Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Maintain your strategic focus with one word

I wrote previously that there are 7 key areas in life where a person can strive to become successful. Here they are again, along with a word that represents the success secret in that area:
  • Finance: To be revealed soon
  • Health: Choose
  • Spirituality: Seek
  • Love relationships: Share
  • Social life: Support
  • Family: Serve
  • Career: Create
Why use one word to capture the success principle or strategy in those areas?

Well, because success in anything depends on 1. clarity, and 2. execution.

Clarity refers to your objective or goal or what you're aiming for. Execution refers to doing the right things in the right way to accomplish your goal.

Take the career arena, for instance. From my perspective, if you're not creating something every day that you're proud of, then you don't have a career. Having a job, even if you've held it for 10 years, does not constitute a career.

A career is about building a body of knowledge, skills and tangible objects or projects that you are proud of.

So it makes sense to use the word "create" to summarize, in one word, the essence of one's strategic focus in order to succeed in the career arena.

Of course, you can choose a different word, one that resonates with you. For example, a person can use the word "shine" to remind herself of the strategic focus she must maintain in order to succeed in her career as a, say, actress.

Same thing with the Social Life arena. If you want to have lots of friends, then be a SUPPORTIVE person. Encourage others. Guide them or motivate them or give them resources so they can achieve their goals.

I will write more about the other areas.