Success Factors: "How" to achieve your goals

How to achieve your goals

In past few posts I have discussed about success, what is success for you? How do you find your goal? How did I find my goal? And some tools and techniques to help you find your goals.

Based on my research and experience I have learned that your goal("what part") is more important to start with and the way(How part) to achieve it.

When I started my journey in professional life I didn't have exact idea of "how" to achieve it. This wasn't that I had not planned, but it was more often the situation on which I had made my plans kept changing and so did my plans.

However the biggest secret is to start.

Right here right now!

One step at a time!

One of the most influential and famous poets of Ancient Indian Kabir has said,

kal kare so aaj kar,aaj kare so ab.. 

pal me pralaya hoyegi, bahuri karoge kab..!! 

The essence of this is, the best time to start your journey(whatever it is) is now.

Let me tell you few real life stories of Indian legends from different fields of life and their tremendous achievements.

Story 1: Harivanshrai Bachchan's life incident as narrated by Amitabh Bachchan.

Harivanshrai Bachchan is the famous poet and father of Indian file actor Amitabh Bachchan. At the age of around 60 he used to go for a morning walk to unexplored area, he used to bring back the stones and paint them to give it a meaning, one of the stones he liked was very huge and heavy, he couldn't carry it. Instead of asking for help, he kept pushing that stone few feet every day. And he did that for six months to bring it to the gate of his house.

Story 2: Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman

No cricket fan will ever forget the partnership by these 2 legendary batsman of India. Year 2001, Kolkata test match against Australia. India won the match with 171 runs after a follow-on due to the 376 runs partnership by these two. For every cricket enthusiast will know that wining a test match after a follow-on doesn't happen most of the time. When Rahul and Laxman were asked how did they build such a huge pile of runs in such difficult conditions, the answer was simpler that imagined. they focus on one ball at a time.

It is widely considered to be one of the greatest Test matches in cricket history.

So as we see the great achievements around us they are not made with the most complicated or high tech plans. Almost all of them are achieved using simple way. One step at a time. 

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhavalbhadeshiya  

Success Factors: Finding "what" - Tools and Techniques

Finding "what" - Tools and Techniques

In my last post, I told my story of how I figured out my "what". Many of you who read the post, might say, how does it help me. Well the purpose of the post was to help you reflect upon your experiences and see if that helps to find your goal.

I very well understand that everyone doesn’t have a same story. My this post is to help you figure out your "what". I will provide certain tools and techniques that you can use that will help you to go further in life.

To start with, I would suggest you to determine and understand your personality, strengths and social/communication style.

There are many tools and workshops available in the market which will help you. There is no real sequence to it but I would suggest the sequence which I feel works the best. You may change the sequence if you want.

1. MBTI (Personality Type)
2. Social Styles (social/communication style)
3. Strengths Finder 2.0 (your natural talent)

First step would be to determine your personality type.

The most famous personality assessment test is Myers-Briggs Type Indicator know as MBTI. This is the assessment of your personality based on your preferences. They have classified 16 different personality types based on different preferences.

There are many online and offline versions of assessment. You can take a free test here. For more detailed explanation and understanding you may want to take paid 1-2 day workshop. There are many institutes who conduct these.

This test is a very good reflection of how your preferences are making you who you are. Also why some activities are very easy for you and some are not. Why you avoid certain things\interactions and you love to have others. Why do you behave the way you do.

Second step is to find out your social style.

This is very similar to MBTI but this is not personality type. This is more of social communication style. This is more simpler than MBTI, it has only 4 styles. And these types are based on your approach. Is your approach task oriented or people oriented, is your communication direct or indirect.

The assessment is very similar to MBTI, you will have to answer few questions based on your natural preference. Based on the answer, your style will be determined. This understanding is very important part of the interpersonal awareness. This will help you understand your social behavior and also help you determine other person's social behavior. Based on the other person's style you can adapt your communication style to get more effective results.

And the third one is the strengths finder book and workshop.

There is a book called strengths finder 2.0 this is one of the best sellers on WSJ. This book is a result of huge research done by Gallup. They have conducted a study for 40 years and have come up with 34 most common talents.

There are two parts to this book, First one, there is a online test to determine your top 5 strengths and second part is explanation of the 34 different talents. This is one of the most useful tools to find out what your natural strengths and talents are.

