5 Reasons to Choose Diligence

Diligence, is the constant and earnest effort to accomplish whatever is undertaken (Dictionary.com). Diligence is also the steady application of effort to accomplish a task. 

5 Reasons to Choose Diligence

 

At the heart of success in many endeavours is diligence. This is described by Atul Gawande in his book “Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance” as the necessity of giving sufficient attention to detail to avoid error or prevail against obstacles.

 

Publishing new blog posts at Leading like a Champion requires diligence on my part and while it has not been an easy task to achieve, it is very rewarding. So what does diligence mean in practice?

 

Diligence in Practice

  • Diligence presupposes that you have a goal or task you are working towards. Since you do not have the energy to be diligent at everything, it makes sense to carefully choose your goals and tasks so that you can apply your limited time and effort towards its achievement.
  • Diligence requires time and effort to yield results. Having decided on your goal, you must understand that it’s achievement will require effort also known as hard work. This reminds me of a phrase – ‘No bees, no honey. No work no money”
  • Diligence rewards attention to detail, careful completion of repetitive and sometimes boring task and a determined commitment to finish what you have began.

 Do not spend your days gathering flowers by the wayside, lest night come upon you before you arrive at your journeys end, and then you will not reach it. ~ Isaac Watts. 

5 Reasons to Choose Diligence

  1. A commitment to diligence will help you achieve great things in life. Do you have big dreams? Are you ambitious enough to want to make a difference in the world you live in? From history, we know that it was the commitment to diligence that helped Thomas Edison discover the light bulb after over two thousand unsuccessful experiments.
  1. A commitment to diligence will reward you with expertise and authority. You will have had of the 10,000 hour rule made popular by Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers. Only the diligent can put in this required number of hours of purposeful practice to become an expert or authority in their field or profession. Only the diligent athlete can compete in the Olympic finals.
  1. A commitment to diligence will help you creates success habits. There are no short cuts to success. You will benefit from a steady progress towards your goal as Muscles develop from a diligent application of weights. You grow to become a bigger and better person by the diligent effort you apply to your work and business.
  1. A commitment to diligence will help you stay on track with your goals. Breaking down your larger goals into smaller specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound goals (SMART) increases the chances of your success.
  1. A commitment to diligence keeps you clear of slothfulness, indifference and laziness. These three words will significantly affect your growth and development as a leader, an entrepreneur and valuable contributor at work.

So you have a goal that is worth your putting your limited resources to. Reap the rewards of diligence. Break down your goal or task into several smaller goals or subtask. Your subtasks need to be meaningful and the accomplishment of each step must bring you closer to the achievement of your overall goal. Start today on the first step and stick to the task until the task sticks to you.

Winning is by choice and not by chance, so never, never, never give up ~ Winston Churchill

How committed are you to achieving your goals?

3 Things to Know before Writing your Blog

WordPress and many other blogging platforms has lowered the barrier to publishing. So you have decided to write and publish a blog post. I use the words write and publish on purpose because, many write and do not publish for many reasons.

3 Things to Know before Writing your Blog

I started writing just about a year ago. But I nursed the dream of writing for many years. I even joined a writers club and I wrote many pieces of work but published none. Until I read Steven Pressfied’s book: Do the Work If you haven’t read this book you should.

Resistance to writing.

Writing like many other art forms has the potential to change lives and you will have to overcome resistance, which comes in many forms. A few examples include:

  • Fear
  • Self doubt
  • Procrastination
  • Distractions of all sorts
  • Perfectionism

The only tried and proven way of overcoming resistance is to get on with it and write. Yes Do the Work. Write. You may want to develop a content plan to help you write.

But before you write, there are three things I would like you to know.

  1. Know Your Reader – Who is your writing intended for?

The best way to write a best selling book is to know who your audience is (and what they want) before you start writing. You should know everything there is to know about your readers in advance, and then write your book. Most people do it backwards. ~ Michael Hyatt

Who are you writing for. It is important to have a reader in mind before you write. The more you know about your reader, the better you are able to write content that will be of great value to your readers.

Here at Leading like a champion, our readers are ambitious individuals who have little time or energy to waste. He or she may be self employed, running a business or aspiring to own and run a business. He or she is an entrepreneur. Probably older than 18 and younger than 35.

