Strategy: a
plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal
After
twenty-one years of studying the personal habits of executives,
individuals and corporations who had a dramatic increase in their growth
and efficiency, I had noticed four key factors they had in common with
each other. The word I chose
to describe these factors all started with the letter “D” and became
‘The Four D’s of Four Dimensional Personal Growth’:
(Click
on the links above to be taken to that topic)
Discernment
The
power to distinguish and select what is true or appropriate or excellent,
or a power to see what is not evident to the average mind.
The act of getting ones intention clear, through various ways and
means, such as defining wants, needs and purpose, and/or to distinguish
the means to obtain the wants, needs and purpose.
This can include goals which demonstrate a cumulative total of the
desired incomes of a company, or the cumulative experiences of the
employees work environment or both.
Companies
and corporate executives alike need to be able to investigate, and
identify purpose, principles and processes which are unique to their
industry and to expand their understanding of what factors will magnify
their success or failure and why. Products
and services need to stay up-to-date with the competition.
Procedures need to grow according to the growth of the company.
The
creation of a mission statement which is written with the intent of being
for the company to review to stay on track, usually identifies the product
or service, the principles and ideals with which the product or service is
delivered to the customer, includes the expectations which the company or
executive places on himself and coworkers, and is as a rudder to steer
away from principles and practices that are contrary to the ideals and
principles.
The
creation of policy and procedure manuals can greatly increase the
efficiency of training new employees, and keeping these manuals up to
date, and reviewing them often is needed.
Replacing defective or worn materials and equipment is also a key
factor in keeping costs and damage low.
Personal
Growth Discernment
is much like taking inventory of what you already have, and what you do
not have, and setting goals that are in alignment with your own personal
mission statement or principles. What
are your principles? Why? These
core beliefs can often lead you directly where you need to go to
investigate, and get your intention clear on what you personally will do
that is true, appropriate and excellent in demonstrating ‘what you stand
for’. The inventory can
also help you understand how to increase value, and decrease unwanted
factors. As you discern how
to keep what you have, how to get what you want, you can also discern how
to lose something you don’t want, or to use what you already have for
another purpose – this is called ingenuity.
Other
definitions for discernment could be “inspiration” or “anxiety”,
since both are based on perceptual judgment.
An electrified fence might give you anxiety at the prospect of
touching the fence, and it can also give you the inspiration on how to
keep cattle or a dog inside your borders. When you feel anxiety, you are normally feeling a natural
intuition of protecting yourself. But
with a little investigation, this intuition can be turned into inspiration
when you discern how to make that fear work for you, instead of working
against you by changing the fear into excitement. Investigation
and willingness to be objective and think “how can this help me if I use
it differently?” can change anxiety into inspiration, and inspiration
into a plan. Are you inside the fence, on the fence or outside the fence?
Each perspective lends its own fears and creativity.
The creators of Viagra had the intention of making a high blood
pressure medication, but instead, ended up making men and women smile for
other reasons – and no-one is complaining that it is not being used as
originally intended.
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Devotion
A
state of being dedicated and loyal to the principles, activities and goals
of both the person, and/or the company.
The
highly successful corporate executives that I have studied, all have one
predictable trait: Loyalty. This loyalty was first to their own principles and values and
self-esteem, and second, to the company’s principles and values and
self-esteem. And in all
cases, the persons own values were never in conflict with the company
values, meaning, they would not work for a company whose values made them
sacrifice their own. The
opposite is also true, highly successful companies will never allow (or
knowingly hire) an executive whose values are contrary to theirs.
Yes, it can be said there are often highly successful unscrupulous
people and companies, but they never last, and always, always are revealed
(usually by an insider).
These
successful executives also had another thing in common; they had loyalties
to their common goals, and loyalty to their belief in common goals.
This means the goals of the company were directly reflective of
their personal goals, and compensation in some form, cash, stock, value,
freedom, responsibility and so the executives never abandon goal setting
practices, because they were interdependent with each other.
Personal
Growth Devotion
means that if there is
any behavior or goal of yours that is not in alignment with your beliefs
and values, your subconscious mind will fight you, and the result is
anxiety and a lack of wellness, abundance – and usually abandonment of
the goal. Goals must be, in
your belief, in alignment with your principles and your personal self
image. A person who believes
they are only worth forty thousand dollars, usually will not behave in a
one-hundred thousand dollar capacity – the truth will out them.
Visualization, self improvement and re-evaluation of your self
worth, and behaviors that match, is a truth that cannot be defeated.
If your goal is to be a millionaire is to be achieved, you must
abandon a belief that ‘money is the root of all evil.’
Visualize the good you will do, and the values you possess and
study the mindset of millionaires.
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Diligence
The
attention and care given towards expectations and goals.
Typically done by constant enthusiastic, and sincere effort.
When
many people visualize wealth, they will normally visualize it by seeing
vacations, cars, boats, mansions and country clubs.
