Being “Above Average” is to Success...

...what being “Above Ground” is to Living.

This quote is from Jay Niblick’s book “What’s your Genius” I previewed in the November 2010 issue of “What to Read”. It struck a chord with me when I first read it and as I sat down to pen this issue on achieving success, it resonated once again. I believe it speaks to success being more than just getting by, much like truly living life being judged by more than simply standing upright and breathing.

What I find interesting is how much less I hear the term “Success” now than I typically did last quarter. A quarter ago, which to many was the end of their fiscal year, I heard many variations of “We succeeded because...” or “Look what we did to succeed”. What I hear little of now are phrases like, “Here’s what we will do to succeed” or “Our success looks like...” It is as if we only feel comfortable talking about success after it happens. We seem less comfortable planning for success and overtly stating how we will achieve it. Too often we throw together a loosely defined plan and hope it works.

As we find our rhythm for 2011, here is how we can definitively achieve success both professionally and personally. It all begins with goals. Not just any goals, but ones that carry meaning in the context of what you want to achieve. Many of our readers are familiar with SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistically High and Time Bound) Goals. I would take it a step further and suggest they be WAY-SMART (Written, Aligned, Yours, SMART) Goals.

Having goals help you identify what you want to do and why you want to achieve them. However, you also have to be capable of achieving success. Do you possess the skills (the know how) required to be successful? Additionally, do you have the knowledge (the know when and know where) to use your skills in their proper context? We spend a good deal of time, many times the majority of our time, developing our skills and knowledge, believing they will help us achieve our goals and ultimately be successful.

But is it enough? Not really. One only has to listen to the battlefield of broken resolutions that typically show themselves this time of year. With great intentions so many set goals to improve themselves aptly equipped with the skills and knowledge to do so. Yet by late January or early February, they begin to break down. What’s missing? It is our attitude that makes the difference. It defines our want to achieve our goal and be the success we have pictured in our mind’s eye. While attitude contributes nearly 75% of our success, how much time do we spend developing our attitude? Probably significantly less than 75%! Instead, we continue to invest heavily in skills and knowledge hoping they will make up the difference. They won’t!

The right combination of Goals, Skills, Knowledge and Attitudes provide us our greatest opportunity to create a future of success. In a Victor Hugo quote forwarded to me recently, he states, “The future has many names. For the weak, it means unattainable. For the fearful, it means the unknown. For the courageous, it means opportunity.” Do you have the courage to live more than just “above ground”?

Lead Well!