Expansive Lives - "The Execution of an Expansive Life"

"The Execution of an Expansive Life"

When wanting to achieve success in any area of life it is extremely important to have a goal, which goes without question. But the question does arise, which is the most important?  The major goals or the execution of tasks we must all take to achieve those goals.

It's good to be passionate about the things we want, but often we are not as passionate about the execution of the tasks we must undertake to actually reach those desires.

As time goes by I have realised it is possible to be passionate to achieve a goal but fail because of the execution in the smaller tasks along the way.

In many goals setting workshops I have heard great emphasis on setting clear and definite goals, which I totally agree with by the way. The thing I have not heard much emphasis on is execution of tasks along the way. This is really amazing as without good execution we will often never reach the goals that we are so passionate about.

If you were a golfer your goal is to hit the ball as far and as accurately as possible. So imagine that you were a golfer and that was your goal. Firstly you would approach the ball with golf stick in hand and then hit that thing as hard as you could because this would seem the natural thing to do if you wanted to hit it as far as possible. The result of coarse would be you either you would miss the ball altogether or it would spin off into a direction that you had not planned.

At this point you may say “What went wrong. I knew my goal, I focused on where I wanted the ball to go and I also took massive action”.

The answer is that there was not enough focus on the execution of hitting the ball. If as much detail and enthusiasm went into the finer details of execution, as the goal and the action, the shot would have undoubtedly been excellent and the goal would have been reached.

There are so many instances in life where this illustration fits.

In all ball sports it is the same. The basics are to keep your eye on the ball and not on where it is going. If you keep your eye on the ball and execute well you can then look to see where the ball has gone and if the execution has been good the goal will be reached. In fact you could say that the first goal to achieve success in anything should be to execute all of the small seemingly insignificant things with excellence. If you major on doing the small things well, the bigger things will be simply a result of that.

In Australia 50% of small businesses fail within the first five years and many of those who survive after that, are only just getting by and barely bringing in wages.  It is only a very small minority that go on to produce excellent results year after year.

There could be many reasons for this although I believe that one of the major ones is the failure to execute the small things well.

Just like the golfer wanting to hit the ball a long distance, so the main reason people get into business is to make a lot of money or at least more than they did as an employee. The problem with this is that if you are always focused on the money you are destined to fail.

Even though money may be the ultimate goal, if you only focus on that you will also make wrong and emotional decisions. When tough times come the person who is focused on money will cut back on staff, order in less stock and do less advertising in fear of not being able to make significant profits. This is a typical scenario of a person focused on the ultimate goal rather than small executions.

In business there is nothing wrong with making loads of money as the ultimate goal, although, to get to that goal you must be able to break that down to know what tasks I must do with excellence to achieve that.

To create a lot of money in business the focus must be providing excellent products, service and have an ability to empower people. When things get tough the question must be asked. “How do I execute better in these areas?”  Not, “How do I make more money?”

I have also found as a share trader the best way to fail is to focus on the money, but the best way to succeed is to forget about the money and focus on the execution. If the execution is good,  the money will always follow.

In relationships if you want people to like you, don’t focus trying to get people to like you, instead focus on showing people that you like and approve of them. The result will be that you will be liked and approved of by many people.

Focusing always on the major goal is not the best way to achieve it. The best way is to discover what are the small things that I must change in my thinking or actions that will produce that. When you do finally discover what that is, execute it with excellence.

It is a wonderful thing to have big dreams and ambition and also to be focused on these things. Although, without forgetting the major goals it is crucial not to shortcut in the execution of the small things that are going to bring us that result. Often the small things don’t excite us or they may seem rather insignificant compared with the big picture. Don’t be fooled by your emotions, the small executions of excellence are our ticket to major success. It is also the inability of most people to recognise and do them well which is the reason most people are not  living the Expansive life that they desire.

You can change that today. I challenge you to not only have a major goal but also to ask yourself the question. “What are the significant small executions that I must make with excellence to bring this to pass?” Then put aside the major goal for a while and carry out these small things with absolute focus and priority and watch how things start to move ahead.

It is so true that if we do all the small things well, the big things will take care of themselves. Remember:  “Success is the residue of a lot of small things done with excellence”.

All the best,

Rick