In Personal Achievement (Part 1) we discussed personal achievement and developing goals and objectives by writing down a want list or wish list… everything you could do or have by snapping your fingers without any effort at all. Personal development is a funny thing…statistically, only about 5% of readers will take any action on this task.
The reason is simple…it's called the 95/5 rule and it goes like this: 5% of our population is truly financially successful, economically free or rich. These are the elite minds of our generation who accomplish astounding achievements and generate enormous wealth…people like Henry Ford or Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft Corporation. The other 95% of the population “follows the followers”.
From this remaining balance of 95% of people, a rough estimate is that 30% of the people go on to become wealthy doctors, lawyers, bankers, technical professionals, small business owners, entrepreneurs, etc… with an additional 15% living upper middle class lives through long-term industrial employment. Which leaves the remaining balance of 50% of the population… these are the “average” people who get a job working for the wealthy or the rich. These are the people who occupy the lower middle and lower class sectors of our economy.
This aforementioned generalization is not meant to be a science…it's meant to be an illustration to highlight the main difference between high achievers and under-achievers. Can you guess what separates some people from one group and some from another? It's not looks…it's not wealth…it's not luck. Those people who occupy the upper 50% of the economic stratosphere got there because they THOUGHT about it and took ACTION. They did what we talked about last week…the hoped, wished, dreamed and fantasized about what they wanted to do with their lives, they developed sound plans and they took action! They worked hard to get where they are but they also worked intelligently.
Think about this: It takes no more effort to think about big things than it takes to think about little things. However, it will take more effort to do big things than little things.
If you are participating with this mini-series topic-theme which is setting personal goals and objectives and you have developed your wish/want list…the next question you should ask yourself is how are you going to get it (or them) done? How are you going to start? What actions should you take and when? The answer (s) are pretty straightforward: Start now, right where you are whether you are ready or not. What do you need to help you achieve your goals? Do you need an education? Start at your public library, it's free. Do you need guidance? Ask successful people you know to help you, get their advice. The key, no matter where you are starting from is to have a clear idea what you want to achieve and developing reasonable and achievable plans to get there. If you need help, by all means get help. Most business people will be glad to give you some direction and you can call any high school, college or government organization like human services to get direction.
All the details of your action plan will come together like a jig saw puzzle as you apply effort in a positive way. Don't let details stop you from taking action…the more you apply yourself the more you will discover and the more you discover will help you think more intelligently about your plans. The key is to start!
Keep these thoughts in mind: success is measurable minute by minute. 60 successful minutes makes a successful hour and 24 successful hours makes a successful minutes makes a successful hour and 24 successful hours makes a successful weeks makes a successful month. 12-successful month's makes a successful year and when you add the years together, you have a successful lifetime. There are two types of people who are reading this column right now… those that will read the article and forget about it and those that will read the article and take action. Which group are you in?
Copyright © 2006 James W. Hart, IV All Rights reservedArticle Source :
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