We all know highly intelligent, well educated people with substantial experience and opportunity who don’t lead very successful lives. Conversely, many of the most successful individuals have surmounted significant difficulties that would derail most people.

Most successful people have mastered 10 specific principles.  Live you life consistent with them and you will see improvements in many facets of your life.  This article covers the first principle.  See subsequent articles for the remaining 9 principles.

Principle 1:  Relentless Desire to be the Best

Having unyielding and unbending desire to be the best fuels successful people.  They are passionate about what they do and bring that energy and enthusiasm to their work each and every day.

Passion comes from thoroughly enjoying and, quite frankly, loving what you do.  Passion has driven athletes, like Tiger Woods to continually strive to improve, never being satisfied with their current level of performance.  It is difficult to imagine anyone having that passion or relentless desire if they are in a job  that they don’t enjoy.

I believe that you can’t realize your potential for success unless you have the desire to be the best and continually raise your own performance bar.  What if you don’t have that desire?  If you’re like most people, you accept it, become comfortable, shut down mentally and look forward to your days off.  Or, you make a decision to start doing what you really enjoy.  You ask yourself:

• What excites me?  What would I really like to do?
• What am I good at?  Where do I bring added value?
• If money were no object, what would I do now?  If I had financial independence, what business would I start?  What job would I want to do?

If you celebrated Christmas as a child, you remember how excited you were going to bed on Christmas Eve.  You couldn’t wait to wake up the next morning.  You didn’t need an alarm and you certainly didn’t hit the snooze button.  What could you be doing now that would provide you than kind of excitement?

A reasonable person might say: “I don’t have the financial base, the education, or the experience to pursue what I really want to do”.  Understand that once you know what it is you want to do, then all your effort is focused on preparing for its inevitability.  In other words, you put in place a plan that addresses any barriers preventing you from moving forward. Maybe you take a second job, attend classes, pick up new job responsibilities in order to prepare yourself. The fact that you can’t pursue your passion now, simply means that you pursue instead the resources you need to be in position to actualize that passion in the future.
Let me give you an example.  Over 20 years ago, my wife and I decided to quit our jobs and start a new business.  We had lost that energy, enthusiasm and passion for our current jobs and realized that we hungered for being entrepreneurs, for having the freedom to create and pursue our own vision.

We analyzed our talents and compared them to what we really loved to do.  It became evident that we both enjoyed presenting in front of audiences and were very comfortable working in and with large organizations. We then analyzed the business marketplace and determined that a major competitive advantage going forward would be the maximization of talent. The companies with the best talent would have the best results. So, we started The Muntean Leadership Group, focusing on helping organizations vision their future and develop their people’s capabilities to realize it. And, a majority of our time is spent presenting and facilitating various workshops, seminars and sessions. That was just what we wanted to do.

Before we started our business however, we had to focus on preparing for that inevitability. We put a plan in place to have enough financial resources for 6 months of expenses, so that we could focus on building our business without the constant worry of money. We took classes, read books and listened to CD’s on sales, leadership, coaching, motivation, delegation, strategy and other business subjects in order to build our knowledge. To start our networking and prospecting efforts, we created a list of potential contacts, clients, friends and other associates. Once this foundation was in place, we were ready to launch.

A definition of good luck is where preparation meets opportunity. The opportunity for you is to focus on what you’re passionate about. Get total clarity in your mind. Then prepare for this opportunity by addressing any obstacles, barriers, challenge or other issues that might impede or get in your way. Develop a plan to overcome these obstacles. Then luck will be on your side. Remember, the relentless desire to be the best starts with you being passionate about what you’re doing.

The starting point to mastering goal achievement lies in your understanding of the difference between goals and wishes. Wishes are goals without plans of action. A wish is simply a goal that has no blueprint, no road map and thus no destination. To accomplish anything meaningful, you must first plan your work and then work your plan.

Most people don’t set goals and make plans of action.  The major obstacle for most people is their fears, whether of the unknown, failure, ridicule or rejection. It’s better to achieve little then risk these fears to achieve a lot. The key to overcoming these fears is to understand that they are natural and a necessary requirement for us to accomplish great things. Failing temporarily is quite often required in order to learn the valuable lessons and make course corrections on the road to success.

Let me give you an example. When salespeople prospect for new business they face rejection and failure. In fact, they receive a lot more no’s then yes’s. It is the process of learning how to get more yes’s that eventually results in the salesperson becoming more and more successful. The process of learning the valuable lessons and applying that learning will result in ultimate success. But, if you’re afraid to risk temporary failure, rejection or ridicule, then fear paralyzes  and prevents you from even wanting to set goals in the first place. So, quite simply, make a commitment to fail your way to success. Set challenging goals and be ready for some initial rough going and temporary defeat as you learn the lessons necessary and gain the knowledge to achieve your goals.

