Success is within everyone’s grasp.

Though to take advantage of that potential, four factors need to be in place.

The formula looks like this.

I started my first ‘real’ business when I was in my early 20's. It was selling life insurance. I knew absolutely nothing about running a business. Man, I was so green, it took me a couple of weeks to work out they actually wanted me to sell insurance!! My saviour was that I had the privilege to work with some fabulous people. People with a genuine client focus,  together with some real business savvy. What a tough but ultimately brilliant learning environment it was.

Investors at year-end are inclined to reflect on the 12 months gone and muse on what the coming year might bring. Aware of this appetite for speculation, the media tends to feed it with forecasts. These articles can be fun to read, but are even more so a year later.

Is there any more that can be written or said about Goal Setting? Its impact on performance is said to be the most researched theory of motivation in the field of organisational psychology.  There have been hundreds, maybe thousands of studies completed. Some, like the 1953 Yale Graduates Study have legendary status, although apparently, it never happened. 

​Do you remember the Kerrigan family in the classic Australian movie, The Castle? They saw themselves as the “luckiest family in the world” when Dad got a great deal on a property in Bonnie Doon with a mobile kit holiday home overlooking massive electricity power lines. “How’s the serenity?” was one of many famously comical lines.  

​One rainy afternoon in 1940, an inspired 15-year old boy named John Goddard sat down at his kitchen table in Los Angeles and wrote three words at the top of a yellow pad, "My Life List." Under that heading he made a list of everything he wanted to achieve.

​Every great accomplishment had a sound strategy behind it. Winging it might spice up your life, but having no plan is a recipe for disappointment. Great feats are achieved as a result of people knowing what they want and why! 

​Think about your favourite professional sports person or business super achiever.  Do you think it’s possible that he or she became successful without first setting up a target and then taking aim?  Not likely. 

Think about how many hours you’ve wasted over the years worrying about investment markets, or trying to predict what might happen next. That private angst when your numbers wobbled. Can you name one time when you’ve gained by obsessing like this? ​

At 50, financial questions begin to shift from “what are my goals for the future?” to “where have my past decisions led me?” Financial adviser Tony Sandercock explains.

This blog was originally posted in "Slice of Life".