Unfortunately, many people go through life without ever identifying what they want, where they want to go, or who they want to become. They wonder why they feel frustrated, never achieving anything significant. What they should realize is that the difficulty is in finding something you've never visualized, or returning from somewhere you've never been. People who have no goals, have no direction. They are almost always very busy, but rarely achieve what they want to achieve.

The "I bought a boat" Theory of Taking Action One Step at a Time

A friend passed along that her first boss and mentor tells a terrific story that illustrates the power of taking action one step at a time. Prior to their work together, he was the general manager of a yacht sales dealership and his typical customer would purchase new yachts and other boats for $1 million dollars or more.

He tells the story this way:

In Jack Canfield's book, The Success Principles, he tells the story of a seminar where he held a $100 bill in the air and asked the audience, "Who wants this $100 bill?"

It's not like they suddenly discovered that they were going to have thousands of hours of free time on their hands that needed to be filled. Yet here they were, on the verge of one of those key life moments, looking ready, excited, a little stressed, and a bit uncertain, all at the same time. And I knew exactly how they felt because 15 years earlier I was sitting right where they were. Their lives were about to change.

In "How to Become CEO. The Rules for Rising to the Top of Any Organization," author Jeffrey J. Fox expands on 75 factors to help a person become the head honcho, the top banana, the big cheese, the boss. I've selected 21 from Fox's list to highlight (with a combination of Fox's writings and my own comments):

1.  Don't Expect the Personnel Department to Plan Your Career - Human Resource departments do not have a grand plan for you. Your career growth is your responsibility, and no one else's.

2.  Get and Keep Customers - Why do so few people really work to get and keep customers? Because dealing with customers is tough. But to know your customers is to know your competition, and often your company's future.   

3.  Keep Physically Fit - Ninety percent of all people climbing the corporate ladder are out of shape. Being fit will give you the energy and motivation to succeed.

4.  Do Something Hard and Lonely - Do something that you know very few other people are willing to do. All great and successful athletes remember the endless hours of seemingly unrewarded toil. So do CEOs.

A month into the New Year already. Are you rolling? Are you on your way to making 2010 truly better than 2009?

The start of a new year is always a great time to reflect back and plan forward. Here are some great questions to springboard that thinking. Remember, you're more likely to achieve something if you plan for it and write it down, so ... get your pens ready! Here goes:

Last time, in Part 1, we discussed the importance of having a purpose for your life, and we related it to many of the same reasons that a company has a vision. Just as an organization's vision acts as a statement of potential and a description of what it wants to become, a personal purpose statement gives shape and direction to your life. Conversely, not knowing where you want to go or how to get there is not a very effective way to live purposefully.
 
Now that you understand how important it is to live purposefully, you’ll want to get started, so here are some steps to get you moving in the right direction.

"Hi, my name's Kevin. So...what's your purpose?", I ask. "What? Wow, Kevin, where did that come from?", you respond. I know, I know. There are so many things to do. You're so busy it seems that you barely have enough time to breath, let alone think about something as seemingly abstract and elusive as what you want to do with your life. Plus, there's plenty of time for that later, right? Well, not really.

In this book, the author takes a contrarian view about how people attain high levels of success. He contends that certainly, although skills, knowledge and a lot of hard work are required, success is also greatly influenced by one's "ecology". Essentially, that we must look beyond individual merit, to areas such as one's friends and family, what a person's parents did for a living, one's upbringing, community, even birthplace and cultural legacies.

I have always felt that one of the most important skill-sets that a person can have is the ability to set goals and achieve them. Goals are essential for establishing direction, defining actions, and measuring progress. Similarly, it is critical that businesses be able to plan and execute.