Success Rule Book

Should v Fancy: Your Key Life Choice

The life you are experiencing right now, is the result of thousands of free choices you have made in the past.

Your salary, your job, your working hours are the consequence of the choices you have made in the past.

The quality of your relationships? Those are the consequence of the choices you have made in the past.

Your weight and fitness? Yep, the consequence of your past choices.

If you're not happy with your job, your salary, your weight or your relationships, then you must learn to make better choices.
Most choices boil down to a simple question. Will you do as you SHOULD do, or will you do as you FANCY?

For example, will you blow all your income each month, as you fancy, or forgo and delay expenditure - saving money, as you should?

Will you study and put in overtime to further your career? Or will you spend your time on unproductive but enjoyable activities - as you fancy?

Will you choose the tasty meal you fancy, or the healthy that one you should eat?

Examine those areas of your life with which you are dissatisfied. You will find you have failed to do what you should have done, and instead you have done as you fancied.

At the time, you rationalized your poor choices, saying to yourself "it's only temporary" and that you would do the right thing 'soon'. Only you didn't.

You told yourself that the decision was small, and didn't matter. What you fancied was harmless, and the outcome of what you should have done would have provided but a minor benefit. Yet those benefits mount up, and the harm of 'what I fancy' soon mounts up also.

It soon mounts up to a job that does not interest or stretch you, a salary far below the one you could be earning, obesity and in retirement - poverty.

The benefits of those poor choice are short-term, but their adverse affects in the long term are huge.

'It's a bad time for me to make this stressful change in behavior' people say to themselves. But for them, there will never be a good time.

If you're to become the outrageously successful, talented, and rich person you could be, you have to grow the balls to do as you SHOULD, not as you FANCY. Sure it's tough, but after a short while you start to get the pay-off

In an ideal world you would fancy doing what you should be doing.

Back to the real world, life doesn't work like that. We all have things we would LIKE to do, that are at odds with what we SHOULD do. And vica versa.

A key trait of the successful is they do what they SHOULD, not what they FANCY, even though short-term this is not in their interests. They study or work, rather than socialize with friends. They save, rather than spend all their salary each month. They go to the gym, rather than watch TV.

Now some of the successful actually like the good activities. What they ought to do, and what they fancy doing are in close alignment. However most successful people don't like their successful actions anymore than you would.

Those thin toned gym-goers? Most dislike the hassle of going to the gym.

The committed workers who are on top of their game - and still in the office at 8pm? They don't want to be there.

The academically successful? They would rather be out drinking and socializing with their friends than studying and doing boring assignments.

Most MBAs, CPAs, ACCAs loathed their studying to get that qualification. I have yet to meet an ACCA who doesn't hate with a passion the study they had to do to pass their ACCA exams.

The point is that the successful hate doing as they ought almost as much as you would. But they knuckle down and do it, despite all that.

For a long time now you have, like most of the population, picked what you fancied, over what you should do. And you are suffering the consequences right now.

Looking forward, you're not where you want to be.

You know where you want to get to.

You know what you should do.

Learn from your past mistakes. From now on, choose to do more of what you should, and less of what you fancy. It will get you where you want to be. Wealth, enjoyment, health and freedom are worth their price.

So what choice will you make - SHOULD or FANCY?

Motivation For Those Working Late

Sometimes you have to work late. This post is for those times.

But No-one Else is Still Working!

That says more about them than it does about you.

You're willing to go the extra mile, they're not. It's that simple.

You're willing to get things done to a better standard, and leave time to deal with unexpected problems. They're not.

You get more done than the slackers who leave on the dot of 5pm.

You have more tasks than others, because you're proactive. You're someone who looks for things you could do that would move your organization towards its goals. You're not a sheep who merely does the work you're told to do.

You understand that you are the person who best understands how and where you can add value.

Many of those whose empty desks now surround are missing their deadlines, missing their targets, failing their customers and failing to grasp countless opportunities to do a better job. You know that's true. So don't judge yourself by the hours they keep. You have higher standards.

