Today, along with billions of other people (think about that... BILLIONS!!!! that is a lot) are thinking about new years resolutions or making changes in our lives for the better. Think of the collective "good intentions" of billions of people! And yet, most new years resolutions don't get written down, don't have determined committment, and probably will go unfulfilled this year.
For more information about goal setting and it's importance please see my post blow called "Goal Setting... The Expirment."
This year my goal is DILIGENCE. Think about that for a minute..... diligence is defined by www.dictionary.com as
"constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken; persistent exertion of body or mind."
Most goals, I would venture to guess, go unfulfilled because of a lack of committment or diligence in acheiving them. Diligence is not a mundane word for routine... it is a passionate word implying dogged determination and constant effort to make right choices.
One of my mentors introduced me to the graphic at the beginning of this post. This horizontal "Y" shape represents a choice. Each day is a journey of choices and every little choice determines whether we are getting closer or further away from achieving our goals. For example, lets say your goal is to lose weight... your first choice in the morning may be between hitting the snooze bar one more time for 9 more minutes of relaxation and getting up to work out. If you get out of bed then you progress and get closer to the goal. Your second choice could be a fatty McGriddle sandwich or a bowl of bran cereal for breakfast. Assuming you chose to get up and work out but then chose to go to the Golden Arches for breakfast you have lost the ground you made this morning and digressed to be in the same situation in which you started the day.
Greatness often comes through diligent, passionate, and constant decision making! Who want's to live thier own personal "Groundhog Day" with the same results over and over. No matter what your goals are, make sure that you really want to achieve them.... If you ardently desire to achieve them then apply passionate decisionmaking every day to make sure you have made more productive decisions than unproductive ones. In this game... Numbers Matter!
I am blown away at how few people, who say they want more out of life, don't put in a diligent or constant effort to attain it. What goals do you have? What daily decisions are you going to have to make to achieve your success? Do you want to make more money? How about the classic decision to surf the web a few extra minutes each day or use those minutes to make more another sales call.
I would love to hear any thoughts you have on this idea. Also what other ways of looking at diligence do you have? Please share them if you have them.
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3 comments:
Diligence is all-consuming. Not an easy goal to have, because if you really want something, you have to be thinking about it, dreaming about it, living, eating and breathing it. Which is why, as you say, making a goal means you better dang well know it is absolutely the right thing because every minute of every day you're becoming that goal. It's such a part of you. Otherwise, it's just a wish.
Success
If you want a thing bad enough
To go out and fight for it,
Work day and night for it,
Give up your time and your peace and your sleep for it
If only desire of it
Makes you quite mad enough
Never to tire of it,
Makes you hold all other things tawdry and cheap for it
If life seems all empty and useless without it
And all that you scheme and you dream is about it,
If gladly you'll sweat for it,
Fret for it, Plan for it,
Lose all your terror of God or man for it,
If you'll simply go after that thing that you want.
With all your capacity,
Strength and sagacity,
Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity,
If neither cold poverty, famished and gaunt,
Nor sickness nor pain
Of body or brain
Can turn you away from the thing that you want,
If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it,
You'll get it!
Berton Braley
Great Comments!!! Diligent people are typically seeking to BECOME something! Achievements usually follow. Thanks for commenting!
I loved that poem as well! powerful!
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