlap between goals within each area of your life and let us not concern ourselves with precise definitions of each - but focus upon each of the goals, take a sheet of paper and write down your goals for each of the areas above. Take your time. Do stretch yourself. If you want something, that BMW or Jaguar write it down now. If you want a closer loving relationship with your children, write it down. If you want to run a Marathon, write it down.
At first you have to experiment and brainstorm through your goals. Remember the question at the beginning of the article. "If you could not fail, what would you dare to set out to achieve"
Conflicting & Complementary Goals
After you have defined your goals you may want to consider the following. Are there any conflicts between your goals in various areas of your life? (Conflicting goals would want swift career advancement, but not being prepared to commit to develop your professional credentials, qualifications and experience) as this would conflict in the short term with your goal of spending more time with your family.
Are there any goals that are mutually supportive and complementary? Examples of complementary goals are ‘wanting to complete a marathon’ and ‘encouraging your children to take up a sport.’ Further training to run a marathon may also support you in maintaining your health and taking preventative action on stressful parts of your life in business.
By taking part in this exercise we hope we have highlighted the importance of Mastering the Mind. We trust you will find value in pursuing the exercises. If you would like more information please contact Philip and Alan directly. We are constantly developing materials and we are co-authoring books on these subjects. Philip’s book title is ‘How To Master the Mind’ and Alan’s is ‘Self Defence for Investors & Savers’.
Philip uses this approach in most of his consulting work. To develop a fully functioning organisation focused on growth and profitability, key staff must be vigorous goal setters and achievers. Alan also uses this with his Investor Clients. He has to know what their life goals are in order to support them in the choice of high performing Investment portfolios.
To summarise, your achievements in life are determined by your personal beliefs in self, the dreams you have and the action you take to make these dreams reality. Understand now that only a small percentage of people really plan their lives.
Finally, it is worth noting that if we enabled our people to develop themselves we would probably be running even more effective, profitable, customer focused organisations with a high achieving and contented staff. That would be the ultimate in integrating individual and organisational goals harmoniously.
[i] ‘How to Master the Mind’ is a new book written by Philip Atkinson and is available from Amazon Kindle or www.howtomasterthemind.com
[ii] Alan Steel Asset Management Website www.alansteel.com
Contact Form or Email Philip
Directors and senior managers of large corporates would love to know the secrets that drive the very successful business. High performance organisations are all internally driven with leadership, strategic focus and direction, passion and energy with careful alignment of all resources. Organisations that experience superior quality and customer service, high growth in sales as well as profitability and the acquisition, retention and growth of new accounts, customers and clients are driven by one thing: the power of the mind of their leaders. The vision can only start with the key players in the business having the mindset and the behaviours of a Leader.
Key Drivers: Leadership
The key driver of success is a ‘disciplined will’ to achieve. It is not about a negative desperation to succeed, it is more positive than that. It is a strong desire to focus on a challenge and to know that, despite any and all barriers you will encounter, still you will have the ability to achieve your dreams. This comes from an inner motivation that very few people possess individually, but it can be created and sparked off with the entire work force given the application of the right behaviours and techniques.
We believe firmly that the organisational success is fundamentally down to the quality of personal leadership that key players in the business demonstrate and live everyday. It is no surprise when a group of high performing individuals form strong cohesive teams they will enjoy even greater success delighting their customers, clients and consumers. The $64,000 question is what will cause this to happen? What has to happen for the ripple effect of ‘continuous improvement’ to take place and to wash positively through the organisation?
Our belief is that personal Leadership should precede everything else in driving business improvement and change. It has to grow from within, so that key players are in charge of motivation and aspirations and can take the lead when others may not be able to see the way. The whole concept of Personal Leadership is the key challenge to which most businesses have not yet risen. We need to lead by example and model the behaviours that develop personal improvement, which is the cornerstone for organisational improvement. Many would say that the journey to Improvement and Change Leadership starts with ‘how to master the mind’[i]
Challenge: ‘How to Master the Mind’
The key to personal change is controlling the mind. A focused mind is very powerful in achieving goals. The secret to achieve anything is in taming the mind and focusing it in the right direction.