There are 2 ways to achieve your goals

1. The path of least resistance, strengthen your strengths to conquer your goal.
2. The path of highest resistance, work on your weakness to make them your strength.

If you believe in the first one, this book is for you. There are few institutes who will conduct the workshops to help to understand the process and results as well. 

Hope these tools will help you go further in your life and career, it definitely helped me.

Note: One of the rule for self-assessment is select the answer for "what you prefer/do/are" and do not select "what you would like to do".

Disclaimer: I am not associated with any of the above mentioned books or organizations and I have no vested or direct interest in them.
Connect with me on LinkedIn : https://in.linkedin.com/in/dhavalbhadeshiya 

Success Factors: Finding "what" - My Story

Finding "what" - My Story

In my last post I talked about finding "what". While I posted it I still felt there is something missing. And I wasn’t too happy about it  and it needed to be more interesting. So I thought about it and I thought let me add my own story of how I found my "what".

It goes like this, from the very beginning I was interested in "how things work?". And being curious by nature, I was always asking questions and trying to see "how things works?"

I was born in a community which is full of engineers and technicians that helped my cause or I can say technology is what I am inherited with.

As a kid I have opened multiple electronic\mechanical toys that I had, to see how they worked. Not only my own toys, also few small appliances and my sister's toys :)

Other thing that I did as a kid and I continued to do even now is ask questions "why?". For everything I did, I always had a question "why"?

I am sure my parents had a tough time answering my questions and so did some of my teachers. If I was not convinced about why I have to do(what I had to do) I never did that. Probably this was annoying for my parents, teachers and supervisors. :)

That was one of the reasons I never got great numbers in my school exams. But whenever I knew why I was doing for what I was doing. I was extremely successful. Got good grades, good marks, good ratings and promotions as well.

Now to cut the long story short, by the time I was in high school I knew technology was something I want to do. But the quest of my "why" part prevented me from getting into engineering.

I failed in my 12th science exams. That time I didn’t know the exact reason but now I know, it was because I didn't have answer to my "why questions" and I couldn't just memorize subjects without understanding them.

As a result I had to pursue commerce as my college degree. While commerce was not my first choice, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Two things happened as a result. First, I started learning computers(servicing, system administration and networking). And second, as soon as I joined the work force, my commerce knowledge helped me understand why technology was used the way it is used.

This combination of "how & why" of technology and commerce helped me to grow from a technical expert to techno-commercial consultant. Within few years of I was able to convey value proposition of the technology to stakeholders and customer.

In my next post I will introduce you to some tools and techniques that will help you find your goal in your personal and professional life.
Connect with me on LinkedIn : https://in.linkedin.com/in/dhavalbhadeshiya 

Success Factors: Finding "what"

Factor: Finding "what" 

My last post was about Battle of "What" vs "How". And the message was that "what" is more important than "how".

Now let's look in to "what"

Finding what to do can be very easy for few people and it could be equally difficult for others. If you have already decided what do you want to do or you have a very fair idea of what you want to do, you have won half the battle.

If you are among the ones who are not sure, its fine. You will figure out what do you want to do fairly quickly. And this post is aimed at helping you find something you would want to do.

Now when it comes to finding what to do, I would like to divide it into 2 types.

People who just want to do one thing in life.

and 

People who want to do multiple things in life. 

Now again, as mentioned previously "what" may or may not be related to your current or future occupation. It may or may not have huge impact on your life. But I would suggest that you choose or think about something which has considerable impact in your life. Otherwise you will not have motivation to follow it and achieve it.

If you are not completely obsessed with your Goal, you will never be able to achieve your full potential. 

1) For people who just want to do ONE thing in a life. There is a huge advantage to it and also equal risk attached. As you have only one goal that you are looking to achieve, your focus is going to be sharp and consistent and that’s a huge advantage and possibility of achieving it is also higher.

Take example of a Lion, he is not the fastest or the strongest in the jungle but when it comes to hunting for a prey, he uses his complete focus and power in a single strike. And that’s why he is the king of the jungle as we know it.

Similarly single goal in life and specially if it's important one helps you focus and channelize your energy in one direction.

Now the other side is nothing to fall back upon. If you fail you have no alternatives. But here is the secret, "Think failure and fail, Think success and succeed".