  1. Know Your Purpose – Why are you writing?

Are you writing to inform, to entertain or to educate your readers? Are you writing to persuade, to inspire or to provoke a discussion.  For more on this read Are you blogging with purpose?” . When you are clear about the purpose of your writing, your readers derive greater value from your content because you:

  • Connect with your readers.
  • Convince your readers about your purpose
  • Convert your readers to your purpose

Here at leading like a champion, we believe that you must be the leading influence in your life. We believe that leadership is a combination of skills and ability that can be learned through training and improved with practice. We use our blog posts to provide you with content that will help you the individual grow and thrive as a leader in your business and in your workplace.

  1. Know your Subject – What are you writing about?

Here is my simple take on this. You know enough about your subject to write about it. See yourself as an expert or an expert in the making. No matter how little you think you know about your topic, you know  a lot more about it than most people. So write for those people and they will reward you with their readership. Stick to what you know and what you are passionate about. Writers who are passionate about their subject are more interesting to read.

Write with your readers in mind.

Remember that you are not writing out of a passion for writing. Such writing will make for boring reading as you will will have the tendency to show off your writing skill. Your readers do not really want to know how fantastic you are at writing.

Give value to your readers.

You are writing to add value to and help your readers. You are writing because what you write has the potential to fill a need that your reader has.
So it helps a great deal to get over yourself, get over your perceived lack of experience and get over your fear that no one will read what you write.
Write and publish your work of art.
Question? How about writing for us
Why not get in touch? You can leave a comment or complete the contact form.

 

The Winner’s Sound Mind ~ Part 2

Winners do what losers don’t want to do. ~ Gary Busey

Winners
What does it really take,
To be a winner,
It takes a great deal of effort,
To become a real winner,
But it’s got to come naturally,
And don’t kid yourself,
You can’t force it,
A sound mind and a disciplined soul,
A winner who bluntly refuses,
To take advantage of others,
No matter how unique,
Who respects others for their contribution to humanity.

 

As the puzzle persists,
The channel grows,
The vision is widened in horizon,

 

The pace of activity increases,
At every turn,
The source of inspiration,
Remains mainly divine,
The spirit must be upheld,
All set to grab
The opportunity,
To seize an opportunity.

 

Abstract knowledge by itself,
Requires a capable mind for relevant interpretation,
Winners often face that challenge.

 

Whenever a stage is attained,
When there’s a suppression of the urge,
To ask too many questions,
And offer more suggestions,
When self formulated policies,
Become guiding principles.

 

When the aspirant believes more,
In whatever is got out of life,
And less on the goodwill of others,
The period is at-hand.

 

The crown word is independence,
In the actual sense of the word,

 

Frankly speaking age is immaterial,
And the fact is often overlooked,
Around the world today,
That several young ones,
Have already attained,
That enviable status of symbolic independence,
Long before their time.

 

Let the truth be said,
That a society,
With many winners,
Is deemed to make progress,
And is several steps ahead,
Of a similar gathering of youth,
Who eventually became elders.

 

Within the course of living,
If an idea occurs to you,
Which no other man taught you,
Hold on to it,
And develop it,
It’s your brain child,
Don’t bother how long,
It takes to materialise,
Making real sense to others.

 

You live in the future,
The future of the World.
Remembering always that the history of the world, is the biography of the best minds that lived.
 
Read the Winner’s Sound Mind ~ Part 1

Dream Big and take Small Steps

One Small Step For A Man

It was 10.15pm on Monday the 21st day of July 1969. Many of you reading this blog were not born then. After travelling non-stop for three days, three hours and forty-nine minutes, Neil Armstrong took the next and final step to become the first man to step on the surface of the moon. In his own words broadcast live to more than 450 million listeners or one out of every eight persons on the of the earth, he described this as ‘one small step for a man and one giant leap for mankind’.

Dream Big

To grow your life and grow your business you need to dream big. In 1961, US president John F Kennedy’s goal of sending an American to the moon was an ambitious one. You have big ideas you have been playing with for many years. Right there in your imagination, you have created the products, written the books and grown the business idea. Despite the planning, anticipation and excitement, when the time comes for you to take action, you freeze. You remain immobile and the opportunity passes you by. Time and time again you hesitate at the point where action is needed. How do you go about building the industry changing Business Empire you have in your head?

Take small Manageable Steps

The key to your success as an entrepreneur is to dream big and then take small manageable steps in the direction of your dream. Dream big, but start small. There is no room in your imagination for small dreams. Yes you may be running a small business right now, but think of that as one of the small steps in realising your big dream. What small next step can you take today to bring you closer to the dream enterprise or the dream job that keeps you awake at night?

There is only one obstacle in the way of achieving your dreams…YOU! Get out of your own way! Dream BIG and dare to fail! 

