What is the shortcut to success?

I recently spent time talking to students at a local college. I was interested to listen to their goals and objectives but was left a little flat after hearing their lack of vision or enthusiasm. Maybe I expected more because I was brought up in a generation of entrepreneurs and yuppies.
 
I asked one of the students what he was studying and he replied a course in computer studies. I felt encouraged that he was trying to better his life and tried to prompt further positive dialog. I questioned him on where he hope his studying would take him, what career did he hope to follow. His response left me deflated, he said “ just a job”.
 
I desperately wanted to help this vulnerable child to get some perspective and direction so it tried a visualisation technique with him. I suggested that he imagined what type of company he would like to work for, where they are based, what type of industry they cater for, how many people worked there, and what job he wanted to have. The next practical stage was to find the person already doing that job and asked them how they got there.
 
I’ve done a lot of walking and climbed many mountains. When you stand at the bottom and look at the top, it may seem almost impossible to know how to get to the pinnacle. When you are standing on the top looking down you can see every path to the summit.
 
By getting the student to talk to someone already doing the job they aspire to have, the experienced employee has already written the map. It creates a shortcut to success.  

http://www.changingoutcomes.co.uk/
http://www.mikebowden.uk

What are emotional goals?

We have all been ingrained to chase after goals, as this appears to be a measure of our success. Often we fail because we are chasing after the wrong things and feel let down by the process.  

How do you feel when you miss out?

Imagine your goal as if you were baking a cake. The plan is to go shopping for the ingredients, the strategy is how you blend them all together and delivery is putting the mixture into the oven. If you’ve managed to complete the process, “hurray” you have made a cake. But, you’ve merely created a result not a reward, which isn’t very inspiring, most motivated people can follow a similar process. Regardless of whether the cake turns out to be a technical success or a culinary failure, you have still achieved your aim to bake a cake.

So do you leave your results to chance and accept meritocracy or do you want to aspire to something that bigger than that? Think about your baking creation and how it makes you feel, the smell of the sweet ingredients, the perfect appearance of the fluffy masterpiece and the pride you feel when you know that it’s turned out really well. You can now understand “what’s in it for you” that feeling behind the task, the emotions that create a burning desire to excel.

Now focus on how others salivate over your masterpiece, rave over your achievements and aspire to bake a creation worthy to compete; now you are starting to create a legacy. You will be known as the person who encouraged them to cook and be remembered for how you make them feel when they have a baking success just like yours, that’s “what’s in it for them”.

In essence, a sterile process doesn’t drive behaviour whereas positive emotions do. By focusing on the emotional rewards rather than just the end result, you will turbo-charge your successes and receive a far greater level of satisfaction.

http://www.mikebowden.uk/

http://www.changingoutcomes.co.uk/