10 Steps to Achievement of Excellence

by Clark Staten

During each of our lives, we set within ourselves, patterns that help to determine the success or failure of our efforts. Psychologists tell us that we either consciously or subconsciously write "scripts" for our minds to follow. The content of these "thought processes" is believed to be self- determined and controllable.

Of course, outside influences or stimuli can have some measure of influence on the make-up of these thoughts and beliefs; ultimately the "scripts" themselves are composed of our preconceived and conditioned responses to our environment. Therefore, the individual reply to a negative experience or situation is controlled by each individual's personal ability to run the "right script" or "internal program" to allow that person to effectively cope with or manage the negative influence or circumstance. Conversely, positive influences and stimuli need to be translated into additional "input programming" to foster a sense of well being and confidence that will enable additional and greater achievement.

While this may seem a rather clinical and analytical approach to behavior understanding and modification, it is presented for the purpose of explaining that we CAN control our own destinies and the way that we respond to everyday conflicts and challenges. Additionally, it is the basis for setting productive patterns of achievement that will eventually result in excellence. In other words..... WE ARE WHAT WE THINK AND HOW WE PLAN!!

I. Decision Making and a Focus

The first step to planning a successful life and career is to analyze and decide what is really important to the individual who is making the plan. For some, this will involve making a great deal of money; for others it will entail the creation of a great work of art. The primary step must encompass the basic wants and needs of the person making the decisions, rather than the perceptions and wants of others. Far to many people have become failures because they aspired to fulfill the desires of others. Determining one's own fulfillment is the key to the future planning of one's life focus.

II. Goal Setting; the Path to our Focus

In order to understand or perceive any real progress or personal sense of achievement, an individual must ascertain certain goals. These goals must be determined by the individual concerned, as being significantly important to his/her overall best interest and part of a larger plan for accomplishment of their life's focus.

These goals may be large or small, seemingly significant to others or not; they must, however, exist with clarity in the mind of the person doing the planning. The goals should be written down and reviewed for thoroughness. Accomplishment deadlines should be set and honored. Establishment of a criteria list of acceptable outcomes should be undertaken. Otherwise, it becomes practically impossible to measure success or failure and thus provide positive or negative feedback to our personal sense of fulfillment.

III. Committment is the Key

The key to completion of goals and subsequently to achievement of our life's focus is committment. Without it, little has ever been accomplished in the history of man. Success often starts with the mere exsistence of the committment to change and improve. By committing ourselves to accomplish the goals that we have determined, we take that first step to the achievement of excellence. Committment is what transforms promises and hopes into reality. It is an internal adherence to personal integrity and accomplishment. Therefore, committment to our focus and completion of goals is paramount to excellence.

IV. Knowledge is Necessary

Achievement is based in knowledge.... of oneself, of the topic that we have chosen as our focus, of peripheral subjects that will help us to our goals. Learning is not always a formal process. Often, it is an aggregation of experiences that prepare us for further progress. While formal education is necessary and can provide us with the basic building blocks of knowledge, it is frequently not the prime contributing factor to excellence. The application of knowledge is far more important than the accumulation of it. However, the failure to be educationally prepared for any field of endeavor is a critical flaw in the overall plan for achievement. You must have the knowledge to recognize a true opportunity when it presents itself.

V. Failures will occur

Failure is inevitable for those that try to accomplish any given difficult task. It often is a method of learning about the things that don't or won't work. Thomas Edison was said to have failed hundreds of times during his invention of the light bulb. He, however, looked upon each failure as one more possible alternative on the path to ultimate success. This persistence of purpose is a hallmark of those that are extremely successful. Failures will occur in any circumstance; the winner is he/she who learns from these experiences and then renews his or her committment to excellence.

VI. The Cyclical Planning Process

Following failure or the achievement of a goal, the prudent achiever will stop to assess the results of that effort. This assessment should serve to facilitate the foundation for the a new round of goal-setting and modification of our focus. Constant measurement of our success or failures affords us the opportunity to modify or delete goals that do not serve our ultimate purpose.