But I'm Bored

Not everything in life is exciting. It's sometimes necessary to do things you should do, but don't fancy doing.

If you put off the work till tomorrow, it won't suddenly become more interesting. It won't suddenly disappear.

Stop whining about the task. Tackle it now, and you can get it finished. You'll then be able to move on to more interesting tasks tomorrow.

But I'm Tired!

Get yourself a caffeinated coffee, or Red Bull - now. Keep a supply of caffeine tablets in your desk.

But I Have Stuff To Do At Home!

If you REALLY wanted to do that stuff, you would have done it already.

Besides, that stuff's less important, less urgent, and less fulfilling than it seems to you right now.

It's easy to say 'if I weren't here, I'd be at home and I would get x, y and z done'. In truth, you probably wouldn't.

I Fancy A Break!

Then take one. A short one. Then get back to the work.

End Thought

You're here for a reason. To get that task done. It's been sitting on your to-do list far too long. Now is the time for you to take action.

Just imagine the outcome of your work, what you will have achieved, what you'll be free to move on to do next. Soon you'll have finished the tasks at hand, and tomorrow you'll have forgotten the hardship of this hour.

You can complete that task today. You should complete that task today.

Now do it. Get to work.

What Are You Willing To Sacrifice?

Do you want to avoid work that's difficult, tiring, stressful or boring in favor of the easy, relaxing and interesting work?

Well, of course you do. So does everybody else.

Most people choose the easy path, the one that avoids voluntary study, working late, coming in early, applying self-discipline, and seeking new challenges that force growth. Instead they spend their spare time watching TV, socializing with friends and going to the gym.

Of course there's nothing wrong with that. It's their life to live as they choose. Or to waste.

Those who take the easy path would like the extraordinary life, the big house, a great salary, a thin and toned body and a job where they get to do what interests them. But they aren't willing to make any meaningful sacrifices to get it. So they unwittingly push their dreams out of reach, and forgo their potential.

It's such a waste. By sacrificing just some of their time outside work, watching a little less TV, spending a little less time socializing, they could have radically improved their life. They had a dream life that waiting for them, just there for the taking. But as they continually neglect the pursuit of their dreams, those dreams edge out of reach, leaving a mediocre life that's comfortable, but one tenth of what it could have been. A life that's merely 'okay'.

Are you making the same mistake? Are you betraying yourself and your potential?

Here's how to tell. In the past year, how many times have you come in an hour early for work, or worked past 8pm? How many hundreds of hours have you spent voluntarily learning new skills and gaining new knowledge since you finished school/college? Has your salary doubled in the past five years? Is your job more senior than it was four years ago?

If the answers are disheartening, it's time you realized that the success to which you aspire is always going to be a pipe dream, unless you buckle down and make some sacrifices.

Hell, isn't your dream worth that sacrifice?

If your not the sort of person that is willing to make significant sacrifices to make your dream life a reality, this blog isn't really suitable for you. You're not serious about success.

If you are the sort of person who says they're willing to make sacrifices, it's time I called your bluff. What are you going to give up, in order to make your dream a reality, starting from today. How much extra time will you spend each day learning new skills and gaining new knowledge? How many extra hours will you be spending at work, to get on top of your workload, speed your delivery of results, and turn the quality of your work from 'good' to 'fantastic'?

Don't be gutless, here. A sacrifice has to made, whether you like it or not. Either you're to sacrifice the big opulent house, great salary, fit sexy body and the fantastic life, you dream of having. Or you're to sacrifice things that aren't even in the same league of importance to you, things you enjoy but that don't really matter.

You've got to sacrifice one or the other. You can't have both. You will frequently kid yourself that you can, but a quick glance at your previous attempts to have both will confirm that it's not been possible. A quick calculation of the yearly cost (in time, money, etc) of your 'enjoyable activity' will show that your 'harmless' activity seriously impacts your ability to reach your desired goal, that it slows you down significantly.

