A case for your personal and professional development
Would you believe the average person spends more time and money on activities that contribute to their personal detriment than to their personal development? They unwittingly develop habits that have slipped from moderate recreation or amusement into a form of escapism and responsibility avoidance. This is what makes them average rather than high-performing.
As a high performer, you are a leader and an artist. Leaders and artists create a record of successes. They surround themselves with positive people who uplift them and challenge them to even greater levels of accomplishment. The leader and artist do not ask, “When is it enough, when can I finish?” They know it is as much about the journey as it is about the destination. Their vivid visions of the destination sustain the journey. They are devoted to learning, to looking at the world differently in order to achieve their goals and aspirations. As they met their challenges and deploy their creations, they know that their bigger more lasting legacy is to bring inspiration to others.
You know this to be true. You’ve either read it in enough books, heard it said enough times or felt it in your heart. You have more you want to accomplish but have not been able to get to it. You have uncertainty over your vision and fear that it’s not being interpreted as you intended. As a result, you have been feeling frustrated, overwhelmed and discouraged while trying to complete someone else’s goals. You feel guilt, because you may even be feeling a little resentful. They are keeping you from your dreams.
You’re half-right, you are being kept from working on your goals. Your dreams do keep getting deferred. The things you want to accomplish are talking too long. But it’s not their fault; it’s yours. They are your dreams, goals, and aspirations. You created them. You own them. They are your responsibility. If you continue to neglect them, or worse, abandon them outright in favor of someone else’s, you deny the world your unique contributions. If you are part of an organization, you retreat to safety and commonness, bound to perpetuate the enemy of success with praise of mediocrity and the tragic slow suffocation of your talent. You know something is holding you back. You have a goal unmet, a dream deferred, or a vexing problem you’ve not been able to solve. How did you get here? How did your anticipation get replaced with anxiety?
Leaders and artists thrive with creativity, innovation, and daring when they make time for reflection and revelation. You need a fresh pair of eyes. Someone who can give you an unbiased opinion and can guide you along the un-tended path you know leads toward your goal; an accountability partner driven by your success whose goal is to see you succeed. Someone who can help find the “a-ha” that’s within you.
