Getting Off The Launch Pad

It’s take off time, are you ready? I have seen good ideas with fine plans and the right resources to implement them but they never get of the launch pad. It’s really unfortunate to see very good ideas linger for years on the launch pad when it should actually be sky bound. But come to think of it, why do people stay long on the launch pad beyond the required time estimate even when they are good to go, sometimes they have all it takes to be sky bound but they still cant it take off.

It’s not that they want to remain on the launch pad, nor do they lack the intention and desire to be sky bound, to take off that project or dream or to implement that idea; it’s not also a question of not knowing how to take off, but often of ability. It’s that little something, that initiator to spark up the desire and verve in them. This tendency is also in agreement with Newton’s first law of motion which states that a body will remain in its state of rest or uniform velocity unless acted upon to change by an external force. I will share with you some helpful tips to get yourself off the launch pad into the heights.

1. Begin with a plan: when you have dream or an idea the next thing you should go for is a plan. It’s very important. With a plan, you know what to expect, it will help you chart out all possible solution to the challenges you might encounter. The process is as good as the plan.

2. Act upon the plan: a good plan does not get job done no matter how great and strategic it may seem. A plan can only prove effective when acted upon. To act upon a plan, accept your plan as a blueprint that can help you achieve your objective. Commit to your plan. Your level of commitment to the plan depends on how much you believe in the plan. So try as much as possible to create a good and workable plan. Comply with the plan. Take significant disciplined steps toward implementing it, get the right counsel. Without counsel plans/purposes are disappointed, but in a multitude of counsel they are established. Build a good team around you.

3. Don’t fall in love with the launch pad: a lot of things can be happening in the launchpad; there the rocket doesn’t do much but wait as it is prepared for takeoff. Launch vehicles could stay on the launch pad long enough until it’s ready for take. Some people so much enjoy the preparation period that they are carried away by the simplicity and fun of this stage (compared to flight phase), thereby extending and delaying the take off of their dreams or projects or ideas. Sometimes it could be due to laziness or fear of the task which lies ahead. Don’t make your umbilical attachment to the plan of iron such that you can hardly detach from it. I wrote a comprehensive post on this.

4. Go in packets: one step after the other, some people take a mega project the first time all at once and they are weighed down by it. They strive for perfection in getting the bits and pieces together to get a perfect picture; this keeps them longer on the launch pad. Big vehicles don’t make sudden turns. When you remember how enormous the project is and the effort it takes to put all the things together you loose the inertia/ motivation to spark the take off. Start with pin point smaller projects and execute them. Then you will gain satisfaction of accomplishing a task well and the necessary momentum to take on larger ones, than taking up large projects that might ground you and at the end you make a mess of it.

I believe that small is better, big is beautiful. Start small and then move to the big. But in whatever you do, just don’t let it end on the launch pad. Don’t remain on the launch pad of planning, planning, planning, waiting and never achieving anything. Start with the small, get sky bound and you will gain the motivation and momentum to take on the big.

Drawing A Line Of Distinction

In business chances are that a business is likely not be up to snuff few years after establishment if it doesn’t have a strategic plan and a good marketing strategy for the venture. Likewise in life, one might stay stagnated at a level or even slip if one does not take sound steps to advance ones life. We all at one point or the other struggle with productivity, either we want to be productive or to improve on our productivity.

For this to happen we must get to understand certain things. Any productive person or rather any one who seeks progress must know the truth that ones life doesn’t consist in everything he does or finds himself doing. You must understand that getting yourself entangled with every endeavor you find yourself does not work altogether for your productivity. That’s why we have priorities. Know what your life and success depends on. Some things are important and some things needful. It’s nice to strive for productivity in everything we can lay hands on, but in all those, what we really need to sustain our living is in few.
Splitting your strength into many important things will deprive you the concentrated effort and focus to strive at and achieve that which is helpful and necessary for your living. I am not opposed to getting involved with as much as you can, in fact I encourage variety; however the point I want to emphasize is, it’s our responsibility, and to the benefit of our ability to be productive to know as well as draw a distinction between that which is important and the actual helpful things that will eventually have more impact in our life.

There are things that your life depends on. There are endeavors that your success and development depend on. Drawing a line between these creates focus and enhances the best application of effort. There things that sustain your living and there things that enhance it or spice it up. When you are needful of real food you don’t go-getting spice, do you? You will do yourself a lot of good in drawing a distinction between these.

Lift Your Life By Learning

What can lift up a life from mediocrity to proficiency? What can take one from novice to expert? What makes the difference between an expert and a learner? It is that which he knows. One thing about knowing is that it comes by learning. One can only know when he learns that which he doesn’t know. What differentiates a successful person from an ineffective person is often that which he knows and applies in his business. Little wonder the bible says

my people perish for lack of knowledge

. From that statement, people don’t perish for lack of money, or because they have no one to help them, neither is it because there isn’t enough opportunity that comes their way. What you know can stand you out, however people often say that what don’t know cannot kill them thereby giving room for ignorance, but I think it actually can.

There are regular people who have taken responsibility of there life, and lifted themselves to great preferment by learning. Sometimes people break limitations in their lives by getting to learn one new skill or the other. Opportunity often comes to those who conscientiously work after it. By now I believe we already know that

success is not an accidental discharge

.

Tell me what is missing in your life and I will tell you what you do not value enough to make every effort to achieve-Mike Muddock. There is literally nothing one can’t achieve if one set one’s mind to achieve it, going at it with the right principles.

> Make a habit out of it: habits are as important as the eventual success you intend to achieve. Like I said earlier success is not an accidental discharge, you have to learn and adapt success habits that will eventually form your character; that personality that is apt to achieve success. Form the habits of learning.

> Adapt the DON’T a day habit: the savor of old age is experience, but experience doesn’t only come with gray hair. That you have experienced a situation doesn’t make you an expert in it. Learn to know, know to show yourself competent in what you do. Experience is a combination of knowledge and skill gained through doing something for a period of time. You don have to wait until you are old to gain experience. DON’T a day is an acronym for discover one new thing a day. You will eventually lift your life in the process of learning one new thing each day. form the habit of learning a new thing everyday, make notes of your discoveries, improve on it and you will be amazed by the outcome.

> Don’t learn to forget easily: what good is it when you can’t use what you learn because you forgot it. In real life situation, you apply what you know or remember. A coach said of his player that he is the only player who implements in the field of play that which he practiced in the training ground. Overcome forgetfulness with the power of repetition. Anticipate situation, pre-play and practice solution. You get to remember what you understand and repeat.

> Apply what you learn: they say no knowledge is a waste, that’s true in a sense but knowledge can get stale and obsolete. So make the most of it when you have it. What is the essence of knowledge when it cannot be applied to solve a problem or meet a need? You say there is no opportunity to utilize your skill; opportunities are created. If you have the opportunity to learn, you equally have the opportunity to lift your life.

It was written of a man who kept cows, he rode upon one of them, as it is useful in that country with a book laid on her horns that served instead of desk, and so he studied all the day. After some years he grew so learned that he took his degree and came to be a great mandarin.