You need to set challenging goals in at least three main areas of life: work/career, personal/family relationships and self improvement/ development. Balance in goal setting maintains the proper perspective for you to have energy across the most important areas of your life.

Start with setting 2 to 3 goals in each area. For example, in work/career you might have a short term (less then 1 year) goal around  increasing your knowledge or expertise in a certain area, a medium term (1-3 year) goal around getting promoted and a long term (3+ years) goal around a specific career position. In personal/family relationships you might focus on your relationship with your spouse or children, a family vacation or new home. And , under self  improvement/development your goals might be health/exercise related or to learn a new language or pick up a new hobby. In any event, capture no more then two or three goals in each category, prioritize the most important one in each  and focus on developing a plan of action. Once you have accomplished one or more of your goals and built your confidence, add on additional goals.

A few closing thoughts:

1. Share your goals only with people who would be supportive and help you achieve them. Stay away from negative people who would resent your success and give you every reason why you can’t accomplish your goals.
2. You must have written action plans with clearly laid out activities and due dates for their accomplishment. Review your goals and actions plans daily and make revisions where appropriate. If you don’t write down your action plan then you are not serious.
3. Accept all feedback as positively moving you towards your goals. Remember that obstacles are the result of setting meaningful goals. If there aren’t any obstacles you would already have accomplished your goal. Obstacles will unleash your creativity to come up with new ideas and solutions.

Remember, you are meant to achieve goals. Goals gives you confidence, high self-esteem and a feeling of self-worth and purpose. Every time you accomplish a goal, you feel better about yourself and your life. Goal for it!

I have read studies that suggest the average person wastes 30% or more of their work time through socializing, doing personal work, surfing the web and just plain procrastinating. As a result their stressed out, always behind, taking work home and feeling out of control.Even at home, many of us spend too much time on low value tasks like watching television and reading periodicals that don’t expand our knowledge or capabilities.

In order to get control of your time, you need to constantly ask yourself: “What is the most valuable use of my time right now? How can I best use my time right now to accomplish my goals?” By asking these questions you focus your mind on value adding activities, not activities that only use up your valuable time.

Why is it so difficult to discipline ourselves to focus on the most valuable use of our time? It’s pretty simple, since working on the most valuable use of our time is usually hard work, while focusing on trivia or non value adding activities is easy. We take the easy way out because we are not focused on our goals. Then, when our backs are against the wall, we get stressed out by having to focus all our energy on a project or task we procrastinated on.

Remember Principle for Success #2 “Work towards accomplishing meaningful goals.”  In order to optimize your time, all you have to do is keep coming back to your major career. In most cases, the most valuable use of your time is doing something around one of your major work, personal or self development goals. That is why you need to review your goals and action plans daily so that you program yourself to focus on the most valuable use of your time constantly.

Another important concept around optimizing your time is the balance between quality and quantity. Many people believe that you should spend a large quantity of time at work, while maintaining a small, but high quality time in your personal life. I believe we need to change this paradigm. Make your work time high quality and focus on working all the time you work. If you work all the time you work, you will gain 30% or more productivity. Keep your head down, accomplish more and have more non working time.
As a result, you will now have more quantity of time to spend on the quality of your personal life. So, quality versus quantity is replaced with quality (work time) and quality with more quantity in your personal life. A win-win for sure.

For example, one of my favorite success habits is to read for 30 minutes, 5 days per week.  I’m not talking about reading the newspaper, sports magazines, entertainment publications, or fictional books, but rather reading something that has lasting impact on you. It could be a business book which improves your capability to do your job, a spiritual book that provides you direction and inner peace, or a motivational book that moves you.

This type of reading provides you with mental protein instead of mental candy. I’m not suggesting that mental candy, consumed in moderation, is bad for you, but it does not give you the knowledge, energy, and direction essential for you to achieve great success.

If you average reading 1 page per minute and read 30 minutes a day, five days per week, you will read about 600 pages per month. On average, that represents two to three books a month or 24 to 36 books a year. If you read 30 books or so per year in your field, what do you think the impact would be on your results?

So, one of the easiest ways to build this habit is to get up 30 minutes earlier each morning and use that as your reading time. The mind is wide open for new information at the start of the day, before it is filled with typical deadlines, issues, and problems.