These things do tend to follow wealth, but so does hard
work, dedication, enthusiasm, a love for what they do, eagerness to do it,
pride in accomplishment and completion – a genuine and sincere enjoyment
of what they are doing, and willingness to do many less enjoyable things
with eagerness and high quality.
Diligence
can be visualized this way: Visualize the most extravagant and exotic
meal, complete with the setting, music, candles and visualize the price of
the meal. Now visualize the
Chef of the extravagant meal. Now
visualize a $1 hamburger. Now
visualize the cook of the $1 burger. Did the pictures change?
Yes! When we
visualized the chef, we visualize art, enjoyment, discipline and even the
smell of the kitchen, we might even visualize the apron with stains, and
even the artful presentation of the meal – these are all
“Expectations” that we all have based on the diligence of a chef
versus the diligence of the fry cook.
Now try something different: Visualize the Chef making a Hamburger,
specially made for you. Do you expect to pay the Chef $1, or was it more?
Of course, you visualized paying him more! Why?
Because you have “expectations” that the Chef will have more
devotion towards the attention and care he gives to the task focusing of
delivering the absolute best looking and best tasting burger – and we
would be willing to pay more than $1.
Personal
Growth Diligence
is when you put the “appropriate” amount of care and attention into
focus on the things you do. There
is no doubt in my mind that the short order cook can learn how to
cook identical to the Chef. But, doubt can enter in when the cook expects
to be paid equal to the Chef, but fails in the same focused attention and
care in the preparation and presentation and atmosphere.
Personal growth in this context, is that the cook begins to see
himself as a Chef, and begins delivering his best interpretation of what
is “expected” and to rise above it.
It might also lead him to a better opportunity.
Much like the Chef making a $1 burger, the universe will pay you
more because of your “expected” diligence.
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Determination
The
act of repeated or continued measuring or monitoring ones own performance
and determining (or judging) whether the activities and result of those
activities were an effective means of producing the desired outcome. Or in
other words “Did I obtain my goal?” and “Were the activities and
means of obtaining the goal effective?” or “Did I choose the correct
goals, and the correct means to accomplish them?” “Where did I go
wrong?” What must I do better?”
Among
all of the most successful executives, and best-paid executives, they all
had one thing in common with relation to goals: They all set goals, and
none of them sought to escape having their performance measured often.
In fact, many of these executives had company mandated goals, and
personal goals they placed on themselves.
Each of the goals were clearly defined, their activities were
relevant to their goals, and their goals all had two dates attached
to them: Date of Completion, and Date of Review.
The review date was the date they would answer to someone (or
themselves) and would discuss what was the goal?, and what was the actual
performance? What did you do to pursue this goal, what approach did you
take, what did you do right? What did you do wrong? What would you do
differently? Careful and
deliberate choice of words during the review, made the review a positive
and affirming experience. A
poor choice of words, or a review done carelessly, usually causes doubt,
fear and a sense of futility – leading the person to shy away from being
reviewed and having their performance measured.
"When
performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is
measured
and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates."
– Thomas S. Monson
Personal
Growth Determination
What
are your goals? How will you know when you have achieved your goals?
How will you predict when your goals will be completed?
How will you know that you are improving in goal setting?
How will you identify what you will do differently next time?
How will you determine when the goal should be completed?
All
of these things are considered when setting and pursuing goals.
Sometimes we make the process feel like a Good versus Evil
conquest, and when we fail, we incorrectly determine fault and blame, and
these emotions do not tend to our improvement, they tend only to cause us
to stop setting goals – and to feel terrible.
Be objective, and do not assign good vs. bad in the review. Only
determine success and failure in the review.
Review your efforts, not your value. Never call
yourself a failure.
Your
goals and your growth in area must be based on specifics, relevance and
time-dated. Goals can also be
“intangible” meaning you can set a goal to ‘be enthusiastic about
goal setting and review’ – and then list how you will go about being
enthusiastic.
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Personal
Growth Dimensions?
You
need to expand your dimensions! No,
I am not referring to your height, weight, girth or your measurements!
I am referring to the range of your thinking, and the degree to
which you think over a particular topic, and how that thinking is applied
to your actions. Still
puzzled? The reason I called each one of the D’s (shown above) a
‘dimension’ is because it is an exact area of measurement, or a
‘dimension’. So in other
words, If I was a dietician, and you were talking with me about your
weight problem, and I was offering you a diet, the diet would be
the dimension of thinking, actions and systems designed to help you
reach a desired weight, level of healthiness or ‘the means to accomplish
your goal’. Therefore,
‘expand your dimensions’ means to do ‘more of’ the four D’s in
increased frequency, and increased depth of thought and planning:
Discernment, Devotion, Diligence and Determination.
Here
are some FREE tools to help you define your
dimensions, help you better manage your time, and to achieve your goals:
My
Daily Action Plan:
A powerful single page action plan with instructions to improve your time
management and identifying your priorities.
Manifesting
My Dreams:
A small booklet which will help you identify your dreams and goals - and
learn how to manifest them.
(Note:
These are in adobe pdf format. To
view them click the link. To
download them, right-click the link and select ‘Save as . . . ‘)
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