Experiment with small Steps

Dream big, start small and be willing to experiment with your small steps. Every experiment carries with it a risk of failure and very few adults want to fail. Our education and upbringing has thought us to avoid failure and so as adults we remain rooted in the same dull, boring and unproductive job for years because we are uncertain of the outcome of our next move. A small step affords you the privilege of failing forward and makes each unsuccessful attempt at change, growth or expansion a chance to learn what works and what does not work at little financial cost.

In my career as a businessperson, I have taken several small steps and none of it resulted in my being disqualified from the race. While working as a consultant some year’s back, I got together with some of my friends and we felt the next logical step was to start our own consultancy company. We all contributed money, started the company and employed a manager to run it. We had big dreams and we started small. After a year and a half of not making much money, we closed the place down and I moved on to my next experiment. So dream big and start with small manageable steps.

Ten small steps you can take today to bring you closer to your dream.

  1. Make that long planned phone call to that person.
  2. Submit that business proposal even if you think it makes no sense.
  3. Ask that person for help today.
  4. Do something different with your evening rather than spend it online watching movies.
  5. Apply for that job
  6. Sign up for that webinar
  7. Get out of bed early and get to work on time.
  8. Work on your book project today.
  9. Read that book
  10. Speak your mind at that meeting today.

Why not spend time today, think of the little things you can do to take you closer to your dream and then do it.

Lessons from the Pickle’s Puncture

The Pickle's Puncture
Or could it be that,
We’ve become so conditioned to our current pleasure,
We so much enjoy our daily leisure,
The toil a constant life feature,
That the thirst for a new challenge is nothing to treasure.

 

Ever so often, our minds face the challenge of a re-capture,
Suddenly expectations suffer the pickle of a puncture,
Again a circumstance has pressured us into growth and to mature.

 

It is more about the lessons we learn,
From the challenges we are faced with and the good fortune from the achievements.
Remaining number one, is more challenging than gaining the coveted spot.
Defending a championship is often tougher than attaining the championship crown.

 

Even in our daily lives, at work, in academics, in business, as professionals, how often do we maintain focus on the benchmark against the competition, how do we measure against the chart of self improvement or at the basic level where are we in February against those self-proclaimed New Year standards.

 

The lesson from the pickle’s puncture may be a stimulating experience which we actively desire to re-live, but it may also be a jolt back to reality from a painful experience which we would prefer if it had not happened.

 

Nature serves us doses of both stimulating and painful experiences through life. It is easier to imagine that those held by society as successful in any endeavour had it all easy and rosy, a close encounter with the same people would soon challenge you to higher heights; you learn that investors lose on some investments within their portfolio, though the star investments make-up for the loses. Not all movies by today’s Oscar winning producer or famous actor was received with the wide public acclaim reserved for block busters. The Olympic golden athlete lost in some competitions, the high flying CEO was not the chosen candidate for some lesser roles in the past.

 

The empowering lessons learnt through life’s journey from the pickle’s puncture  makes the difference to the future if we apply ourselves to the inherent lessons.

 

So rather than focus on the circumstance, whether stimulating or painful, gain strength from the lessons learnt.

Your Growth is in the New

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” – Walt Disney

The beginning of Spring presents you an opportunity to get rid of some of the clutter on your desk, in your wardrobe and in your life. This can be really tough as you are often hunted with the thought that you might need what you have just thrown away. But then in the process of de-cluttering you just might uncover some hidden gem that has gotten buried under your pile of stuff.

Not only are gems buried under clutter, a clear out also gives you the perfect excuse to acquire something new. Now you don’t need to explain to your spouse the reason for your investment in new clothes, new shoes or a new gadget. You simply exchanged the old and unused for the new and useful. Your acquisitions have brought an increase or growth in your possessions. Old things discarded did not bring a decrease in your life because you weren’t using them anyway, but new things almost always bring growth and increase.

In the depressed world economy of today, where is your growth and increase coming from? Here is my list of 20 new things that can grow, increase and propel your life to the next level.

20 New Things To Bring Growth and Increase Into Your Life.

  • New skills you learn
  • New goals you set
  • New mindsets you develop
  • New relationships you make.
  • New conversations you have with yourself
  • New commitments you make to yourself
  • New customers you acquire
  • New products you release
  • New books you read
  • New books you write
  • New places you visit
  • New people you meet
  • New ways of relating with old friends
  • New ways of looking at old problems
  • New songs you sing
  • New songs you write
  • New frontiers you explore
  • New heights you climb
  • New challenges you overcome
  • New businesses you start

Now you have an opportunity to get bigger, become better and open up new streams of income. Start something new today.