Dreams, goals and systems
How can I make this world better? That is a dream and a grand dream at that. How can I make a difference? This time to make a difference is a dream in a less grander scale. I need to meet certain goals in order to achieve this.
How do I become a public speaker one day and inspire people? This question for me poses as a personal goal that could make a difference and hopefully change the country and community and that would be a realization of a dream. There are certain things I need to do to make this happen.
I cannot just talk about it, set goals and dream about it. I need to roll up my sleeves and start doing things. Successful people do not wish that one day they will instantly be successful. They start training themselves today so that eventually they will become successful.
This is why we need to have a system and not just goals. When the goal(s) is achieved, perhaps we see the realization of our dreams coming true because of the system that was in place. There is plenty of work to be done. Let me explain. It has taken me years to realize this. I read books. I attend seminars. I ask questions. I consult experts. I take plenty of “think time” to gather my thoughts. I present my thoughts to my very talented daughter and assistant, Rachel, who convert them into beautiful pictures, graphs, and slides. Then I go through the material refining it, polishing it, internalizing it until it becomes a part of me.
In other words, I spend a great deal of my time sticking to all the activities that are related towards making me better as a trainer and a speaker. These things that I do on a regular basis are neither dreams nor goals, they are all actions and are part of a system.
I do these repetitively so I achieve incremental success. I keep at it and I do not stop no matter what the circumstance. These activities are components of a system I work on every day. Now here is my question, Isn’t this supposed to be the way you master your craft or the way businesses are supposed to run?
Systems are vital. It is what enables men and women to attain their goals and achieve their dreams.
And so here is the gist of what I want to say: Systems trump goals and dreams every time. This is the best-kept secret of successful people, and the foundational principle of successful businesses as well.
When people tell me they want to be like me, want to live with me, or work with me for a couple of months, I tell them that I work within a system and they will be bored to death. Systems can be boring. They are repetitive, predictable and may come across as overly simple and unexciting. But it is what makes me accomplish incremental success time after time. I stay faithful to it.
And if the person says he or she wants to be me, that is not a dream, that is a nightmare. You would not want to be a person outside of yourself. And as the popular quotation says: “Be Yourself. Everybody else is already taken.”
“I want to be a public speaker.” That is a dream and then they fade into the twilight because of four things: 1. They do not have a system. 2. They do not want to work hard. 3. They do not want the boredom of discipline. 4. They do not want to wait for the result coming out from a process, but they want instant success.
When you assign them books to read and things to do, some do, many don’t. They may have the desire, but they do not have a system.
Systems are not sexy. They are a routine and are boring, but they are what they are and can bring a person to the next level and get them to where they want to be.
Many goals and dreams are grandiose and exciting. They are swashbuckling and are adventurous. But they are reserved only for the people who are willing to work and get their hands dirty.
They do the monotonous, excel on the details, delve on the boring, face the repetitive and deal with the predictable until all these actions that comprise their success system one day lead them to their tipping point and bring them to their goals. This is how professionals and businesses grow and become better.
So it’s time to stop saying: “I am trying to be successful” and start saying, “I am training to be successful and have a system I will stick to.”
(Send your leaders. Bring your key people. Attend and experience two inspiring days with Francis Kong learning leadership and life skills in his widely acclaimed Level Up Leadership March 16-17 at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel. For further inquiries contact Inspire at 09158055910 or call 632-6310912 or 6310660 for details.)