THE 3 P’S OF SUCCESS
This action requires contemplation and personal thought. I don't expect you to take eve-rything here as the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Use the grocery store method, “If you can use it take it home with you.” Don't condemn the whole book just because you don't agree with one statement.
THE THREE P'S
I have learned by the school of hard knocks that there are three things necessary to suc-ceed in any endeavor. They are:
• Prayer
• Planning
• Persistence
I am not sure if there is any certain order that these P's should be applied. Persistence is always the last one. You must persist until you succeed. You must plan to know how to per-sist. God’s help in necessary for all of these to happen so Prayer comes at all levels.
PRAYER
What is prayer? Many people believe that prayer is a method of communications. I know that this is true. In my belief system I know that I can communicate with God through prayer. Prayer can take many forms, for some it might be mediation or pondering a thought for oth-ers it may be more formal but it is always a way to communicate with a higher form of intel-ligence.
Prayer provides me with a consulting service on any challenge. I once had a friend go to my Bishop asking what was wrong with me.
He said, “That Evans prays and thinks he gets answers.”
My Bishop answered. “We all have our problems but I wouldn’t worry about his."
It is useless to pray and not expect to get an answer. Faith is part of the process of pray-er. If you don’t expect an answer, why pray in the first place. I get answers but not always the ones that I want. Prayer and faith are an essential part of the equation for success. This author can't tell you what you must do; however, you must find your own direction and method to communicate with God or some higher form of intelligence.
PLANNING
Planning is an essential part of any action. Even simple actions require a plan. Sometimes the plan is to do nothing and let our actions be directed by the events as they take place. A plan has not been constructed but a choice has been made. Planning is selecting options that we believe will get us to a certain goal.
Planning does not begin with the project that we are working on. Planning begins with deciding what we want to be and what we want to do with our lives. Each individual needs to determine his own destiny. Each must decide his own direction.
My method of planning a life is to develop a mission statement. You asked, “What is a mission statement?” A mission statement is what you are. A good friend of mine who has now passed through the veil put it this way. “It doesn't matter what a man does or what a man say, what is important is what a man is.” What he meant was that no matter how much good you do if you do it for the wrong reason it is unimportant. What you are and what you believe is what is important. My definition of a mission statement is a verbal description of what you are, what you want to be and how you are going to get there.
Writing and developing a mission statement will be one of the hardest things you have ever done. It will be worth the effort. I spent three years developing my mission statement and since it was finished I have changed 25 words in three pages. My mission statement was completed over 15 years ago. My life had little meaning until I completed the mission state-ment. A mission statement is not an unchangeable document, however it should be changed with great care once that it is complete. The world evolves and your mission statement must be kept up to date. If your mission statement is written on correct principles the changes will be few. This paper is an extension of my mission statement and will help me to achieve one of the goals set forth in my mission statement.
The statement that this book will help me to bring to reality is:
“SERVICE: I will help at least 1,000,000 people to approach their physical, spiritual, finan-cial, mental and social potential.”
The best sources of information on developing a mission statement are provided by Ste-phen R. Covey in THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE and in PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST.
Any plan that you make must be consistent with your mission statement. Each of us must make our lives consistent. All of the elements must balance. In order to develop a plan for any project or goal you must know where you want to go and why you want to get there. The current plan must be evaluated against your core values.
If you do not ensure that what you are planning is part of your core value system you will not succeed and if you do it will not be the most pleasant process. Happiness and success work together. They are not mutually exclusive but rather are interlocked. Love your work and you will not work another day in your life. This means do what is consistent with your core values and your mission statement and you will be happy, successful and life will be good.
BARBRA SHER'S BOOK
Barbara Sher wrote a book called: WISHCRAFT, HOW TO GET WHAT YOU REALLY WANT. This is one of the best books on practical self-help that I have ever read. I have recommend-ed it to a lot of people and all thought it was a great help.
This book will help you discover who your are and what you want to do when you grow up. WISHCRAFT is a big help in developing a mission statement.
