The Success Manual

It is almost impossible to plan the precise route from start to finish.  Often, vital information is needed, and that information will not be obtained until you are well on the way.  What is important is that you do your best to draft your definite Plan and then just START!  And, your plan must be flexible.  As you gather information along the path to the Goal, your plan must be able to accommodate the changes, revisions and detours that are inevitable.  Don’t make your plan rigid, for if it is off the mark, you will miss your Goal.

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Success Key: S.M.A.R.T Goal Achievement Method – Part 4: ATTAINABLE

In our last post on the S.M.A.R.T Goal Achievement Method, we concluded our examination of the “M” element – MEASURABILITY.  As a quick refresher, Measurability means:

1. Being capable of measuring your progress as you work towards your Goal (i.e., your Goal must be Specific enough – the “S” – so that at any point in time anyone may objectively determine whether or not the Goal has been achieved),
2. Implementing a system capable of periodically measuring your progress towards your Goal,
3. Effectively using your system of measuring your progress towards your Goal, thereby collecting valuable information as to your progress and, if you are not progressing towards the Goal, WHY NOT, and
4. In response to the information collected through your progress measuring system, taking appropriate remedial or corrective ACTION (or, as Anthony Robbins would say, “MASSIVE ACTION”) that will bring you closer to achieving your Goal, with the ACTION comprising both speed/efficiency and/or direction towards the Goal.

In other words, by implementing and using an effective progress measurement system, you obtain the necessary and crucial FEEDBACK that advises you as to whether you or on course to reaching your goal, and if not, why not.  In order to reach your Goal – whatever it may be – you absolutely must be able to measure your progress and determine what remedial measures must be taken to keep you on track to attaining your objective.

Today, we will take up discussion of the “A” element of S.M.A.R.T: ATTAINABILITY.

Actually, in my opinion, the “A” element of the SMART acronym is a bit of a misnomer.  As we explained in our first SMART post, SMART stands for:

1. Specific
2. Measurable
3. Attainable
4. Realistic
5. Timely

At first blush, it would seem that “Attainable” and “Realistic” would mean the same thing (or at least I thought so).  That is, according to the acronym, the Goal must be Attainable and it must be Realistic.  What’s the difference?

The difference is this: Attainable, in this sense, means that you have (or will develop) the attitudes, abilities and definite plans for attaining your Goal.  The emphasis here, however, is on the “definite plan” portion.  You cannot attain a Goal or achieve Success without Definiteness of Purpose and Definiteness of Plan.

Attainability: Plan, Execute, Evaluate, Adjust, Achieve.

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In Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, the element of Definiteness of Plan is emphasized consistently throughout the book.  In fact, a whole chapter is devoted to it: Organized Planning.  In that chapter, Hill states the following as to the planning process (yes, it is a continuous PROCESS throughout the entire Goal pursuit period.  Plans are not rigid; they must be flexible, malleable and adjustable based on the feedback received from your Goal progress measurement system):

If the first plan which you adopt does not work successfully, replace it with a new plan, if this new plan fails to work, replace it, in turn with still another, and so on, until you find a plan which does work.  Right here is the point at which the majority of men meet with failure, because of their lack of Persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.

The most intelligent man living cannot succeed in accumulating money – nor in any other under-taking without plans that are practical and workable.  Just keep this fact in mind, and remember when your plans fail, that temporary defeat is not permanent failure.  It may only mean that your plans have not been sound.  Build other plans.  Start all over again.

Thomas A. Edison “failed” ten thousand times before he perfected the incandescent electric light bulb.  That is – he met with temporary defeat ten thousand times, before his efforts were crowned with Success.

Temporary defeat should mean only one thing, the certain knowledge that there is something wrong with your plan.  Millions of men go through life in misery and poverty, because they lack a sound plan through which to accumulate a fortune.

 And, then, Hill offers this advice:

Your achievement can be no greater than your Plans are sound.  That may seem to be an axiomatic statement, but it is true.  And, no man is ever whipped, until he Quits – in his own mind.

 But, how do we form our Plan?  Answer: In the Creative Imagination.

Returning once again to Think and Grow Rich, Hill states the following in the chapter titled Imagination:

Read the entire book through, then come back to this chapter, and begin at once to put your imagination to work on the building of a plan, or plans, for the transformation of your Desire into money.  Detailed instructions for the building of plans have been given in almost every chapter.  Carry out the instructions best suited to your needs, reduce your plan to writing, if you have not already done so.  The moment you complete this, you will have Definitely given concrete form to the intangible Desire.  Read the preceding sentence once more.  Read it aloud, very slowly, and as you do so, remember that the moment you reduce the statement of your desire, and a plan for its realization, to writing, you have actually taken the first of a series of steps, which will enable you to convert the thought into its physical counterpart.

What is highly critical to the planning process is to keep in mind the following:

1. It is almost impossible to plan the precise route from start to finish.  Often, vital information is needed, and that information will not be obtained until you are well on the way.  What is important is that you do your best to draft your definite Plan and then just START!
2. Your plan must be flexible.  As you gather information along the path to the Goal, your plan must be able to accommodate the changes, revisions and detours that are inevitable.  Don’t make your plan rigid, for if it is off the mark, you will miss your Goal.

Many times, we just need to start without the precise plan.  What?  Did I just contradict myself?  No.  Sometimes it takes IMMEDIATE MASSIVE ACTION to get matters in motion so that we can acquire the knowledge, awareness and understanding to seed our Creative Intelligence with starting points to develop.

Whatever the case may be, NEVER let the “HOW” stop you.  In the parlance of mentoring under Bob Proctor, this was known as surrendering your “Y” for the “HOW.”  In other words, we live in an “X” world, but we come up with a new, out-of-the-box “Y” idea – an ambitious Goal beyond what we have ever achieved before.  Yet, we have no idea “how” to achieve the “Y.”  We lack the requisite knowledge, awareness and understanding to achieve “Y.”

This is where the vast majority of people stop.  They want “Y” (for example, to earn a million dollars in one year), but they don’t know HOW to do it, so they stop before they even try.  Well, guess what?  If they KNEW how to do “Y,” they would have already achieved it!

In these cases, the most important thing is to just start.  You don’t have to know HOW you are going to earn that million dollars this year.  The main point is to make the “Y” your passionate Desire and get going.  Use your God-give abilities to start thinking.  Take in all that you learn, develop that specialized knowledge, open the Creative juices, connect with God – the all powerful, Infinite Creative Intelligence.  Ideas will begin t formulate.  Study them.  Present them to your Master Mind Group.  Revise.  Adjust.  Keep going.

And, don’t dictate to God; let God bring forth to and through you.

And, don’t Quit.

Until next time, Peace my Friend, and - Namaste!

To your Health, Wealth, Prosperity and Success,

The Success Manual Team

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