Strange but true – sometimes enthusiasm does not work in your favour. Over-enthusiasm can trap you into setting unrealistic goals for yourself. Telling yourself: ‘I will be a millionaire by the age of 25’ or ‘CEO of a Times 100 organisation by the age of 30’ is fine in fantasy but not in reality unless your surname is Gates, Buffett, Arnault or Murdoch and you have a certain family connection. So you start with mission impossible, soon discover that it’s impossible and in frustration give up and become disillusioned with life.
Most of us are acorns and it takes healthy preparation before we can grow and become oaks. So in this part we spend some time orientating ourselves to what lies ahead.
Brilliant personal development is not:
- making a stack of money
- getting the corner office on the top floor in mahogany row
- being on the cover of Time magazine
- being chased by paparazzi.
Although some of these things might happen along the way. Brilliant personal development is a very simple concept:
Being the best you can with what you’ve got. ’
What is a reality is that you already have all the dispositional requirements to forge ahead, but it has to be step by step. Brilliant self-development is not an all or nothing activity but operating as your best self and grasping the opportunities that you create or that are given to you along your journey. OK, so Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it was built and here is how you start.
‘Success is not about being the best.
Success is the process of becoming your best self.’
Sally Hogshead