Why "awareness'' is critical to you achieving what you truly value

The word 'awareness' has come to my attention recently and in fact the more I think about it the more I am beginning to appreciate the importance and benefit of paying attention to what it actually means. The context in which I want to approach 'awareness' is that of recognizing where you are today, where you want to be in the future and ensuring you are undertaking the correct actions to make that happen - and not get lost in the complexities every day life brings. Some might even want to call this 'self awareness' but what I'm talking about isn't really about being aware of your identity...it more about being aware of your actions and are they congruent to your goals.

Why do I choose to write about this today? Well it's been on my mind for a while and I've come to the conclusion that whilst many of us have goals, or seeing as we're at the start of 2009, perhaps a resolution I would predict no many of us know how to achieve that goal, whether it is the right one for them considering their current position or whether knowing what it would take to achieve the goal be prepared to undertake the commitment. Such as saying you will go to the gym 4 times a week for an hour when your current schedule would only allow 2 or by saying you'll save 25% of your income when your budget is tight at 15% savings limit - these are all good goals but there are non-considered hurdles in between to take care of. You might say "Daryl, but I'll just clear my schedule or ask for a pay rise...this will take care of those hurdles". Great, but what is the cost of clearing your schedule and what do you have to do to ensure the pay rise?

From my perspective the importance of awareness is that to clearly understand what is probable, possible and not possible at any point in time and to focus on the first two to enable the latter to be achieved as well. Being aware will prevent you from wasting time, money or emotion on actions that are not going to permit you to achieve your goals and may perhaps take you further away. It is also of great importance to be aware of what those goals mean to you...even if you do achieve it then what? If you 'just go' to the gym 4 times a week then what? If you save 25% of your salary what does that mean for you? If you get promoted in your work what position does that put you in?

Being aware is critical in career and business management - particularly at the early stages of each. Pretty much everyone I know is excited during the interview stage of a job and even more so when the job is offered. However if that job does not turn out right then only a short time later that excitement is replaced by disappointment. Same goes with a business, where everything in the startup phase is exciting but the reality hits home once you are running the business. Being aware will allow you to make better informed and objective decisions which should create more optimal results for you.

So my advice is do not live life on automatic. Achieve a state of awareness of where you are, why you are where you are and where you want to go. Ensure that you are taking the necessary steps to head in the direction you want to go and if you remember one thing, don't assume everything will just work out. You need to take control.

The need to be aware of where you are and what you are doing

The word 'awareness' has come to my attention recently and in fact the more I think about it the more I am beginning to appreciate the importance and benefit of paying attention to what it actually means. The context in which I want to approach 'awareness' is that of recognizing where you are today, where you want to be in the future and ensuring you are undertaking the correct actions to make that happen - and not get lost in the complexities every day life brings. Some might even want to call this 'self awareness' but what I'm talking about isn't really about being aware of your identity...it more about being aware of your actions and are they congruent to your goals.

Why do I choose to write about this today? Well it's been on my mind for a while and I've come to the conclusion that whilst many of us have goals, or seeing as we're at the start of 2009, perhaps a resolution I would predict no many of us know how to achieve that goal, whether it is the right one for them considering their current position or whether knowing what it would take to achieve the goal be prepared to undertake the commitment. Such as saying you will go to the gym 4 times a week for an hour when your current schedule would only allow 2 or by saying you'll save 25% of your income when your budget is tight at 15% savings limit - these are all good goals but there are non-considered hurdles in between to take care of. You might say "Daryl, but I'll just clear my schedule or ask for a pay rise...this will take care of those hurdles". Great, but what is the cost of clearing your schedule and what do you have to do to ensure the pay rise?