2) For people who want to achieve MULTIPLE goals\things in life have a distinct advantage as well. They have their satisfaction coming from different activities. This keeps their ideas fresh and vivid and their motivation level stable. And most of the time there will be a very common theme in all the activities they do.

Take example of FMCG companies, they make 3-4 kinds of shampoo's and soaps, but they are still soaps. Or people who will do Acting, Modelling, Hosting, Presenting etc.

As every coin has to 2 sides, this too has some risk\disadvantages to look out for. Because of getting involved in multiple activities, it's very easy or common to get distracted.

However there is a secret to that as well. They take one thing and master it, then they take up one more and so on. So over a period of time they will be able to switch roles easily. And this comes from practice.

To summarize there is always a way to achieve your goals what every they are.

Goals are not your dreams or desires, they are dreams\desires pursued.

Connect with me on LinkedIn : https://in.linkedin.com/in/dhavalbhadeshiya  

Success Factors: Battle of "What" vs "How"

Factor: "What" to do vs "How" to do

My last post was about Self Belief. If you believe you can there are more chances you will.

Now the next step is about "what" and not "how".

What: This is what you want to do. It could be anything, a new job, a career in new Industry, start your own business, owning something like a house or car, it cloud be money, fame etc.

Most successful people have figured out "what" part of it and then they stuck to it. And this is one of the biggest inspiration for biggest achievements mankind have had. Don't take my word for it, see it for yourself. Look at the people around you, who you would consider successful , talk to them if you want to and you will realize most of them just wanted to do what they are doing and necessarily didn't know how exactly they will do it.

Example:Wright brothers wanted to Fly or make a Flying machine(What part of it). They didn’t know "how" part of it when they started, it was evolved as they started their journey. If they would have thought "how" part first, probably they wouldn’t have started at all.

Someone thought that a man can go to Moon(again the what part) and didn’t know "how" part of it. But as people started working on it the how part was devised. They either invented the how part or discovered it or it cloud be combination of both(Discovery and Invention) through the journey.

Somebody decided to travel faster than the speed of sound, and that’s where supersonic engines were created.

And there are many examples we can see in our day to day life, where all people knew was "what" they wanted to do and they figured out "how" they will achieve it through the journey.

Most of us want to do something that we would be really interested in and don’t know "how" the process to do it.

And not knowing how kills most of the dreams that we have. However history is the witness that "how" the process of doing is something is not always known from the beginning.

Its devised and created as and when the journey starts and the need arises.

Decide "what" to do and "how" to do follows

Try it yourself and get amazed!

I would want you to take this point home today, find out something(what) you would want to do(or something you wanted to do for a long time but the "how" part always kept you away from doing it), it may or may not have a very big impact on your life but it should give you a sense of satisfaction and achievement.

Once you have decided what you want to do, give it a timeline and be very optimistic about it. Don’t have a very long or loose timeline. Once the timeline is in place the real work starts.

Here you will have to make an investment, a pencil\pen and a notepad and 30 minutes of uninterrupted time. Use these 30 mins to write down everything about your goal.

1. What are the different ways to achieve it?
2. Who can help you to achieve it? 
3. What are the things that can help you achieve it?
4. And anything that you think is important in helping you achieve it.

Do this exercise and you will discover that it isn't as difficult as you think it was. feel free to write your comments, questions and feedback, I will be happy to respond.
Connect with me on LinkedIn : https://in.linkedin.com/in/dhavalbhadeshiya 

Success Factors: Self Belief

I have read a lot of about success and I would like to believe I have achieved quite a bit of it. :)

For a long time I have been thinking of writing a book on my own. And just kept thinking about it. Specifically about the topic I would want to choose as my interest levels are quite wide spread.

So now I have decided to do what have learnt and experienced(Start somewhere). And result of that is post that you are reading.

So in order to achieve my goal of writing a book, I will be writing small posts periodically.

Today's Post is about Success Factors. I will not dwell into defining success as its different for different people. What remains common is the factors which determines success.

Factor: Self Belief

First step towards success is to believe in yourself. Whatever your goal maybe, if you want to achieve it, you need to first believe you can. Don’t start to worry about how to do it from start and kill your dreams before they are even born. Once you are determined that you can, you will start thinking about, how. And I have come across lot of real life people who have done this really well.

Think you can do it and you will.

Connect with me on LinkedIn : https://in.linkedin.com/in/dhavalbhadeshiya