Essential Force 3: Preparation

I’d like to discuss the third of the 5 Essential Forces of Success, Preparation, for a moment to really help people understand the role it has in achieving total life success. So without further ado…

Preparation

Definition (from Dictionary.com): a proceeding, measure, or provision by which one prepares for something: preparations for a journey.

It should go without saying, but you need to prepare for the success that you can achieve in order to attain it. How are you going to get where you want to go if you don’t know how to get there? That’s essentially what preparation is. Adequate preparation can be the difference between success and failure. Remember: Ambition – Preparation = Recklessness. Think about it. People can luck into a good situation. You can be born rich, hit the lottery, or gamble your way into a million dollars. However, to really sustain success over the course of a lifetime and experience complete and total prosperity, you must have a strategy in place. Direction must be established that strategy. Flexibility must be built-in in case you experience a setback or life happens. All these things are factored into a successful plan and a successful plan produces successful results.

I normally don’t ever leave the house without a plan. If you can’t already tell, I’m very goal-oriented; I need to focus on the end result in order to achieve something. However, what’s unique about myself is that I fully realize that not everything is going to go according to plan. Let me repeat that: not everything is going to go according to plan. I have accepted long ago that my circumstances will change, I will change, and those around me will change. So that’s why flexibility is so important in a plan. Without it, all of your preparation will be fruitless and your plan will surely fail.

I also know that I will never be prepared for everything. There is invariably going to be something that blindsides me and forces me to take immediate action without analyzing the situation. A good example is my home search. I did not plan on starting to look for a home until the late summer or early fall. But due to some advice about the housing market trend, I realized the house I look at in August may be much more expensive than the house I look at now. Fortunately, I have prepared enough of a down payment and done enough initial research to know what I wanted and where I wanted it. If I had started now, I would be in some pretty rough shape and likely would have missed out on my future dream home.

So yeah, we all need some ambition in our lives, and it is vital to getting started on the path to success. But without preparation, you’ll be lucky to take a few steps, let alone make the journey.