Open your mind

Understanding who you are, your strengths and weaknesses, will aid you in your journey to success. If you are honest about it.

When I talk about things I might compare them to online situations but in truth, these things can be applied to many aspects of our lives. I prefer tactics that work in more than one place.

If you understand who you “really” are, and you realize to reach goals it takes discipline and ambition…how can those two be applied? They do actually work together. Let’s look at a common non-blogging example.

In college (undergrad and Master’s) I “knew” my personality. I was excited when a class started but about halfway through I was bored to tears, ready to move on to the next thing. The pain was excruciating if I already knew the material. I knew that my grades would drop because I was bored. Irresponsible I realize but hey, I’m being honest here. So what did I do about it? I used my strength…I sprinted.

In the beginning while excited, I looked at the syllabus to see what could be completed early. Usually I would have about 80% of the work done by the third week of class which, ironically, is when my interest would start to decline. While everyone else worked on assignments as they were due, I was coasting through the end of the class. I would be editing a paper while everyone else was writing it. Because I already digested the material I had better insight to problem areas. It worked, I graduated with honors for undergrad and my Master’s thesis was chosen as the best of the class by my peers. Would that same strategy work for me now? No, because school in general would not work for me now. I don’t want the structured commitment – and realizing that it would be unwise for me to enroll or enter into a arrangement where I would be confined to doing something that requires a strong commitment and set times when tasks would have to be completed. At this point in my life I value hard work and flexibility. May as well be honest about it right?

See, it ties together nicely sometimes.

Technically, I did a mini-sprint in the middle of a long-distance race but the balance worked out in the end. I sprinted in the beginning and coasted in the end, giving me the ability to sprint again if needed.

Most people don’t do that unfortunately. Flipping back to online examples how many times have you seen someone jump into a blog, a business, a partnership or even a social site with enthusiasm that excites people, only to see them spent a couple of months down the road, enthusiasm drained? How many sites are on the web that promised daily content and they do not update daily? What went wrong? Many times, unrealistic expectations and goals throws the best made plans awry. I think these people had the best intentions, just unrealistic goals.

How do you counter that? How do you improve upon that? What can you do to make sure that doesn’t happen to you? It would suck if you didn’t have the endurance to get that man/woman you wanted, the promotion you think you deserve or maintain the success you achieved. What can you do?

Well, most times it boils down to one principle thing: your frame of mind.

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