Mastering one’s mind and self is a goal set by many, but achieved by few. We firmly believe that many people never quite live up to what they could be, because they fail to take charge of their thinking. Thinking is not enough –it’s deciding and doing that is important. Too many dream of success but fail to put these dreams into practise. These people go through life hoping that ‘something’ will happen to them or they will magically be discovered by someone – they expect an ’ X Factor’ moment.
You will be familiar with the analogy of the brain as a super computer. We have an incredible potential resting neatly on our shoulders and, unfortunately, we do not have an owner’s manual for how to use it. We are lucky if we use 3-4% of our potential mind power to achieve our dreams. Most never try, they just accept their lot.
We hear personal stories of success and failure all the time – but mostly failure. The success stories told with passion and the outcome is positive. It is not always the case. Often with people who do not achieve their goals there is much regret - because they will never live their dreams. Time is a limited resource and as each day passes, we have less time to plan and to achieve our potential. So many people ‘fail to plan’ and therefore ‘plan to fail’. They don’t see the need to deposit a large injection of enthusiasm and planning to create a compelling future by ‘starting with the end in mind.’.
These non-planners go on hoping that something, like success, will just happen to them - like winning the lottery. They fail to take responsibility for their future and their life.
Research into Nursing Homes & Shocking Retirement Statistics
An interesting piece of research was undertaken in the USA with elderly people in Nursing homes. Most were in their late 80’s and when questioned and asked – “If you had your time again, what would they do differently?” Invariably the response was ‘Love more, and leave relationships that were not working; take more thoughtful risks in business, set up their own enterprise, avoid the safe comfortable route through life, and take charge of their life.’
We do not want to wait for our readers to hit their 80’s before answering the same question. Maybe now is a good time to decided whether you are willing to drive the process of planning to achieve your goals or just become a mere spectator of life? Make no mistake, the vast majority do the latter and let life pass them by. From our experience, only about 5% of people plan sufficiently to control their destiny. Phil sees it in occupational and organisation settings. Alan sees it with investors and private clients building a personal portfolio of assets.
We have always been keen to understand why some people are more successful and some are not? We have some the depressing news for you. Did you know that 87.3%[ii] of people who reach retirement do not have financial independence? Did you know that this large number of people are dependent on the State and their Families? With life expectancy increasing beyond the 78+ to the mid 80’s, many in the future will be virtually destitute and will experience a very poor standard of living and poverty in their later years.
After a lifetime of working, retirees do not in the main, have the resources to live a comfortable old age. The average retiree in the USA has only $1,500 dollars in savings with poor pension provision. In the UK the situation is worse. We know that fewer people are saving for their retirement. It is within their control should they decide to take action early enough. Planning for retirement must start in early life. It is a life skill that most avoid learning. Putting trust in others, including the welfare state or charitable institutions, is a very bad idea, as anyone in the UK has witnessed in recent years. What is important is that if you put trust in others to secure a future, you give away your power to influence. When taking personal ownership, you are responsible for your future and you can take all the required steps. The great pension pot that could grow for your retirement will be determined through your planning - not others.
Take Charge of Your Life & Your Potential Today
Most of us do not know how to use our mind or how to programme ourselves for results, and we can learn from others who have achieved more in life. We can model ourselves on others. This is desirable because it short circuits the process of learning. It is all about today taking control of life, and being responsible for our actions. To indicate how some lose control of their life, consider the time taken to do the following:
- Shop or choose for a second family car
- Plan and organise the annual holiday
- Decide to Master Your Potential and Plan Your Life
Many will spend a great deal of time purchasing a second family car, visiting numerous dealerships or sellers and looking at the variety of vehicles on display. When it comes to holidays many will state that they spend weeks doing this.
When it comes to Planning their life, the response we get is that many do not. In honesty, most people do not plan their life, they live it ‘day to day’ and many do not like what they live. If we fail to plan how we use our available time we may not get the results we want. Taking responsibility, agreeing personal targets and projecting ourselves on the right path will do much to improve our chances of managing and, more importantly ,creating our future.