What other habits do successful people tend to have? Here are a few that you may want to consider:

* Associate with successful people and learn to model behavior that makes them successful. In addition, spending time with successful people keeps you motivated and energized.
* Commit to constant improvement and always look for a better way. Never become satisfied with the status quo and avoid the comfort zone.
* Develop an abundance mentality where opportunity is ever present. Realize that the world is full of opportunity for those willing to look for it.
* Look for the valuable lesson in every difficulty or setback. Understand that the lesson is what you need to learn to move forward.
* Exceed expectations of customers, associates, friends, and family. If you go the extra mile, others will do the same for you.

Remember, success habits will lead to significantly better results.  Make sure your habits are aligned with your goals or you are constructing potential barriers which will limit your success.

Many of us are just stuck in a rut or comfort zone. Still others worry about what friends and family would think about any new change effort. Successful people understand that acceptance of change is not optional today, but it is mandatory. In fact, creating and embracing change is the mantra of highly successful people.

In order to create and embrace change, you need to CHANGE your paradigm or belief about change. I believe that you must look at change as an opportunity to improve your life. The major reason why organizational change efforts are resisted or fail is because employees believe they will be worse off. Why should I embrace a change that has nothing in it for me? The key to successful organizational change efforts is to focus on demonstrating to the employees what is in it for them.

This is not always easy, but it is necessary. In today’s economic environment, many people are losing their jobs and those that remain are experiencing significant change and upheaval. How do we look at this in terms of being better off? Well, for employees, the restructured company should be more financially stable, which offers the remaining employees a more secure and positive future. For those let go, there is now an opportunity to find a better job, potentially with a better company. The long term may offer far greater rewards then if the person had remained at the previous company.

This is a paradigm shift that requires you to see opportunity within every adversity or setback. We should not wait for potential adversity to practice our paradigm shift. Instead, we create change of our own, thus taking control of the direction of change rather then reacting to it.

How do we do this? The most powerful way is to continually set new, meaningful goals for your career, relationships, and personal development. Setting meaningful goals is covered in detail in Principle for Success #2. The key point here is that you can not get complacent, in a comfort zone, by accomplishing your goals and then not setting new ones.

Carl Lewis was asked how he was able to win Olympic gold for 16 years in track and field, continually defeating younger opponents. How could he keep beating the young lions in a sport where youth is critically important?  His response was that as others tried to focus on catching him; he kept setting new goals, always staying a step ahead of where they were. He would change his diet, exercise program, or practice schedule to maintain that edge.  As competitors tried to beat the ‘old’ Carl Lewis, the ‘new’ Carl Lewis beat the competitors.

Change is accelerating. Embrace it through creating your own change. Revise your goals, set new ones, and control the direction of change for your benefit.

Why is self esteem and self confidence so important? Most of us have areas in our lives where we feel good about ourselves, in control, confident in what we’re doing. It is those areas where we tend to focus our energies and enjoy our results. It is where we bring value and achieve personal satisfaction. Our self esteem is very high and we act accordingly – positive, constructive, optimistic and cheerful.

No matter what our level of self esteem, we need to continually focus on nurturing and building this foundational quality. Here are ten ideas to help you continuously build your self esteem:

1. Set ever challenging goals and objectives; don’t get into a comfort zone. The ongoing accomplishment of goals keeps your self esteem at a high level.
2. Never become satisfied with your level of knowledge and expertise. Always be learning and growing in your field.
3. Surround yourself with positive people who have goals similar to yours. Stay away from pessimistic people who focus on the negative.
4. Exercise on a regular basis and take good care of your physical being.
5. Find quality time for solitude and meditation on a regular basis.
6. Volunteer in your community and be active in charitable endeavors.
7. Reward yourself for accomplishing meaningful goals and results.
8. Affirm yourself with positive self talk and affirmations.
9. Give of yourself freely and often in helping others achieve success.
10. Balance work time and personal time. Stick to your commitments with family and friends.

Remember, human beings are happiest when they feel good about themselves and who they are. Focus on building your self esteem as the foundation to success.

You see, obstacles present us with a golden opportunity. Obstacles say loud and clear: you need to learn this or address that, turn right or turn left. Obstacles come to instruct us and tell us what we need to do in order to be successful. Obstacles represent temporary barriers that will eventually fall as we take action to confront them.

Let me give you an example. Research studies suggest that up to 50% of the population would like to quit their corporate job and start their own business. However, the percentage that due is far lower. Why? Most people look at the apparent obstacles and decide to stand pat, to give in to the barriers.

For many, the major barrier or obstacle is their lack of faith or confidence in their ability to launch a business. What is this obstacle really saying to you though? It is saying that you need to do some research, talk to some people, put together a plan, etc. Once you do that, your confidence and willingness to move forward will prevail and off you go.

