The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious~ John Scully

#1. Vision

A vision is not just a picture of what could be. It is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more.

Your vision for your life and for your business is the future desired outcome you want. It need not be related to your present reality because you have in you the ability to create something from nothing.

My question is not do you have a vision? Rather I would ask do you know where you are going with your life, your business or your finances. If you continued on the same road doing the same things, you are bound to get the same results.

Take a moment to picture where you will be in five years, ten years and fifty years? If you don’t like what you see, then take some time to create a new future for yourself, your family and your business.

#2. Dreams.

All dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them~ Walt Disney

The real power of your dreams is in your ability to articulate it and share it with someone. Finding the right words to represent what you see in your dreams can be difficult.  But you must share it with someone. This helps you to move it from your head to your mouth and back through your ears as you are reenergised by what you hear.

If you cannot find the right words, use whatever words come to mind. Don’t let your dream die in you. In the words on an unknown author, many dreams die because they are kept within… Dreams are opportunities waiting to happen.

Take a few minutes today and dream about the future of this Planet.

#3. Pleasant To Be Around

Peoples personalities, like buildings, have various facades, some pleasant to view, some not. ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld.

Are you pleasant to be around? Do people enjoy your company?  This can be a blind spot for you. You just may be scoring yourself more points on the likability scale than you should.

People are more interested in themselves than in you. So if you are that person who is interested in others, you will immediately move up their likability scale.

Developing an interest in others will mean that you have to take time to ask the right questions and to listen to understand and to know what is it that others care about.

#4. Understanding People

When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity ~ Dale Carnegie

Human beings are the pride of Gods creation and they defy logic, do stupid things and can be cruel to one another. But deep down when all the bravado is gone, they are fun to be around.

My question to you is, do you understand people? If your answer yes, then good for you. If your answer is no, you are not alone. To achieve great things in life, you will need people either as partners, customers or investors.

You cannot get away from people so don’t try and lock yourself up on a deserted island. It’s no fun. Accept the fact that there will always be people to share this world with you. Don’t try and change them, just make the effort to understand them and then get on with doing life with people.

#5. Persevere

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up ~ Thomas A. Edison

Many in your team will be looking up to you to lead by example. When you decide on a course of action, how soon do you change your mind.

I used to have the habit of working on more than one project at a time. To some people, this shows a lack of focus. To others this is multitasking.

The weakness of this multi-project strategy is that if I hit an obstacle in one or if it is taking too long to achieve the desired result, I have a tendency of abandoning the difficult one and continuing with the not so difficult one. I am now learning to persevere and see my ideas through to a logical conclusion. Using the Lean Startup methodology, you can come up with realistic points at which you decide to persevere or pivot.

How about you? Do you persevere in the face of obstacles and difficulties.