A frequently encountered problem is that upon completion of a goal, people tend to rest "on their laurels" or participate in destructive behavior that is contradictory to the achievement of it. For instance, the person that has lost weight, "rewards" him\herself with a large meal and enters back into the behavior that created the problem in the first place. A far more productive or meaningful approach, would involve rewarding oneself by buying some new clothes that would further enhance one's appearance and reinforce the loss of additional weight.

It is recommended that each accomplishment be used as a springboard or stepping stone to further achievement. Cyclical analysis can then become part of a larger planning process in an endless progression of successes.

VII. Progression of Achievement

Excellence is best achieved in small steps that encompass a greater whole. A productive and reinforcing method of goal- setting involves the breaking of any large task (or our overall focus) into manageable segments, with the easiest parts to be accomplished first. By actually achieving success after success, we begin to establish a repetitive pattern of achievement that leads to even greater accomplishment. Success, like failure, tends to be a trend. Continued successes encourage continued successes. Enough successes eventually comprise ultimate excellence.

VIII. Resource Utilization

One of the important steps on the road to excellence is the appropriate use of resources. Some of these resources are not tangible in nature. Maximum utilization of God-given gifts, friendships, relationships, and information is often necessary to extract the greatest possible good from any circumstance. Caution is urged, however, in the exploitation of others. The greatest secret of using the knowledge and ability of others is to insure that they ALWAYS benefit from the experience. To do otherwise will undoubtedly, eventually, result in the loss of the friendship, relationship, or information resource.

Other resources are material and obtained in finite quantities. In today's society, the use of technological and financial assets probably ranks among the highest priorities of entrepreneurs and those that strive for excellence. For some, the accumulation of wealth appears to be a "Yardstick" by which they can measure their degree of success or failure. Undoubtedly, the effective use of all available assets will, in large part, determine the ultimate success or failure of any worldly enterprise. The use of lesser technologies (when better ones are economically available) has frequently been the failing of various businesses. A failure to appropriately manage and allocate funding resources has been the cause of ruin for many otherwise worthy individuals.

In one's personal life it is a necessity, of course, to manage one's money in a responsible way. However, it should be noted that the accumulation of money is probably not a very good determining factor in gauging relative success. Financially "poor" people can be successful, if they have accomplished the goals that they have established and are attaining the substance of "their focus", whatever that might be. Achievement of one's stated personal objectives might be a better measurement of success than money. Amazingly, people that accomplish what they have thoughtfully planned to do, often find themselves to be financially secure.

Millionaires have gained financial wealth, but may not consider themselves successful until they become billionaires. A painter, on the other hand, may have little financial wealth during the creation of his work, but gains a great deal in the process of creation and may eventually profit financially from it. In other words, the pursuit and attainment of a goal, quickly, may become more valuable than the resulting accumulation of material resources. Happiness in one's endeavor and satisfaction with the outcome of that effort would appear to be a prime directive in this strategy for excellence.

IX. Persistence is the Answer

Regardless of any other principal that is presented here for your consideration, the practice of peristence will previal when other stategies have failed. Once committed to a focus and goals; a continual, grinding, grudging, sweating, and diligent effort is necessary to accomplish the end outcome objective....excellence. Little has ever been gained by half-hearted or sporadic attempts at anything. Persistence is difficult, and it's easy to become discouraged and quit. Those that have prevailed in almost every field of endeavor, however, have shown a common trait...that of persistence.

X. The Courage for Attainment

One of the often forgotten facets in the pursuit of excellence is that of personal courage. Courage is a prerequisite to the effort of accomplishing the other suggestions in this stategy for success. It is the courage of self-conviction and self-denial. It is a courage of personal integrity and ethical behavior while in the pursuit of attainment. It is the capacity to forge ahead when you are afraid of the inevitable failure. It is the endowment of the human spirit to feats of mental and physical effort that are thought inhuman. It is the genius unleashed on a seemingly insurmountable problem. Courage is what will allow you to face the fear of fear itself and achieve greatly in the process. YOU must have the courage to succeed and and in continued success, you will have accomplished excellence.

EXCELLENCE

Excellence is ultimately.... persevering when others think the task is too difficult, risking more than others think is healthy, caring more than many think is prudent and expecting more than others think is possible.

© By Clark Staten, Executive Director, Emergency Response & Research Institute. All rights reserved, unless otherwise assigned.