Another way of looking at obstacles is that without them, what are you really focused on? In other words, if there are no obstacles, then why aren’t you already there? If there are no obstacles, what challenge is there for you? If there are no obstacles, why are you doing this in the first place? It can’t be much of a challenge and certainly doesn’t test your capabilities.

Obstacles are there to instruct not obstruct. They provide you with valuable information and key learning. Look at obstacles as the means to achieving your goals. Address them first and your confidence and perseverance will increase as will your success.

Can you have a good time and still be serious about your responsibilities and results? A resounding yes, especially when you consider that you are more energized, enthusiastic and productive when you’re happy and having fun. If you want to improve your employee’s performance, start bringing a sense of fun and enjoyment to your job and workplace.

This is even more important in tough economic times. People can become pessimistic and down when results aren’t meeting expectations, so having some fun is a great antidote to difficult economic environments.

Here are some ways to increase your fun quotient at work:

· Celebrate: Look for any accomplishment or result to recognize. Make a big deal of successes and schedule a fun activity to celebrate each one. That activity could be as big as taking everyone out to dinner or to a sporting event and as small as bringing in donuts in the morning.

· Schedule Team Events: Every quarter, schedule a team event, such as a barbeque, movie, paintball, miniature golf, etc. Build a team culture and history that people can continually relate to and discuss. It will always bring smiles to their faces.

· Contests and Competition: Get people excited about winning contests or other competitions within your team or against other teams. It’s not about the incentive as much as it is to create healthy, fun experiences for the team.

· Get Personal: Take an interest in your team member’s personal lives through recognizing birthdays, outside accomplishments, trips, etc. Try to be creative in differentiating each team member’s recognition.

· Be Creative: Have a brainstorming session with your team. Ask them, “How can we bring more fun, energy and excitement to our team?” Then, prioritize the top 3 to 5 ideas and go implement them.

If people go home after work and talk about what a great place they work at, then your team is not only having fun, but probably getting great results as well.

However, if we really are concerned about being a more effective communicator, then we should also be willing to flex or adapt our style. In fact, our willingness to change our behavioral style and adapt to our employee’s style will improve not only communication, but understanding of that communication. It is quite frustrating to have conversations where you think the expectations are clear and then find out later that there was a total lack of clarity and alignment.

Chances are that your behavioral style is similar to no more then 20-25% of the population. That means that up to 80% of people find your style out of sync with how they communicate. In other words, they may find your style to be overly direct or too analytical or lacking empathy. The result will be that they hear your words, but not your intent or meaning,

Here are some ideas to help you and your team communicate more effectively:

· Focus on the other person’s communication style. Ask how they prefer to be communicated with or review their behavioral assessment, if available.

· Have the whole team complete a behavioral assessment and debrief the results together. Capture how each person likes to be communicated, compile the results and send out to all team members. Have everyone use this to flex their style when communicating with each other.

· After every discussion, have both parties restate what has been agreed too and what are the expectations, in terms of results and time lines.

· When under stress, pressure or in a rush, understand that your tendency will be to revert to your own style. Take a deep breadth, slow down and think before communicating.

Remember, clear communication is critical to your success. Flex and adapt your style to your teams and watch alignment to expectations and corresponding results increase.

You might say this is the reality of the 21st. century. Multi tasking is a given and essential for success. The true superstars are those that can handle everything and not complain while doing it.

Sounds good in theory, but reality suggest that you need to keep it manageable, keep it simple and keep it focused. Your employees need to know what is important for them to focus on right now. If you can’t answer that question for them, then you can’t be an effective leader.I sometimes joke about the statement from a manager saying that his team has 17 top 3 priorities. How can an employee know what is important and focus their energy with 17 conflicting priorities?  Your job is too focus people on 3 or 4 key areas of focus. Make it clear, simple and manageable.

Priorities can certainly change, but when adding new ones, you need to subtract old ones. Hopefully, the subtraction is the result of accomplishing or finishing that priority, but sometimes we need to reorder the areas of focus.

Answer this question:”What are the top 3 or 4 priorities I want my team to focus on now?” Write down the answer, then go to your team and ask them for their top 3-4 priorities. If they are the same, then you have done a great job in alignment and focus. If not, get them focused on the key areas.

Keep it manageable, keep it simple, keep it focused. Your people can accomplish great things, but give them the opportunity through a laser like focus on the vital few priorities that must be accomplished now. Constantly communicate those priorities and use them as your basis for interaction around results and expectations.