The virtuous Cycle of Achievement

There is a cycle that is evident in the lives of all the super achievers. It is not a vicious cycle of failure, despair, distress and more of the same. It is a magnificent process that winners keep going through. This cycle is presented below.
DESIRE
The glorious march from slavery to liberty, from poverty to riches, from failure to success and from one level of success to another level is always presaged by one phenomenon. This phenomenon is what we will call CREATIVE DISCONTENT. It is a simmering dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs that makes people restless on the inside. It is this restlessness that gives birth to a desire to succeed.
All great achievements and actions with far reaching consequences begin with a desire. Desire is the fuel that propels a man forward like a juggernaut. It is the force that catapults a man beyond the point of return. A man with a desire is like a keg of dynamite in a bonfire. Such a man is simply unstoppable. It does not matter whether the agenda is as wicked and nefarious as Hitler’s or as honorable and selfless as Mother Theresa’s, a burning desire will carry a man across the boundaries of achievements that most mortal man can only dream of. The people of fiery desires find their way to the top even if they meet with opposition along the way. The simple truth is that most people never achieve much because they never desired much in the first place. There is a sense in which people can be likened to volcanoes. The person without a desire is like a dormant or sleeping volcano. He has the potential to erupt with devastating effects but his impact is never felt because he is dormant. Unfortunately most people live and die this way. The second type is the active volcano.
Desire is not something that can be given by one person to another.
Describe
The next step in the virtuous cycle is to describe succinctly and elaborately what you desire. What is it exactly that you desire? What does su Whatever, it is that you desire you must take a notebook and describe a vivid picture of what it looks like. This helps clarify and fortify your desire. Describe the theatre of your dreams. In this respect the pictures book can also be very handy. Regale yourself with the images from the future. You can never reach a destination that you have not first seen in your mind’s eye. A vivid description also serves as a compass pointing you to the direction in which you must go. It will protect you from mirages that taunt and tease you along the way, and deliver you from the counterfeits that present themselves as substitutes. Above all, it will tell you when you have reached your desired habitation.
Decide
Desire and description must be followed by a firm decision. The decision about who you want to be or become; what you want to have or own has already been made during the description phase. In this phase there are two critical decisions to make.
The first decision that you must make is to decide to lead your life boldly into a brave new world. Most people abdicate the leadership seat of their lives and cede the power of attorney to the circumstances. Great achievers muster all their faculties. They reign over their lives. They have a firm and resolute decision to preside as captains over their souls. They have a strong internal locus of control. In order to rebound from your current predicament to a higher level; it is imperative that you make this decision. The future is there for the taking, and the person with a resolute decision about the brave new world that he seeks stands at a vantage point.
The second decision you need to make is about the price you are prepared to pay for the success. Success, real unadulterated success comes at a premium. The price for success must always be paid in full. There are no bargains. The price that you are prepared to pay for you to attain your goals is a measure of your commitment. For most people success comes when they have reached a point where they are prepared to pay all there is to pay. It is at this point of no return that the situation normally turns around and begins to favor the man of resolve. The price for success in any endeavor is spelt COMMITMENT and this is non-negotiable.
For Julius Caesar the moment of decision was at the Rubicon. For as long as he stood on the legal side of the stream, he was standing on the threshold of great new possibilities. He had to decide whether he wanted to boldly lead his life and those of his troops into a brave new world. He also had to decide what price he was prepared to pay. Crossing the Rubicon meant he would not be returning to Rome in honor and triumph, but as a rebel and a state enemy. As in any war there were no givens. He could have lost the war and be banished or executed. He had to decide whether he was prepared to face all these possible consequences. And decide he did. It was at this point that he uttered the famous words, “We may still have to draw back, but once across that bridge we shall have to fight it out.” Every super achiever and every one who desires to rebound to great heights will have to face his or her own Rubicon.
Plan
Intelligent action proceeds from an intelligent strategy and plan of action. Therefore the fourth phase of the virtuous cycle is the Planning Phase. In this phase one must plan his course the way a pilot plans his flight.
Every pilot has a detailed Flight Plan. The flight plan spells out all the necessary details. It reveals the planned departing time, the different altitudes to be used at the different stages of the flight and the speed, the direction, the stopovers, the times, the destination and the time of arrival. Flying a plane is considered serious business that is why efforts are made to draw up flight plans. Like wise, the business of living is so important that it should not be approached without a serious flight plan.
The flight plans should be done at different levels and they must dovetail neatly into the vision. There must be the long-term plan covering a ten year outlook period and beyond. This must be supported by medium term plan and yearly plans. The yearly plan should itself be made up of the monthly plan, the weekly plan and daily plan. Never start a month without a monthly plan, complete with timetables and resource allocation plans. The monthly plan should answer the following questions:
What do I intend to achieve this month?How do I intend to achieve it?What actions should I take?When should I do what?What resources do I need and in what quantities?Where am I going to get these resources?Is there another way of achieving the same objectives? If yes, what is it? If no, can I invent a new way?Where do I need assistance?Who can assist me?When and how am I going to request for assistance?
If answered honestly and thoroughly these questions can form a frame- work upon which a monthly plan can be built. Answers from these questions can be used to draw up the weekly plans and the daily blue print. The important thing is never to start a day or a week without a blueprint. Everyday, every week, every month and every year take quality time to review your progress and make the necessary adjustments.
Declaration of Intend
With the flight plan in place, the next phase is to make known your intentions. This is the declaration of intend. Let your intentions be published. Let all the relevant people know what your determination is. When Caesar shouted, “Let the dice fly high!” he was making known his intentions. Upon becoming prime minister of Britain in 1940 at the height of the Second World War, Winston Churchill made his intentions clear when he told the House of Commons, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat…. You ask what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us. You ask, What is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory-victory at all costs, victory in spite of terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be.”
Declaring your intentions binds you to your chosen course of action. Once your intentions are in the public domain your reputation is at stake. If you do not do what you declared that you were going to do, you make yourself a liar and you savage your own reputation. Declaring your intention is therefore an accountability mechanism. Declarations of intend are not acts of arrogance. They are actually dynamos that generate power for action. It is a war cry. The truth is that intentions that are not declared publicly are rarely pursued and achieved.
ACT
All the preceding steps have been building up to this one. MASSIVE ACTION. After the declaration of intend a roll out of massive action must follow. Begin where you are and begin now. Action is now and not tomorrow. Never put off until tomorrow what can be done today. Everyday take action towards your goal. Whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your mighty. Spare no effort, and spare no sweat. Act with confidence, and act with passion.
Engage the heavens, engage people and engage yourself and engage everything that can be engaged. Act confidently, act boldly and act with conviction. After all the action, act again. After you have done all that is in your power, be assured of this one fact-You still have not done all in your power. There is still much more that you can do. When you have finished all that you know to do, look for new ways that you do not know yet and implement them. Let the critics, if there be any, sharpen your discernment but do not allow their hyperbole to dissuade you from the course of action. Rest, if you may, but do not throw in the towel. Live your life with a keen bias for action, for it is from action that results are born.
Remember this, there is no achievement without action. Disengagement from action is departure from the road of success.
Review
As you act keep reviewing your results to check whether they are consistent with the expected outcomes. Is there a good alignment between your results and your goals? If need be take corrective action. The review process should usher you into a new loop of the virtuous cycle.
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