Everything you are was once only an Idea
Everything you have just now - whether material possessions, an energetic career and a loving family was once no more than just an idea or a thought. You took these ideas and turned them into reality by taking decisive action. The more action you took, the more dreams and thoughts became reality. Your expansive thinking only become reality through taking massive action - the more action you are willing to take the more your ideas and thoughts become reality.
Imagine that whatever you do, the actions you take, the people you will influence, it is impossible to fail.
Imagine you are very highly gifted and excel at everything you do. It is impossible not to succeed. Imagine rejecting all self-limiting beliefs - now. Imagine you have no personal limiting beliefs about what you can achieve. Imagine what you would look like achieving everything you wanted. What would people say about you and to you?
What would you do that you are presently not doing? What changes would you make to your work life? What risks would you take? What challenges would you accept and win?
Construct that list. Would you change your career, more on to other things, take that risk, initiate new behaviours to make relationships more passionate and more positive, develop new interests, run your own business, spend more time with your children?
Rehearsal & Practice
Sam Torrance the Scottish Golfer said “the more I practise, the luckier I get”. Life is not a rehearsal and personal growth comes about through repeatedly using positive behaviours. You know most people give up even before they have got started. Lots of people buy MP3’s and books on self development. We know that only 5% of these people will use the material they have purchased. Many never get past the first chapter. Only 1% of people who buy the material will see it through to the end.
If you put into practise the ideas in this article in a period of less than 10 days you will accomplish a great deal. You will notice success within a minimum period of ten days if you complete all the exercises, write down your plans and take action, your dreams will become reality. More importantly, you will create a domino effect if you live and share the process with others. You can share this with your colleagues, your life partner and friends. Learning is about improving the community in which we live. It is our responsibility to share these thoughts with others and learn to develop a sound perspective to learning new behaviours. Very few recognise the power that they have within - maybe as little as 1/10th of 1% of the population actually really live their dreams.
To make matters worse, many give up and do not take action. They have a low opinion of themselves and do not adopt a goal setting and achieving frame of mind.
Goal Setters Are Winners
So why is it that some people are more successful than others, have more fun, more friends and generally have a great time? This is down to their ability to create a challenging future and there is no other way to do this than through planning.
Research spanning back to 1953 at Harvard has suggested there is a very strong positive relationship between planning and achievement. A graduating class were asked how many had mapped out and planned their future life. Only 3% admitted to have taken this very seriously. They rest relied on luck, opportunity and hard work. Twenty years later, the surviving members of the class were brought together again and the 3% of the class who had gone to pains to plan their life had acquired more wealth than the remaining 97%!
Planning and objective setting is the keystone of the effective person, whether the plans are for business expansion or for developing a meaningful relationship with family and friends.
We may not always get the result we want, but we will get a result. By trial and adjustment we can continually plan and organise ourselves to focus upon what we want. "If we don't know where we are going in life how do we know when we get there?"
Your Life Line
Think about your life and where you are going. Draw a ‘Lifeline’. A lifeline has a beginning, (your birth) and an end (your future death). In between we have life where you can log past and plan future achievements. What were the high spots? When did you feel a real winner? What have you achieved? When did you feel you had just conquered the world? Think now and write down all those positive experiences.
Assess your successes. Now comes the interesting part – plan your future achievements and goals. They can be focused on career, acquiring material possessions, building relationships, improving health and fitness, building a community, advancing personal development and spiritual goals
Success does not equate only with wealth, material possessions and career achievement. Success can be anything you want it to be. It can relate to being a loving and caring father or mother or friend. It can relate to your emotional contribution to worthy causes. It could be running a marathon. Goal setting and achieving those goals is what is success for you? Success is what you want it to be.
In seminars, Philip always discloses some of the critical incidents which make up his lifeline which include business, relationships and building a legacy. Nothing is as important as his family achievements, his consulting work and the publication of his books articles etc. Marriage to Ann occupies a special moment and the two additional most important events in his life are the birth and growth to adulthood of his daughter Sarah and son Jonathan. If his life were to end tomorrow, these are the events he would want to relive briefly and remember because they are to him what his life is about.
