eBusiness Weekly
Arthur Marara
I am passionate about personal and professional development. Success has an interesting way of operating, it always leaves trails.
If you understand the laws of success, and follow them regardless of your name, place of birth, the language you speak, you will be successful.
If you do not obey the laws of success, regardless of who you are you will fail. What I am doing in these articles is to teach the laws of success.
This week I want to share with you six keys that I have found to be useful in personal and professional development.
#1. Work on your choices
Decision making is very important. You are where you are in life because of the quality of choices that you made. Choices can make you just as much as they can break you. Excellence is a choice, and so is mediocrity.
Personal Development is a choice, and so is stagnation. Justifying mediocrity is a choice, and so is challenging and defying it. What choices have you made so far in 2021? Where have they taken you? If you want your life to change, change your choices. Indecision is a decision!
#2. Develop clarity
You must know what you want and go for it. It’s often said if you do not know where you want to go, any road will take you there. You need clarity of purpose, clarity of motivation, clarity of thought, clarity of association, clarity of direction, and clarity of strategy.
King Solomon says where there is no vision, people perish, and where there is vision people flourish. Where there is no vision people will only have televisions. Where there is no vision people will always watch other people live their dreams on television.
The story of John F. Kennedy is always interesting. He is known for inspiring the vision to send a person to the moon and return him alive. Addressing his nation in September 1962, he said: “We must commit in this decade to send a person to the moon and return him alive. We choose to do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard.”
By doing this Kennedy provided a lot of clarity for NASA which was running the project, and they achieved the goal.
#3. Have serious concentration
This speaks to the question of positive focus. I will not deal with this in detail as I covered it in previous articles. However, for those who missed the article, I will just highlight the key parts. “Focus is the key to accomplish what is necessary — easy word to spell, it contains only five letters but it is probably one of the most powerful words there are in order to move forward with confidence and with the expected results.” (Byron Pulsifer) Successful people live their lives with great focus.
They know what they want, and they put their mind to achieve that specific goal. The problem with many people is never lack of energy, or motivation, but lack of focus. A person who is going in the wrong direction does not need motivation; he needs to stop. It is quite possible to be motivated in the wrong direction. However, if all your energy is focused in the right direction, success is inevitable.
A story is often told about a certain Master who wanted to show his students a new technique of shooting an arrow. He told his students to cover his eyes with a cloth and then he shot his arrow. When he opened his eyes, he saw the target with no arrow in it and when he looked at his students, they looked embarrassed because their teacher had missed.
The Master asked them, “What lesson do you think I intend to teach you all today?” They answered, “We thought you would show us how to shoot at the target without looking.” The Master said, “No, I taught you that if you want to be successful in life, don’t forget the target.
You have to keep an eye on the target; otherwise you may miss a good opportunity in life.” The students looked at each other in awe and admiration of the profound principle that they had been taught. This is what we need to do as well in our lives, to keep our eyes on the target and shoot.
#4. Build your confidence
You have to believe in yourself and acknowledge that you are the one who has to make things happen. You have to believe that if things are to improve in your business, you have to take the initiative.
Successful people are not afraid to take risks. History records of man and women who went into new territories armed with nothing but their vision. This is what the world needs now, and this is what the country needs, people who are willing to experiment with their dreams, try new concepts, develop new products, and come up with new innovations. Those who criticise you will come one day and acknowledge your contribution.
#5. Master consistency
I believe successful people are successful because of their routine. Aristotle once said, “We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act but a habit.” Be consistent in developing yourself; be consistent in adding value to people. Be consistent in strategy and execution. Your future is in what you do, or fail to do daily. If you want to see where your life is going look at what you are doing daily.
#6. Work on your character
This is one of the most neglected areas in business and in life. Work on your character, as opposed to your reputation. Reputation is what people think of you, but character is who you are. Your character will soon ruin your reputation. Corruption, laziness, fraud among other things are all character issues. No one is corrupt because they are in office, they were already corrupt but the office gave them an opportunity to manifest their true colours. Power does not corrupt, power exposes corruption. Discipline is key!
I hope these keys inspired you to review your life and see areas that need attention. Let’s link up next week for some inspirational thoughts.
Join me on Star FM on Wednesdays (09:30am-10:00am) for some moments of inspiration on the Breeze with Tariro “Mai Judah”.
Arthur Marara is a corporate law attorney, keynote and peak performance speaker, business strategy facilitator commanding the stage with his delightful humour, raw energy, and wealth of life experiences. He is a financial wellness expert and is passionate about addressing the issues of wellness, sales, business leadership and strategy. Arthur is the author of the “Personal Development Toolkit”, “Keys to Effective Time Management” among other inspirational books. Follow him on social media, or WhatsApp him on +263780055512 or email [email protected]