Visualize the activity you'll be cutting back or giving up, and put it side by side with your dream. Which will you choose? Which matters most? You can't have both. So which will you sacrifice?

That put things in perspective. The decision of which to sacrifice is simple and it's necessary.
So, get a piece of paper, and write down the following,

By sacrificing I'll make the following goal a reality for me:
... by the following date:
To help me achieve this, I'm going to give up the following activity/past-time/hobby:
And this one:
I'm going to reclaim the following number of hours / dollars I spend on these activities each year:
I'm going to spend this much time / money learning new skills and gaining new knowledge including the following topics that will help me reach my goal:
I'm going to spend this much extra time at work:
I will put in the extra time to turn the quality of my work from 'good' to 'fantastic' on these tasks that await me:
I'm going to volunteer to do the following tasks that will stretch my abilities and force me to grow:

I'm going to make these changes, starting right now.

If you haven't got a piece of paper in front of you with the above on it, STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING, and get one RIGHT NOW. You need to commit yourself, on paper, to what you're going to do. A vague aspiration in your head (that you'll forget about) just won't cut it.

Pick up a pen, write the commitment. Then sign it. If you're committed to making the sacrifice, you'll be willing to sign a written commitment to make it. If not willing to write a simple commitment, the chances that you'll be willing to make the sacrifice are minimal. You'll just drift, continually sacrificing your opportunities to realize your dream, in favor of enjoyable time-wasting. But, hey, it's your life to fuck up.

If you haven't got a written commitment in front of you, within the next three minutes, I don't want you to ever return to this web site.

Understand Your Job

I've four questions for you to think about...

1. Why shouldn't your job be made redundant?
2. In what ways are you better than the person who would replace you (if you were fired)?
3. What are your key achievements in your job?
4. What have you done in the past month to materially improve your performance?

If you can't answer the questions convincingly, you deserve to be fired.

Stop Accepting Mediocrity

Do you spend your working life doing tasks you don't want to do, just to avoid your boss catching you out?

Most people do.

They do the bare minimum their boss will accept (or notice). All they do bares a watermark, the words "Will This Do?"

If it will, work is stopped, leaving mediocre results from the minimum amount of effort required.

Most people live their working lives to the 'what can I get away with' standard. It's pathetic, lazy and spectacularly self-defeating.

Be honest with me, and with yourself, for a moment. Wouldn't you love a big increase in salary? More control over what you do? A more responsible position where YOU call the shots? Of course you would! Hell, who wouldn't?!

So what's your game plan to get it?

If it's to do everything that's expected of you, I'm afraid you're in for disappointment.

If people got promoted for doing what was expected of them, MOST people would get promoted most of the
time. But they don't, because life doesn't work like that. Your employer takes it as read that you'll do what is expected of you. There are no brownie points in it for you.

If you want to life your dream life, you will need to do MORE than is expected of you. You must be in the business of positively surprising people.

If you work to rule, you are limiting yourself to roles similar to your current one. If you want something better, you must give more of yourself, and in the short-term not give a damn about whether your job description, salary, hours of work or job title reflect the work that you do.

Either your employer will recognize your work and reward you soon after you request it OR you will have the anecdotes, experience and bullet-points for
your Resume that you need to jump ship to an employer that will reward you.

Either way you win.

You deserve your dream life. Stop accepting mediocrity and work hard damn hard, and you will succeed at grasping the life you desire.

How to Succeed...

Fail.

Repeatedly.

Make 10,000 small failures a key goal. Not because you want to fail, but because to fail 10,000 times means you've tried 10,000 times, at least. With a willingness to learn from failure, those 10,000 times would have taught you something: How to fail reliably. By a process of elimination you would learn which actions and factors make failure less likely.

Many people see a lack of failure as a badge of pride. Many people are wrong!

A lack of failure is a badge of not having had the ambition to try, the willingness to work and the determination to overcome defeat in pursuit of excellence.

