These are risk avoidance and failure avoidance. It was further posited that any tendency to be overly obsessed with avoiding risk and avoiding failure is in fact an accelerant towards failure and underachievement. This installment is dedicated to one other symptom of the success avoidance syndrome namely Deliberate Intent Avoidance.
Avoidance of Deliberate Intent is one of the most debilitating and most pervasive human frailties. Enduring success is never an accident. In most cases it is a product of deliberate, well calculated and consistent action over a period of time. It is possible for one to win a fortune at the slot machine in the casino or in lottery games, but as many studies on the instant riches syndrome reveal, most people that get rich instantly soon lose their fortunes. Most success stories are tales of the triumph of deliberate intent translated into deliberate and purposefully executed actions.
It is a fact of life that the man who is consistent in diligently pursuing a well defined agenda will meet with success unknown by common men. However, the most disturbing thing is that most people live their lives on auto-pilot.
They wake up in the morning, go through the motions of the day and go to bed in exactly the same way everyday. They go through life like a hopelessly inebriated drunkard in a deep sense of stupor, with no sense of direction or purpose at all.
Deliberate intent is built around four pillars. These are vision, goals, plans and actions. All these are well developed concepts in the success literature. A vision is a desired future state. It is a dream held at the conscious level. Simply put it defines where one is going and what one is pursuing. It is the strategic intent of an individual or an organisation. The tragedy of life is that very few people ever stop to ask themselves ruthlessly the question, "Where am I going with my life, my business, my career, my spirit and my soul?" Even fewer people ever ask themselves, "Am I on the right path or the path that leads to perdition, failure, sorrow and frustration?" I put it to you that, to avoid asking yourself these questions is to avoid the pathway to success.
A vision therefore defines the approximate path to success. While very few people are averse to the idea of having a personal vision, only an infinitesimally small fraction of the world population actually has a written down vision for their lives. Researchers put it at less than three percent.
To put it in context, although almost 100 percent of the world population hankers for success, 97 percent avoids taking the first step which is to write down on paper a personal vision. This is a typical case of people knowing what they need to do to enhance their chances of success and then doing the thing that militates against that success.
The next pillar is the goal. While the vision may be a broad description, a goal is a specific target to aim at. It is a resolution to be achieved within a specified time and by a preset date. To achieve this goal, it is imperative that a plan of action be put in place. The plan must be relevant to the agenda being pursued, suitable as a solution to the problem, feasible and acceptable to the significant stakeholders. Finally, the plan of action must be put to test through practical action. Deliberate intent demands that a vision be written down, goals be crafted and committed to paper, a plan or plans of actions be drafted and appropriate actions be taken everyday.
Avoidance of deliberate intent is therefore avoidance of writing a vision, avoidance of setting goals, avoidance of crafting plans to achieve the goals and finally avoidance of taking smart actions to achieve the goals. All these four pillars demand discipline and thinking. Avoidance of deliberate intent is therefore another version of avoidance of personal discipline and avoidance of thinking.
It is unquestionable that the brain is the human being's greatest asset, and yet it is also the world's most famous and most common white elephant. How else can one describe the most magnificent asset that is operated at less than 3 percent capacity by most people?
Before we leave the subject of avoidance of deliberate intent, allow me to ask you a few personal questions. Where are you going with your life? Do you have a vision that is written down? Have you written down your goals on paper? Have you made plans to accomplish them? Are your daily-taking actions in line with your goals? If the answer to any one of these questions is no, then I humbly put it to you that the deliberate intent avoidance syndrome is knocking on your door. You do well to keep it out. It is not how much you know these things that matters. What matters is your commitment to actually live your life by deliberate intent.
The winners in this life approach life with a deliberate intent. They have an overriding purpose, an all-consuming obsession and an implacable resolve to do something day by day to take them closer to their desired haven.
Do you choose to be one of them or to exclude yourself from their circle?
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