Steps To Take If You Must Make Your Days Count; Volume 1

There is nothing particularly special about a new year or new day except there is a new you. Albert Einstein said "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."  You cannot escape reproach and failure if you handle a new year with the same mentality and approach that you have been using in handling others.

So, for you to escape reproach and failure there are certain steps that must be observed. Some of these steps are outlined and discussed below..

Make a list of your past failures

This is very important if you are a person that is serious about being successful. By doing this, you unveil the root causes of your past mistakes, the important lessons to be learnt from them and how to avoid them in case of future occurrence. 

J.K Rowling said "It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all." 

B.F Skinner also said "A failure is not always a mistake, it's simply the best one can do under the circumstance. The real mistake is to stop trying."

Overcoming the fear of failure

The fear of failure is an emotion that is inbuilt in every human, especially when it comes to setting out on any new undertaking. We must must understand that it's absolutely impossible to succeed without experiencing some elements of failure (which is what actually makes a champion) in one way or the other.

Failure can actually be visualized as the first step toward success. Highly successful people such as J.K Rowling and Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson are always very vocal about how often they have failed and how that has shaped their success life.

The greatest example when it comes to failure is Thomas Edison. He failed more than 1000 times before he successfully created the incandescent bulb. Have you ever asked yourself what would have happened if he had given up on his dream, maybe after trying 900 times? Obviously, the world would not have recognized him today.

These few things I think helped him stayed focused during trying times..

• A clear definition of success and failure.
• Never giving up.
• He believed in himself and his ideas.

These qualities are not very cheap to find in any individual. If we must turn our so called failure into success, it's important we copy them and learn how to live with them.

Below are some few quotes that can help us to better understand Thomas Edison's way of thinking.

• "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

He viewed failure from the positive angle and saw it as the pathway to success.

• Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."

Not willing to try harder and giving up too soon has always been what has hindered many individuals from achieving their true greatness.

• "Becoming a  Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

In life any individual can achieve any goal if he/she can learn to stay focused and work hard enough. Lasting success is not cheap, it comes with a price tag.

• "It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for so many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work."

This is very true because most people only fancy the outcome of success but are not willing to pay the price.

• "We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything."

Every-time we consciously put in the required effort in making research on how to go about a particular task, the risk of failure is greatly minimized.

Have a clearly defined goal

A goal is a desired result that a person or system plans and commits to achieve. It can also be seen as an organisational end desired end point in some sort of assumed achievement.

In the book What They Don't Teach You In Harvard Business School, Mark McCormack tells of a study that was conducted in 1979 Harvard MBA Program.

The research conducted showed that only 3 percent of the graduates had written goals and plans, 13 percent had goals, but the goals were not in writing and whopping 84 percent had  no specific goals at all.

Ten years later, the members of the class were interviewed again and this was the result:

The 13 percent of the class who had goals were earning on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all. The 3 percent who had clear written goals were earning on average, ten times as much as the other 97 percent put together. Outstanding right?

Even after this proof that goals can unbelievably determine the success of any individual, most people still don't have clearly set goals.

In learning how to set clearly defined goals, I'll advice you read Brian Tracy's bestseller "Goals" where he taught how to identify the things you want out of life and how to make plans to achieve them. 

Identifying time wasters
The more you plan, the better your life and the more you accomplish. Rule: "Every minute spent in planning saves ten minutes in executing it."

Time is as important as life itself. A wise man once said that time management is life management. There never seems to be enough hours in the day. No matter how hard we work, there's always something that needs to be done. Below are some strategies we can use in eliminating time wasters:

1. Spend at least three days in writing out all that needs to be done in the next fourteen days.
2. Learn how to minimize your phone calls any and budget time for calls if possible.
3. Avoid holding unnecessary meetings or entertaining unimportant guests.
4. Learn to say no: You don't always have to say yes. Sometimes, if you find out that an activity is going to affect your schedule say no calmly and clearly. If you don't need something, be polite but your intentions should be made known.
5. Are you the type that finds it difficult to complete a particular task? All you just need do is to know your energy cycle. Find out the particular time of the day that you have most energy and plan your work within those hours. During this period you need to do all you can and eliminate all forms of distractions.
6. Identify those that are not on the same course with you and try avoiding them if possible so you can stay focused.

Avoid Procrastination

According to Wikipedia, procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task that needs to be accomplished. It's the practice of doing more pleasurable things in the place of less pleasurable ones, or carrying out less urgent task instead of more important ones thus putting off impeding task to a later time.

Sometimes procrastination takes place until the last minute before deadline.

Why Do People Procrastinate? 

Here are some of the reasons why people procrastinate: 

• Some people procrastinate because of the doubt that they cant do the job or complete the task perfectly at the specified time.
• Some others procrastinate because they find the task quite unpleasant and would rather prefer to do something else.
• People procrastinate because they find a task boring.
• Others do because it's difficult figuring out how to perform a task.

5 Steps You Must Take To Avoid Procrastination 

1. Think about the joy you will feel on the inside on the completion of that task.
2. Breakdown the task into smaller bits and figure out how to perform the task.
3. Think about the discomfort of postponing a particular task.
4. Find energy to do the required task and reward yourself for it.
5. Look for someone else to join you in carrying out the task.