eBusiness Weekly
Arthur Marara
Part II
Peak performance has been spoken and written about several times, but very few people answer the question, “how do you become a peak performer”.
You cannot achieve your finest goals if you are putting in your finest efforts. I started this series of articles so that I can help you and your team to peak performance. The key to peak performance is discipline.
Successful people live their lives with great discipline. They hold themselves accountable to higher values and they hold themselves accountable for the direction that their lives take.
They do not look for other people to blame for their failures; they look at what they have been doing and ask themselves why they did not succeed. There is nothing complicated about success or peak performance. Everyone can be successful as long as they are disciplined enough.
I am going to take you through the 7 Disciplines that you and your team need to implement in order to perform at your peak.
Discipline 1: Goals and goal setting
“Success is goals and all else is commentary” (Brian Tracy). Brian Tracy is one of the leading authorities on leadership and personal development. He summarises the importance of goals to the success equation. Successful people have the discipline of deliberately, and intentionally setting goals for their lives and their businesses. Remember what I said in the earlier article, discipline births habits. Goal setting can actually develop into a habit. Successful people have successful habits.
Priority of goals
“Success is the progressive realisation of a worthy goal or ideal.” (Earl Nightingale). Earl Nightingale (March 12, 1921-March 28, 1989) was an American radio personality, writer, speaker, and author, dealing mostly on the subjects of human character development, motivation, excellence and meaningful existence.
He was named as the “Dean of Personal Development” in some circles and his works continue to be used extensively today. Paul J. Meyer proffered any even deeper definition of success: “Success is the progressive realisation of predetermined, worthwhile, personal goals.” Paul J. Meyer is known for founding Success Motivation Institute in 1960 and dedicated it to “motivating people to their full potential”.
His flagship company has grown into an international group of companies marketing his materials in more than 60 countries and in 23 languages.
What is quite captivating about the definitions by the two gentlemen is the acknowledgement of the priority of goals and goal setting in the success equation. What this means is that if you do not set goals for your life, there is no success to talk about.
Successful people have goals, while others have wishes. Successful people have clear goals which are clearly laid down, and retrievable, while other people leave their lives to chance. This year you might need to go a step further and be more serious in discipline and commit yourself to goals.
Success at a closer look
I will deliberately take Paul J Meyer’s definition and for a minute or two conduct a brief exegesis.
“Progressive realisation”: The term connotes that success is not a one-day activity, it is an ongoing process. This might be doom news to people who believe that an insecticide will spray their problems away. Success is not an event, it is a journey! This virtue has disappeared among many because of the habit of taking the easy way out.
“Predetermined”: Predetermination simply means it is not an accident. You deliberately make up your mind and apply yourself towards a particular goal. Predetermination means there are no surprises.
Successful people predetermine the future that they want. They do so by utilising the power of goals. You need to sit down with yourself, your business and make up your mind and apply your mind to some goals.
“Worthwhile personal goals”: This simply means that you need to set goals that are meaningful, valuable, useful. Being the lawyer, I am, I am quite alert to the fact that what might be valuable to one might not necessarily be valuable to another. Whatever goals that you set must bring you closer to be the person that you want to be. A lot of us set goals which when we achieve do not mean anything.
There are people who actually set goals to embarrass or ruin someone’s career, and guess what if they are disciplined enough, and manage their goal they can actually realise it. The question is, is this a worthwhile goal? What is your motivation for setting the goals that you are setting? The story below may enlighten you a bit.
Meaningless goals — a story
A story is often told about a farmer who had a dog which used to sit by the roadside waiting for vehicles to come around. The dog would always run down the road, barking and trying to overtake any car that it sees. Quite concerned, a neighbour asked the farmer “Do you think your dog is ever going to catch a car?” The farmer replied with interesting wisdom,
“That is not what bothers me. What bothers me is what he would do if he ever caught one.” There is clearly nothing that the dog could do if it caught a vehicle. Surely a car is not one of the items that can constitute part of its menu yet enormous energies was spent chasing the same cars. This is the scenario that many people in life find themselves in. They spend a lot of energy, time, and resources pursuing meaningless goals. What is the value of the goals that you are setting and possibly chasing? Are they adding value to you? Are they adding value to other people? What does not add value to you, will always take away value from you.
Money is not success
Money is not success, and success is not money. This might be a tasteless statement to someone who is broke, but that is the truth. The mistake people make is to think that success is a million dollars in your account. This explains why people enter into shoddy and shady deals and even corrupt practices. It’s because we think when we have money we are successful.
This is not always the case unless your goal was to reach a million dollars. Your goals can be to shed off weight by 10 or 20kg, it can also be to arrive home on or before 5:30pm daily and spend more time with your family, it can also be to be better spouse, it can also to be a better manager at your company.
Success happens when you achieve the goals. Whatever your field or life maybe, you need to set worthwhile goals. When you realise that goal, then you are successful.
The temptation which hits many of us is to have narrow goals which speak only to one side of your life; your finances for examples at the exclusion of others. You need to set goals that enable you to live a wholesome life. Goals must appeal to your career, finances, health, relationships, family, spirituality, and community among other areas. Without goals there is no success!
I will continue and finish on this discipline next week. Do not miss out the next edition of the Business Weekly.
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, strategy and personal development. 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 +263718867255 or email [email protected].