You may see Kobe Bryant or David Beckham on TV, scoring almost effortlessly from a distance. Yet what you don't see is the practice that went into building their abilities. Try to score. Fail. Try to score. Fail. Try again, fail. And so on, for hours. Practicing for years, failing often.

It's that repeated failure that forms the bedrock of their success.

How easily we forget how we learned to walk, talk, read and write. Our success did not come instantly. Instead we began each task as untalented failures, and failure after failure followed. Whilst you have long since forgotten those failures, their legacy is the very thing that ensures you can read this blog entry!

Worthy goals are so high and so difficult that we cannot help but fail repeatedly in our attempts to realize them. Each failure takes us closer to success, as long as we learn from our mistakes.
I wish you much success. So, I wish you much failure!

Go The Extra Mile

Your many skills go unused, your knowledge goes untapped and your creativity has been muzzled.

You desperately need a solution. And that solution exists. You must 'Go The Extra Mile'

'Going the extra mile' lets you get to these really important things. The things that make the difference between Mediocrity and Excellence. It's not altruistic, there's a great deal in it for you.

These tasks have the biggest pay-off, they the most difference to your life and those of others, and they utilize your skills, knowledge and creativity to the full.

Workloads often vary according to customer requirements and in-house deadlines such as promotion schedules. If you're usually busy, these temporary increases in workload will create a backlog of work. A little bit of extra work will save you the anxiety the backlog would cause you, and reduce the risk of confrontations and loss of credibility arising from missing deadlines and work delivered late, caused by the backlog.

Working a few extra hours occasionally frees up time during the working day, allowing you to cope with urgent work that may arrive. You'll be able to give your coworkers a better idea of when the work they have asked you to do will be done, as the answer will no longer be contingent on the end date of 3 or 4 more important or urgent pieces of work. The extra time in the working day helps you answer coworkers emails more quickly, and deliver on minor requests with minimal delay.

You can do what you want outside working hours. So when you work late you can ignore urgent but unimportant work, and concentrate on the non-urgent important work that gets shunted to the back of your to-do list. This non-urgent important work is often more interesting than the 'day to day' stuff that clutters you working hours.

Outside working hours you're be able to work in peace, without constant interruptions by coworkers and customers.

Being seen to work longer hours flags your commitment to your coworkers and bosses, and due to their feelings of sympathy/guilt they will tend to reduce what they demand of you, leaving you with a greater degree of autonomy.

You need not justify anything you do in your own time. So you can spend time on unrequested and speculative projects which could improve your company's products or services, or your own efficiency. You can spend time brainstorming, and engaging in 'blue sky' thinking. You can spend time on tasks and projects for which the pay-off is hard to predict, and making the business case would prove problematic.

You can spend extra time 'polishing' things. Many people spend hours researching and analyzing, leaving themselves little time to work on their PowerPoint Presentation or an Excel spreadsheet. Had they chosen to spend a little more time after work their presentation could have gone from mundane to memorable and remarkable. Half of success in business is in the presentation and communication.

Salary and Responsibilities are strongly related. If you want a good salary, you will need to gain responsibility. You will only gain responsibility within the workplace if your Boss feels you have the skills, knowledge, character and motivation required to handle any extra responsibility. In addition, they must be confident that you're coping well with your existing workload, and that the extra-responsibilities are not going to be neglected, or fulfilled at the expense of your existing work. No-one wants to delegate responsibility to someone who doesn't have the time to do the necessary work.

Volunteering to help others outside your area of action adds to your experience and understanding, but is rarely justified within the specialization-of-production / division-of-labor operated during working hours. If you do it in your own time, you don't need to justify it to your boss or others.

If you work long hours, no-one minds whether you are a bit late occasionally.

While scoffers may prefer to let work pile up and deadlines pass, I believe that do to so would be stupid and irresponsible. You cannot be a success in life if for 40 hours each week you are a failure.

Going the Extra Mile is a choice all life's winners make. And you can and must join them, and grab the great opportunities work offers you.