Outstanding Performance

Lifelong Learning

Maybe you have spent a lot of time in college, even graduate school. You might be tempted to think that you don't need to keep learning. After all, didn't you go to college to learn how to be a business success? Not really, college really just prepares you to learn. Your education in business success really begins when you start working.

In the 19th Century, Thomas Carlyle said, "What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books." If he were alive today, he might have amended his statement to say, "The internet is the greatest university of all." It's true. You can find just about every great book on business success online along with a multitude of articles and websites. If you don't keep learning you'll fall behind in the knowledge that you need to become an outstanding performer and a business success.

As you've probably guessed, my best common sense suggestion for becoming a lifelong learner is simple. Read. Read technical journals. Read trade magazines. Read business publications like "The Wall Street Journal", "Business Week", "Fortune" and "Forbes." Read your company's annual report. Read your competitors' annual reports. Read your local newspaper and "The New York Times". Read news magazines like "Newsweek" and "Time." Read business success and industry blogs. Read business success books. Reading is the best way to stay up with what's happening in business, in your industry and in the world.

There are other things you can do to keep learning: attend seminars; join groups or trade associations for your industry and be sure to attend the meetings and participate; volunteer for a cause and so on.

Set High Goals - and Achieve Them

Next, set high goals for yourself - and then achieve them. Set goals that are S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results Oriented and Time Bound). Develop milestones for accomplishing your goals. They keep you on track and they motivate you by giving you reason to celebrate when you accomplish them.

All outstanding performers set goals. Then they meet or exceed them. They do this day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. I am 58 years old, and have been in business for myself for 20 years. I set goals every year and develop quarterly milestones for those goals which I measure myself by. It's a habit I developed when I was first out of college and it has served me well over the years.

Organize Your Time and Life

Finally, get organized. Manage your life, your time and your stress well. Make sure that your life and work life are in a balance that works for you. Occasionally when pursuing business success, you'll find that your work-life balance is a little imbalanced. That's OK. Just make sure that you get it back in balance as soon as you can.

Be proactive in dealing with this stress. Eat well and exercise. Don't party too much. If you find yourself getting too stressed, take 20 or 30 minutes and go for a walk to clear your head. One of my first mentors told me to H.A.L.T. By that, he meant don't get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired. This is good advice for managing stress.

Put some order in your life. Develop a schedule and stick to it. Create an organizing system that works for you. Use your electronic gadgets to help you stay organized. Develop your own time management system and work it. Focus on doing a few things that are important to achieving your business success instead of the trivial things that seem urgent, but really aren't vital.

Don't procrastinate. Procrastination is a killer. It can hurt your self-confidence as well as your business success. To keep myself from procrastinating I have learned to start big projects at the end of the day so when I return to work in the morning I have some momentum going and the project doesn't seem as daunting.