Kwabena Brako-Powers

I have interacted with many people, eliciting their response as the year draws to a close, about the things they failed to achieve in their lives and what 3 things account for their failure. Now while some of the responses are funny, others are serious. However, the 3 things I found common in all the responses are; procrastination, lack of goals, and fear. I believe that there comes a time when you will have to audit your life, factoring the things you could have achieved, but failed. This exercise when done effectively will help a lot.

Lack of Goals:

So you don’t have any goal for your life? How important is success to your life? One thing I came to grapple with in my interaction with some of my student clients is that they do not have a written goal. Not even one of them. They could rattle a lot of things they believe are their dreams, but they are not written. Writing your dreams in a ‘dream book’ or a diary helps to give it shape and form. It provides cement for internalizing the dreams and for searing them in your subconscious. Your dreams must become second to nature to you. Eat it, breathe it, smell it, talk it, and see it. Sad to note that there are others who do not have dreams at all. They don’t know what they want. What this means is that they are wanderers, with no clear direction in life. Dream is to man what radar is to a ship. You cannot by pass it. To walk your dreams, you need to have one. The only full proof shortcut to riches is to have a dream, and to work towards its achievement. If I ask you to write five of the dreams you had for 2015 what would they be? Did you achieve them? If yes, how and if no, why? One attribute of the successful is that they have written dreams, and they organize the things around them towards the achievement of their dreams. If you want to be successful in the coming year, learn to act as one. Let me add that it is possible to have written dreams, and suffer the virus of procrastination. When it comes to working towards our dreams, I know many of us are quick to procrastinate.

Procrastination:

For this I am convinced about that, procrastination has helped to postpone many, hitherto, promising careers for a lot of people. The mind virus that seductively says that what I can do today could be done some other time, has accounted for many sordid situation in the lives of some people in our world today. All of us have, in one way or the other, been infested by this virus sometimes somewhere in our lives. However, the repetitive nature of this virus occurring in the lives of others have proven damaging, and harmful. Things that could be done today, end up being postponed with the belief that it would be done at some convenient time. The million-worth question is: who measure what is convenience? What we have failed to comprehend is that we are not responsible for tomorrow, as some vaguely believe so, but rather today—the present. Whatever we do in the present goes a long way to make and/or unmake our future. To fully achieve your dreams, one needs to ensure that s/he makes his day count. Don’t waste the hours in the day for unprofitable venture—time is not a clown. Make sure whatever activity you do has equal and significant impact on your dream. If not then change activities. There’s one more thing people procrastinate about—reading. Nobody can overemphasize the import of reading to the nurturing of the mind, and for positioning one for greater opportunities. However, many people postpone reading a book for watching movies. Trust me, the dividend you will reap in reading is much more than movies.

Fear:

Fear is one of the cancerous mind viruses I have found affecting people’s achievement. It’s more damaging, harmful than procrastination. The fear of failure, fear of losing, fear of being disappointed, fear of losing a friend, fear of being embarrassed, and fear of not hitting the mark among others are some of the many fears men harbor in their hearts inhibiting their progress. A great man once said that the only thing one needs to fear is fear itself. I hold the opinion that the problems of our world is that we have so many things we call problems. We could do so much to ourselves and the world if we shift our perspective. Perhaps, see a different picture. Or pretend. Fear makes cowards out of people. And trust me, it is the single most important factor responsible for the poverty situation in the lives of many people. Fear is opposed to initiatives. It is opposed to risk. And it is anathema to creativity. And these three attributes: initiatives, risks, and creativity are the three keys to grandeur success. Take them out of your life and that will be it. You will be poor. Yes poor. Take this from me. To be successful, one has to put aside fear by daring and doing the things that pump fear into you. Learn to take risk. Have a new perspective about failure—instead of viewing it as something damaging, embarrassing, see it as nothing. Yes, failure is nothing. It only point to your wrongs. Why not decide to see the good from the wrong? It will help you a lot in this journey. Failure is the other side of the same coin you’re holding. Sometimes you have to learn to embrace the unknown. It is only by doing so that one learns the hard lessons of life.

If you’re success thirsty, and would want to achieve more in the coming year, do much more to drive these three things from your life. Remember what insanity is said to be---doing the same thing, and expecting a change. Gandhi said, be the change that you seek. From today, let’s make the commitment to change our lives by working on these three opposing factors to success. We can actually get more done, if we become more in the coming year. Live your life in 2016 as though you are dying. And yes death is better than poverty, than poor life, and life full of regret.