12 January 2012
This is a time of year when many of us will have set new year resolutions. As aspirational goals, they are fine, but how many will be achieved? Resolutions are like many business targets that we set, or have set for us. Sure, we use all the right language – we make them SMART goals and so on – but what is the difference between success and failure?
Talent has a place in the makeup, as does skill and experience, some of which will have come from training. Effort will also play a big part because anything worth doing involves work to get there.
But there is another ingredient, one that doesn’t get too much coverage. I am indebted to one Bobby Unser for switching on this particular light bulb for me. Now, unless you are an American, the name Unser may not mean much, but the Unser family are one of the great, possibly the greatest, motor racing dynasties in the world. Among their many achievements, three members of the family have racked up an amazing nine wins in the Indianapolis 500 between 1968 and 1994.
The Unsers know what makes a winner and Bobby said that it was desire that made the difference. That is more than just wanting to succeed – it is the driving force that will turn wanting into winning. Desire is the thing that will make the difference as to whether or not your resolutions, or your business objectives,
come to fruition.
So if your targets are your own resolutions, make them something that you really do want and be prepared to fight for and make sacrifices in order to achieve them. It is that desire that
will produce the work that
will drive you there and to overcome whatever obstacles present themselves.
If it is a business target
you may not have the freedom
of choice as to the goal that
you are set, but you need
to generate that same desire
to achieve it and, if you are
a leader, then you are going to need to impart that desire to others – to inspire and motivate them to want to succeed as much as you do.
So no matter what goals you have set for yourself, or have had set for you in 2012, make it your heart’s desire to hit those marks. I wish you every success in doing so and, of course, a very happy New Year.
John Bowen is an FM consultant
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