eBusiness Weekly
Arthur Marara
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing will suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.” This wisdom speaks to the question of effectiveness and maximising on potential. We are approaching half of 2021, and it is very important to focus on developing and enhancing our personal effectiveness. If you achieve half of what you are able to do you have failed. Success is achieving your potential. I want to ask you a question, “With what you are doing and at the pace you are doing it, do you think you will achieve your goals for 2021?” Everyone can perform at their best.
What is Personal Effectiveness about?
Personal effectiveness means making the most of talents and resources in all of one’s endeavours. At the organisational level, it manifests itself in the form of interpersonal effectiveness and group effectiveness. Personal effectiveness means maximising on one’s potential. Below I want to share some thoughts which can help you enhance your personal effectiveness.
Assessment
You need to conduct an honest assessment of your current performance. Are you performing at your best now? You cannot achieve success when you run away from yourself. The moment you begin to confront yourself and ask yourself tough questions about yourself and your life is the moment that you begin to see real transformation taking place in your life. On a scale of one to ten how do you rate your performance between January 2021 — March 2021? Do you think your company can do better than what it is doing now? If yes, why are you not doing it? Do not look for excuses to justify mediocrity, face you, and start taking action.
Attitude
William James, a psychologist once said that, “the greatest discovery of our generation is that a human being can alter the course their lives by merely altering their attitude.” Work on your attitude towards your work, your life, and whatever that you lay your heart on. You can go as far as your attitude takes you. Your approach to your work has to change.
Successful people have a positive mental attitude. What is your attitude towards your work? If you do not change your attitude your life will never change. This past week, I read a statement I liked about attitude, “Attitude is like a flat wheel, it will not take you anywhere unless you change it.”
Ambition
Great people are ambitious. They do not settle where they are. They challenge themselves to visualise a bigger and a better future. They dream and get out of bed and take action.
They have a better vision of their future. They see where they are going. If you have an ambition that you meditate upon, that is fuel enough to push you into action. If there is no burning desire from your inside nothing will happen. What pushes you out of bed daily? Great people do not need an alarm clock to wake up, they have an inbuilt alarm.
Associations
Who is in your life? What value are they adding to you? Your effectiveness will be affected positively or negatively by the people who surround you. Surround yourself with performers, goal getters, people who do not celebrate or tolerate mediocrity in you. They will challenge you to a higher and better standard. You will become who you surround yourself with.
Action
Action is what makes all the difference. Apply what you learn on how to enhance your effectiveness.
I have been writing and speaking for years, one of the things you will find is people who will read books, and listen to amazing audio programs but do nothing about what they have learnt. Take action! Implement!
Be very clear of your goals
What is it that you want to achieve? Be clear on your goals? There is no success without goals. The more clear and focused you are of what you want to achieve, the more effective and productive you become. Set a productivity goal and stick to it. If it means putting in an hour more into you work, stick to that. If it means sticking to a particular diet so that you can earn a particular body weight, stick to it.
Find your passion and motivation
Human beings thrive on motivation and drive. What motivates and inspires you? What drives you out of bed every morning? What pushes you to work even if there are no salaries?
Your vocation has to be your vacation? Every time I remind myself of my motivation, “I want to inspire people, I want someone to look at me and say “because of you I didn’t give up”. This is what keeps me going every time I face discouragement. I wake up to this every morning.
Create a powerful vision for your life, work and relationships.
King Solomon says, “Where there is no vision people perish” A vision is a mental picture of the future. A vision provides something that you will keep your eyes, and mind glued to. Keep focused on it and visualise achieving it each and every day. It will help you keep going when you experience setbacks, obstacles.
What is the vision for your life, work, and relationships? Refuse to live life in dark! Know what you want and go for it.
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].
