X MARKS THE SPOTS

Monday, August 14, 2006

Action and Complacency - How to Succeed and Avoid Failure

A good friend of my dad says this world belongs to the audacious and ignorant. This statement comes for the fact that many times its not the smartest nor most qualified people that succeed and seem to get ahead in life. Actually many times it turns out that the most ignorant, uneducated and audacious risk-takers are the ones that get the most out of life and have all the luck.

I have often wondered about this and have come to realize that success boils down to taking risks and action rather than being complacent. This sounds simple enough however complacency can be caused by many things such as procrastination, fear and analysis paralysis. These are the enemies that will keep you from tasting success that less deserving or qualified people seem to be having.

Often the more knowledgeable or educated you are, the more you are aware of the risks and less willing to take them. This can lead to analysis paralysis whereby you over analyze a situation / opportunity and never take action because you find all the ways it can go wrong and decide not to go through with it. This is why often you will find that bosses and managers are less frequently specialists or perfectionists - those are the people they hire to get the work done so they have time to be visionaries and work on the "big picture".

What can be done to turn things around for yourself and begin to enjoy some of the success that many around you are having?

  • Do something everyday that scares / challenges you - you will gain new skills and learn to take risks more easily to get faster results. (Ex. Introduce yourself and start conversations with total strangers - you never know who you might meet or what new relationships might bring)
  • Ask better questions, rather than feeling sorry for yourself and saying over and over that you just aren't lucky like some others, try to figure out what "lucky" people do and what allows them to succeed. Ask them yourself to find out what makes them do the things they do. (See above point!)
  • Read books by people who study success and getting results to gain further insights into getting your share of success. Two of my favorite authors on the subject are Tony Robbins and Robert Kiyosaki. Tony's book Unlimited Power is a great place to start since he deals with the human side of things like attitude and how to take immediate action and get immediate results. Robert Kiyosaki's books are geared towards success from business, investing and real estate.
  • Seek to constantly improve and keep track of your progress. Keeping a journal is a great way to do this since you can look back over the years and see how far you've come and what progress has been made.
  • Share and exchange with others what you've learned and benefit from their experiences and wisdom. That said I'd love to hear about your accomplishments and how you've overcome or plan to overcome your "complacency"!