The Achievers’ Edge

You and I like to think of ourselves as ‘achievers’, even when we haven’t quite turned our dreams and visions into reality.

But what is an ‘achiever’? And what is this ‘edge’?

An achiever of course, is anyone who achieves any sort of goal or meets any sort of target however small, but this is really about ‘big’ achievers.

Big achievers are people who realise their dreams, make their dreams come true, make their visions become real, and ‘super achievers’ are those who, in time, turn the whole ‘big picture’ of the life they would love to live into reality.

There’s no distinction between ‘life’ and ‘business’, except perhaps if you are ‘employed’, working to help someone else achieve their objective. But if you have your own business, even if you’re just ‘self-employed’, you can’t separate it from your life ambition, it’s part of it, even if the business you own and operate is only there to facilitate the ‘big picture’ vision.

Achievement then, is all about goals, and goals are all about doing the things that need to be done to achieve each of your dreams.

Because you and I don’t just have one ‘dream’ or vision, we have several.

We have visons about who we want to be and what we want to do in each of the different ‘domains’ of our lives.

Relationships, Health, Spirituality, Vocation, Freedom, and so on – all the elements that make up the whole of the life we would love to be living, the ‘big picture’.

As an ‘achiever’ we build up this big picture by achieving all the small goals that go to make it happen, like a jigsaw.

But if we really want to be, really want to be, a ‘big achiever’ and eventually a ‘super achiever’ we need an ‘edge’.

What do I mean by an ‘edge’?

You’ll have heard the phrase ‘having an edge over the competition’, maybe in commerce, maybe in sports.

What it means is having a different approach, a different attitude, a different way of doing things, that most people – the ‘competition’ – don’t have.

So what is ‘the edge’?

The ‘edge’ first of all, is the ‘start line’ and what you do with it. It’s what happens when you go ‘over the top’. When you make a commitment, when you reach a point and take an action after which there’s ‘no going back’.

Part 1 of The Achievers Edge is to commit to what you want, who you want to be, and what you are going to do.

When you’ve made the commitment, the whistle has been blown, and you’re out of the mud, up the ladder and into the ‘killing ground’ at the top of the trench – or the ‘rut’ that you’ve been in up until now.

You’re ‘over the top’ and now you have to get through the barbed wire in the face of the shells and machine gun fire bearing down on you.

Until you get through no-man’s land, and destroy the enemy that has been preventing you from making the progress towards achieving your goals that you so desperately want.

Part 2 of The Achievers Edge is getting started. “Lights out and away we go” – the race is on, there’s no going back.

But most people, whether it’s in a battle where they don’t survive, or in a Formula 1 race where they don’t score points, they don’t achieve the goal, they don’t make it through to the other side, they don’t get on the winners podium.

This is where you and I discover Part 3 of the Achievers Edge.

In a battle, or in a race, there’s one key thing that gives you an advantage, or an ‘edge’ over the others.

You need the right equipment, resources and support, and you need the best equipment resources and and support for the tasks you are working to complete.

Part 3 of The Achievers Edge is to get help. Get the resources that you need, the right kit, the right skills and the right people to get you wherever it is you want to go and achieve every one of the goals you want to achieve to bring that ‘big picture’ into reality.

But in truth, this is often the hardest thing for many people to do.

For two reasons.

The first is thinking, or believing, that they can do it all, often allied with the belief that if they ‘let anyone else in’ they’ll lose ‘control’ or the ‘dream’ won’t be ‘theirs’ any more.

A whole bunch of ‘limiting’ beliefs there, which at first seem ‘positive’ beliefs, when in truth they are holding us back.

If you and I are to be ‘big’ and ‘super’ achievers we cannot ‘go it alone’ – however attractive or seductive that route might seem.

The second is down to one of the most potent limiting beliefs around, it’s called the ‘scarcity paradigm’ and it’s all about money and time.

It’s the “I can’t afford it” and “I don’t have time” syndrome which you and I have and everyone else has – don’t deny it because, we know it’s there, even when we’ve suppressed it as much as we can.

Now here’s the thing.

‘Cost’, whether applied to time or money, is a myth.

Except when money or time is consumed unwisely, by which I mean out of the context, or not consistent with all or any of the goals that go to make up the ‘big picture’

You and I do waste money and we do waste time. So be it, as long as we realise what we’re  doing, and are willing to suffer the consequences – not achieving our goals as quickly or as well as we envisaged.

But what about all those ‘costs’ that are associated with our goals?

The ‘costs’ (time and money) associated with learning new skills, doing all the mundane tasks, marketing and sales (and that isn’t always business related – think about it), travel, research, and just doing those things that need to be done to get us closer to each goal and get us closer to each dream and get us closer to being in that ‘big picture’?

Well – it all comes back.

And what comes back in terms of the time and money freedom we get from ‘incurring those costs’ or more properly making those investments in our future is always much more, much more, than we invested in the first place

To be an achiever, a big achiever and a super achiever there is no ‘cost’, only investment.

Understanding that is the real Achievers Edge.

So go out and get the equipment, tools, learning, coaches, mentors, experts, resources and support that you’re going to need.

Only two rules:

Only do what only you can do

It’s not what you pay, it’s what you get – so get the best you can find

And if something or someone doesn’t ‘work out’ deploy the Lord Sugar finger and the two words that go with it!