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Protect Your Success: Have Unfinished Business

Guest post by: Dr. Vincent Kituku

Article Overview: The fastest way for an achiever to revert to mediocrity in any endeavor of their calling or profession, is to have no unfinished business. Competitive edge, continuous growth and success, are loosely tied to achieving established goals. The key is to turn yesterday's goals into today's routine, it is also the platform you need to set goals that are more challenging, the one that you never thought of yesterday. You must see and set yourself up for a life beyond today's goals.

Protect Your Success: Have Unfinished Business



The fastest way for an achiever to revert to mediocrity in any endeavor of their calling or profession, is to have no unfinished business. Competitive edge, continuous growth and success, are loosely tied to achieving established goals. The key is to turn yesterday's goals into today's routine, it is also the platform you need to set goals that are more challenging, the one that you never thought of yesterday. You must see and set yourself up for a life beyond today's goals.

Was going back to school a goal that you had and have now accomplished? What about using that experience as your footing for the next step? Was writing your first book a goal that is no longer a goal? When are your readers going to read your second book, read your weekly column or enjoy your online presence? Whether your goal was to build strong relationships, a business or lose weight, you have to always have something to live up to that will keep you focused, motivated and growing. That is the recipe, having unfinished business, to help you stay on top.

This thinking takes me back to Kenya where exams, whether for high school or university admission were outrageously challenging, the pain of limited resources, where a child in elementary school is not guaranteed secondary a education even if they wanted it. Out of my 7^th grade class of 125, only 10 of us were fortunate enough to be admitted to government aided schools-by far we were the ones that were promised a glimpse of a better future. In my 120 student, 4-year high school class, 3 of us were admitted to a university based on our academic performance.

But what is more revealing is that you could witness an A student at one level flank miserably in the next. I am not talking of an A student sliding to a B position, but relegated to an F status. Some of those A students were so close to me that their mediocre performance, after a spectacular exhibition, has bothered me for almost three decades.

Yet that is what you see with teams, businesses, and individuals that were once a success story. You see the efforts, the focus, the exceptional customer service and the attention paid to details that helped them climb to the top. You see the fruits when the team, business or an individual is at the top. Then you see that yesterday's talk of everyone disappear into the unknown with unbelievable speed. You are then left with one question, "What went wrong?"

A team, business or an individual without unfinished business is a finished business-until some serious re-thinking, re-focusing and re-determining of what brought success and how to stay successful, is done and then followed by action.

The first step to remain a top achiever is to know that you can always get better. It is hard to think of what to improve when you are on top. Yet that is exactly what you need-Constant improvement that calls you to search for new challenges to conquer and opportunities to seize.

Learn from a gazelle's or lion's survival in the jungle. Those creatures are always either running for food or from being the food. Their yesterday's success is not a guarantee of today's or tomorrow's survival. Each and every day is lived with renewed determination to survive. What have you done today to not only survive but thrive?

Make success in whatever you do a habit, something you experience constantly (positive results and/or learning key lessons), not an act here and there. In this arena, you focus on a goal from a broad perspective. You learn that long-term success depends on commitment, effort, flexible creativity, motivation and discipline.

Move forward by looking back. What were you goals two, five or ten years ago? Are they all achieved? If yes, is that all? Have your achieved goals become routine-something you do with minimum efforts or attention? Could you set your focus on higher heights?

Introduce yourself to new people, materials and activities. Nothing improves our lives more than new experiences-meeting people with experiences/backgrounds you have limited knowledge about. Read, take courses or attend workshops on something you have an interest in.

Develop other people. Our own continuous success is only guaranteed by our ability to help other people get better.

Celebrate your victories albeit how small they seem.

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Article Tags: Change, growth, leadership, motivation



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