What Price Are You Willing To Pay For Success?

What is the price of success?  Or more specifically, what price tag do you see attached to your success? All those dreams, passions, and goals you’ve targeted.  How much are you willing to pay to have them become a part of your reality?

That new car you’ve had you’re eye on?  They just raised the price by five percent.  But it’s your dream car, with the latest in technology, it’s got great fuel economy, and has all the creature comforts you want.  Yeah, you really want it. Would you let the five percent increase stand in your way?

While the decision on the car might be pretty easy to make (you’ll buy it, of course), so many times we put our goals out there just a little beyond immediate reach.  It’s human nature, really.  We’re here, today, and those dreams and goals are “out there.”  We see ourselves in the space of not having the great career, or the relationship we really want.  And there’s a sometimes foggy path to the place where it belongs to us.  What we have to cross is the great divide between not having and having.

The Strive To Arrive

You’re probably almost sick of hearing about goals.   It’s been hammered into your brain so many times for so long that you probably zone out when someone starts to talk about it.  So we’ll skip that here.  Because what you really need to do is look at that space between not having and having.   After all, that’s where you’ll actually be creating what it is that you want.

You’ve probably also been told to stay focused on your goal, to “keep your eye on the prize.”  But maybe that isn’t the best advice, after all.  Because you are here.  And your goal is way, way out there.  Sure, you have to know your ultimate destination.  But you’ve also got to have waypoints along the way.

Making Arriving Easier

Another goal-setting suggestion that’s commonly heard is to break the goal down into smaller parts.  Chunking, eating the elephant one bite at a time, and other terms describe this approach to achieving your goals.  It’s a much better way to go, but it still may leave the actual process less than clear.  What exactly is a chunk?  How big a bite of the elephant should you take?

This is something that I realized a long time ago, and it’s been a part of my own planning and goaling process for as long as I can remember.  However, it wasn’t until recently that I came across a thorough explanation of it.  Author Michael Alden, in “5% More: Making Small Changes To Achieve Extraordinary Results,” makes a clear case how striving for just five percent more is not only the best way to work towards your goals, it’s also the easiest.

He also points out that the principle can be applied to almost any goal.  Weight loss?  Exercise five percent longer than you normally do.  Want to write a book?  Write five percent of it per month.  Looking for a higher paying position?  Increase your job search time/effort by five percent.

Using examples from sports, business, and personal life, Michael proves beyond a doubt that small, steady efforts are a sure way to reach your goals.  So look again at your own goals, dreams, and passions.  Whatever you are doing now to achieve them, just increase it by five percent.  And start counting down to your arrival at that future time that will no longer be a vague destination.

 

 

 

 

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