Now back to you the reader, I ask you to think back along your life line. What was important to you? Now, more importantly look forward and ask yourself , “What is important to me in the future?” Think into the future. “What do I really want from life? On what do you want to focus attention?”
Spend some time drawing your lifeline. Think of the ‘successes’ you want to create in the future? What are they? What is important to you? What do you want to do with your life? What will give you the buzz? Does it involve other people?
Draw a lifeline for your business and career. Now draw your life line for your relationships, your family and friends. Draw these now. Is your lifeline and achievements increasing or decreasing? Do you find your lifeline is a straight line with little up or down movement?
Think now of the people whose lives you touch and influence. Think of those people whose life you share. Share your lifeline with them - but before you do so, explain the concept to them and have them draw their lifeline before you show them yours. Now, share your views. Look for similarities. Look for synergies. Look for complementary aspirations and also examine areas where there may be some conflict.
There is no limit to what can be achieve din life if you are prepared to stretch yourself. In Philip’s Success Seminar he talks about eight key areas of one's life, noted below. They are in no particular order, but in today's high pressure environment we often find that the business and career issues do tend to predominate.
- Career goals
- Wealth and material possessions
- Develop mature loving relationships with our friends and family
- Peace of mind, - absence of worry, fear, anger, guilt, envy
- Worthy goals - goals which relate to the larger community
- High levels of health and energy
- Self-actualisation - to be responsible and creative
- Spiritual - your higher values and how you relate to others
It is an extremely powerful exercise to develop your lifelines for each area of your life and also to spend some time completing the diagram above.
There can be an overlap between goals within each area of your life and let us not concern ourselves with precise definitions of each - but focus upon each of the goals, take a sheet of paper and write down your goals for each of the areas above. Take your time. Do stretch yourself. If you want something, that BMW or Jaguar write it down now. If you want a closer loving relationship with your children, write it down. If you want to run a Marathon, write it down.
At first you have to experiment and brainstorm through your goals. Remember the question at the beginning of the article. "If you could not fail, what would you dare to set out to achieve"
Conflicting & Complementary Goals
After you have defined your goals you may want to consider the following. Are there any conflicts between your goals in various areas of your life? (Conflicting goals would want swift career advancement, but not being prepared to commit to develop your professional credentials, qualifications and experience) as this would conflict in the short term with your goal of spending more time with your family.
Are there any goals that are mutually supportive and complementary? Examples of complementary goals are ‘wanting to complete a marathon’ and ‘encouraging your children to take up a sport.’ Further training to run a marathon may also support you in maintaining your health and taking preventative action on stressful parts of your life in business.
By taking part in this exercise we hope we have highlighted the importance of Mastering the Mind. We trust you will find value in pursuing the exercises. If you would like more information please contact Philip and Alan directly. We are constantly developing materials and we are co-authoring books on these subjects. Philip’s book title is ‘How To Master the Mind’ and Alan’s is ‘Self Defence for Investors & Savers’.
Philip uses this approach in most of his consulting work. To develop a fully functioning organisation focused on growth and profitability, key staff must be vigorous goal setters and achievers. Alan also uses this with his Investor Clients. He has to know what their life goals are in order to support them in the choice of high performing Investment portfolios.
To summarise, your achievements in life are determined by your personal beliefs in self, the dreams you have and the action you take to make these dreams reality. Understand now that only a small percentage of people really plan their lives.
Finally, it is worth noting that if we enabled our people to develop themselves we would probably be running even more effective, profitable, customer focused organisations with a high achieving and contented staff. That would be the ultimate in integrating individual and organisational goals harmoniously.
[i] ‘How to Master the Mind’ is a new book written by Philip Atkinson and is available from Amazon Kindle or www.howtomasterthemind.com
[ii] Alan Steel Asset Management Website www.alansteel.com
Contact Form or Email Philip
