Success is accelerated in every situation when you’re operating with a vision of where you want to go.

Let’s talk about setting a vision and achieving that vision:

Setting the vision.  Whether you acknowledge it or not, you are heading in a direction.  When you arrive, is it where you want to be? This is why you have a vision  – Decide where you want to go before you start.

“You have to know where you are going. If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll never know if you’ve arrived.”– Denis G. McLaughlin

How do you know what direction to head in?   No one can tell you what direction to head in – that decision is yours to make.  Whether you are thinking of your personal life, your professional career, your team or your company this is on you.  Jack Welch held nothing back when he said this about vision, “Good leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.”

You are the leader of your success.  You are the leader of your team and company’s success.  This is why you must have a vision for what success looks like.

Achieving the vision.  Setting the vision is an important step, but it is only one step.  Once you decide what success looks like and have a clear picture in your mind, and on the minds of everyone involved with the vision, you need a plan for how to achieve this vision.

“Achieving your vision will be the culmination of many small achievements.” – Denis G. McLaughlin

The best way to build your plan is from the vision backward.  Start with what you want to accomplish and settle on the big successes that need to occur in order for that to happen.  Then move to closer to today and more granular goals.  Finally boil it down to what you should be doing on Monday morning. Then do it.

Recognize that the farther away from today you get, the more likely that your plan will change.  That’s ok.  Stay focused on the vision and adjust and adapt your plan based on the current circumstances.

“One of the best paradoxes of leadership is a leader’s need to be both stubborn and open-minded. A leader must insist on sticking to the vision and stay on course to the destination. But he must be open-minded during the process.” –  Simon Sinek

If you get something you only wish for, will you be ready for it when it happens?  In the area of wishing, Jim Rohn says it best, “Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.” Great success doesn’t come easy, it comes from great effort. 

If you want to achieve your goals – don’t wish for it, plan for it, prepare for it, and work for it. 

Plan for it.  “Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” – Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso is known for his success in multiple styles of art. His paintings covered a blue period, rose period, African influence, cubism, surrealism, and realism.  His is also known for being able to create art in any style that was popular for a time.  Over 78 years he created 13,500 paintings among many other prints, illustrations and sculptures and his artwork sold for higher prices than any artist of his time.

Picasso was not chasing or inventing the most popular styles just to stay relevant, this was how he expressed himself, “Whenever I wanted to say something, I said it the way I believed I should,” Picasso said.  He was able to re-invent himself over and over as a result of his plan for continuous learning, “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”

Prepare for it  “It is better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret.” – Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Jackie Joyner-Kersee is the most decorated female athlete in Olympic track and field history winning three gold medals, a silver medal and two bronze medals in the long jump and heptathlon events.  She was voted the greatest female athlete of the 20^th century by Sports Illustrated.

While watching the 1976 Summer Olympics, Joyner-Kersee, then 14 years old, saw sprinter Evelyn Ashford and thought, “I want to be the Olympics. I didn’t know if that was going to happen. But I dedicated myself to see if it could be possible.”

She went on to win the National Junior Pentathlon championship four years in a row and excelled at many sports in high school including, track, basketball and volleyball.  In her junior year, she set the State high-school record for the women’s long jump.  While in college, Joyner-Kersee focused her training on preparing for the Olympic heptathlon event.

Jackie Joyner-Kersee gave this advice on preparing to achieve success: “Set short term realistic goals. Be consistent. Believe what is possible is probable. Never give up on yourself. Be receptive and open to people being honest with you.”

Work for it.  “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” – Pele

Pele scored 1,281goals over a career that spanned 1,363 games.  He was member of the Brazilian international team that won three World Cups. He was voted the Football Player of the Century in 1999 by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics and was elected as the Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee and Reuters News Agency.

At the age of 16 he began his professional career on the Santos FC and became the top scorer in the league.  He was called up to the Brazilian national team that year and scored his first international goal making him the youngest player to score a goal in an international match.

Pele was raised to play soccer.  He was taught by his father and they could not afford a proper soccer ball so he played with a sock stuffed with newspaper to hone his skills.  While other children were on the playground he was working on his future at a very young age.  Pele said of his young work ethic, “I was ready to give up things kids my age were normally doing. Instead, I spent a lot of time practicing and improving my skills.”

Doing your thing and not everything doesn’t limit you in anyway.  In fact, it expands your ability to have a big impact if you do your thing in a great way.

There is a limit on how much time and effort you can invest on any one task.  Each person has necessities that must be done to survive – eat, sleep, shelter – and there are those activities that should be accomplished to revive – exercise, learn, relationships – next are those things that if done exceptionally well will cause you to thrive – endless possibilities.

“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” – Francis of Assisi

With the limited time available for those things that are in the thriving category you need to choose wisely.  Which ones will have the biggest impact?  Which ones am I sure to complete? Don’t do four things half way, do one thing all the way.  Focus your energy on completing the small steps needed to have the big impact.

Do the small things well, they will add up to big things.  John Wooden was the head basketball coach for UCLA for twelve years.  Nicknamed the “Wizard of Westwood,” winning ten NCAA national championships and seven in a row during his tenure.  This big accomplishment happened because Wooden focused his players on doing the small things well.  He is quoted as saying “It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”

Each freshman player first learned how to put on their socks and shoes properly.  There was a technique that involved pulling up the socks so there were no flaps in their shoes that could cause blisters, and tying their laces tight so there were no sprained ankles.  NBA great Bill Walton played under John Wooden and said he was shocked when he first heard the lesson on socks and shoes.  He also said that this initial lesson described, “Everything they would need to know for the rest of their lives.”

Then every year each player, regardless of their experience, received a copy of Walton’s “Pyramid of Success,” in which he lays out the steps for success.  These include developing abilities such as Loyalty, Self-Control, Skill, Confidence among the fifteen steps. The top of the pyramid Competitive Greatness, and is described at, “Perform at your best when your best is required.  Your best is required each day.”

If you want to have a big impact, do your thing in a great way.