In this week’s Monday MondayMotivator,
Everybody wants success NOW!
Like they want everything else: instant coffee, instant internet downloads, instant results!
Things keep speeding up in this hi-tech world, and yes, things will get even more instant, but instant success – it’s a myth.
But let’s back up. Some people have an easier time celebrating their victories and accomplishments than others. Others push themselves to the limit for results and are too hard on themselves.
A disproportionate number of people tend to discount all the positive things they’re accomplishing now. By all means, celebrate your successes of the past years and the accomplishment of those goals that you set for yourself, but real success is what is happening NOW. Not what has happened.
Success is an ongoing function that drives you.
If you feel like you are not experiencing success, no matter how small, you are not going anywhere. It’s going somewhere that makes sense of this universe.
There is a vague philosophy amongst educationalists, parents, and employers that if someone has erred in their work or behaviour, pointing out their deficiency and correcting them is the right thing to do.
This philosophy has been proven wrong time and again. Pointing out the good things people do and the things you want them to do prompts them to do more of those things, which leads to more positive behaviour.
The lesson here is that too many people indulge in what they don’t want from others instead of focusing on what they do want.
Sidenote: If you want others to become more successful, encourage them to plan their success instead of pushing them for NOW results.
To avoid the old hackneyed proverb, “Everything comes to him who waits,” it would be better to quote comedian Jonathan Winters. Winters has always had a manic element to his humour and once remarked, “I couldn’t wait for success… so I went ahead without it.”
We must encourage those on the journey to success and help them when they fall. I am a great subscriber to the ‘sandwich approach’ to performance or behaviour improvement. That is praise first, correct errors and then praise again.
I’m going to pause here and explore this over the next few weeks because I wrote a lot more on this subject, and I think it’s better to spread it out.