From my perspective the importance of awareness is that to clearly understand what is probable, possible and not possible at any point in time and to focus on the first two to enable the latter to be achieved as well. Being aware will prevent you from wasting time, money or emotion on actions that are not going to permit you to achieve your goals and may perhaps take you further away. It is also of great importance to be aware of what those goals mean to you...even if you do achieve it then what? If you 'just go' to the gym 4 times a week then what? If you save 25% of your salary what does that mean for you? If you get promoted in your work what position does that put you in?

Being aware is critical in career and business management - particularly at the early stages of each. Pretty much everyone I know is excited during the interview stage of a job and even more so when the job is offered. However if that job does not turn out right then only a short time later that excitement is replaced by disappointment. Same goes with a business, where everything in the startup phase is exciting but the reality hits home once you are running the business. Being aware will allow you to make better informed and objective decisions which should create more optimal results for you.

So my advice is do not live life on automatic. Achieve a state of awareness of where you are, why you are where you are and where you want to go. Ensure that you are taking the necessary steps to head in the direction you want to go and if you remember one thing, don't assume everything will just work out. You need to take control.

A business or career begins with a dream...but succeeds from a solid foundation

I'm not sure if it's due to the recent economic crisis...actually let me say economic events as I don't want to be another conveyor of doom and gloom, but I have been reassessing my own skills and personal resources recently. Purpose? To discover what I actually know and what value I provide to society. What I have found in fact is a bit of a wake up call in that whilst I do know certain things I perhaps thought I know more than I actually do.

I'll be the first to admit I have some great career goals in respect to the businesses I want to develop. Lots of goals and objectives supported by motivations but the one thing I needed to do was assess whether I had the ability, knowledge and experience to achieve the goals I wanted when I wanted. Let me tell you it's an interesting exercise to undertaken, particularly when you are brutally honest with yourself.

Let's take for example you want to run a consulting business and you think you know enough to succeed. Can you answer the following questions in a positive way:

1. Do you know more than 80% of competitors?
2. Have you validated the knowledge you need to know to succced?
3. Have you confirmed the above with your potential customers?
4. You might have 'consulting' knowledge but do you have 'financial performance' management knowledge? (that is, the knowledge to run your company finances)
5. Have you undertaken a risk assessment on the impact to your business of negative events e.g. economic downturn. Has this been validated?

See the thing is, it doesn't matter if you are smart as a 'subject matter expert' and have a great dream to go out on your own - if you don't build a solid foundation behind you then you will not succeed. Likewise, you definitely need a great dream to succeed but it is only the start. Failure is achieve by being under-prepared and it is not hard in this fast-paced world to indeed be caught short.

Why small businesses fail

What is failure and why do so many business startups fail? Failure could be classified as not achieving goals such as working more hours than planned, lack of enjoyment and satisfaction, too much travel - however in vast majority of cases failure of a business is due to financial reasons. That is not making enough money to cover costs.

Why does this occur and so freqently? I have met a lot of entrepreneurs, both who have succeeded and failed in business (some many times over), and the one thing they have in common is intelligence and drive. So if this is what you think you need to have to succeed then think again. The difference between success and failure is decision making. The basis of decision making is information and insight and I believe the two go hand-in-hand in ensuring the most appropriate decision is made.

Thus failure in business is due to poor decision making because there was incorrect, lack of or inappropriate information used and that the insight of the entrepreneur was wrong. Insight itself is a cognitive process and basically a interpretation of external stimuli - so in fact decision making, both directly and indirectly, is correlated to the quality of information received.

Failure is due to making a wrong decision many times over because no effort is made to assess the decision making process. Working with a performance coach or psychologist is useful in understanding the basis for decisions made and making changes in your decision making process. If you fail once and don't assess the process for making decisions then the chances of making the goals or targets you have set are very low. You cannot assume you know how to make a right decision and the warning signs should not be ignored. Thinking you know how to make a right decision is one of those as you will not be open for change.

Small business also fails because the entrepreneur in charge of the business is not made out to work in such as environment. Making a decision to start a business is the first important decision you have to make and one of the most critical. If you get this wrong then your business may already be on the path to failure.