ASSIGNMENT ONE
Your first assignment is to develop a mission statement. Take the time to do the reading and the research. Look into the very bottom of your soul and discover your true values and worth.
SOME PLANNING METHODS
The method of planning that I like is to start at the end point and work backwards in steps. This provides general outline of what we need to reach a goal. The best explanation of this type of planning is in a book by Barbara Sher, titled WISHCRAFT.
The table or matrix is sometimes called a responsibility matrix. The name of person re-sponsible for the action, action item, step, date due and results are listed across the top. The names of the person responsible for the action are listed down the left side.
Dr. Steven Covey stated that we must begin with the end in mind. I am a firm believer in this thought. To begin with the end in mind we must first determine what is the end. The end result becomes our goal. After we have established the goal then we take a small step backward from the goal and visualize what the step taken before the goal would be. After we determine that step we step back a little more and repeat the process. This process is continued until we get back to our present situation. Many times the steps that we must take are not apparent. When the next step back is not apparent it is time to do some re-search. Today the Internet, libraries and friends are all available to help.. In fact many times the research is the next step back.
That last paragraph was a lot of impossible tasks for the average person without a place to start. If you don't have a fair idea of what you want and where to start, develop a mind map. What is a mind map? A mind map is a method to develop and organize your thoughts about a single subject.
How do you create a mind map? There probably is not one better method than the other but I start with a blank sheet of paper preferably without lines or borders (I use an artist sketch pad.). In the center of the page I print the subject that needs to be brainstormed. Then I draw a circle around the subject.
If mind mapping is your bag here are a couple of books to help. MINDMAPPING by Joyce Wycoff and USE BOTH SIDES OF YOUR BRAIN by Tony Buzan. These are two older books on the subject but they are still great information
As you can see a mindmap does not have to be a thing of great beauty. Mine are not. I have seen mindmaps that should have been framed and hung in an art gallery or a museum.
On lines that radiate out from the center are placed main thoughts. Along these lines are specific ideas and tasks, the big thing is that these mind maps need to be fun. I get a great gob of colored pens and use them to organize specific ideas. When I get done I draw lines around related ideas.
You might ask why not just make an outline. Don't know the answer to that one. Mind maps just work better for me. When writing procedures I drew mind maps and could pro-duce an acceptable procedure in a third the time it took when I used an outline.
Mind mapping is really a form of brainstorming that we can do as an individual or in a group. It is a great way to record and organize the thoughts of a group. Mindmapping allows us to use both sides of our brain.
After we have a plan to get to the end we must take the first step. Many times the steps will changes as we develop the path to our goal but we still have a plan. The plan should not be considered to be “Set in Concrete.”
After we have developed a “mental” plan then it needs to be put on paper. I like flow charts. Again I don't follow all of the rules for rigorous flow charting technique. My flowcharts work for me and provide a guide for me.
PERSISTENCE
The third P is persistence. This is the hard one to define but it mean simply keeping on until the goal is achieved. If we have a passion for and want our goal bad enough we will do what it takes to get to the end result. I must say that all steps must be taken with honesty and integrity. If we do not achieve our end result using correct principles then the end result will be meaningless to us.
I know of one businessman that applied for a loan at over sixty lenders before he re-ceived the money necessary to fund his business. The point is he kept going until the desired result was achieved.
I believe that these three P’s if properly applied will allow you to accomplish anything.
PATIENCE
Patience may well be the fourth P of success. This will not be voiced too loudly as this author does not rate very high in this area. In all things it takes time to get results and I want things to happen now. A good friend suggested that I include patience as the fourth P of suc-cess and I think that she is right.”
The How for survival starts with three basic things?
• To survive you must have food, water and shelter.
• To have an adequate supply of food stored you must have organized your financ-es to get that food supply.
• You will need to develop a plan to get that year’s supply. It won’t happen over-night but it still can be accomplished.
Gardening and sound financial management will be large steps in getting a year’s supply of food. I won’t attempt to tell you how to garden in this checklist. There are several ex-cellent references about gardening in the resource section. I will give you information on how to construct a simple and productive garden. If I get carried away please forgive me as I love to garden.
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