Why are some ventures successful and others not?

Recall the times when you were most successful, either at work, with your hobbies or socially.

Successful doesn’t mean only rewards like money or promotions but can be intrinsic too like when you complete something and at your happiest, feeling you were making a difference, even if only feeling it yourself.

To help here are some of my examples:

Landing a job I really wanted - my first management position leading a software test team and diving into reading books and other materials to implement what I determined was the best test system I could for the performance of the team and its product.

Coaching kids to play Football and Hurling - Prepared training and team practices so the kids we’re motivated, enjoyed it and improved their skills individually and as a team.

Improving my public speaking - sparking up the courage to join toastmasters, participate, do the ice breaker and continue with the rest of the speeches in the program for a competent Toastmaster qualification.

Improving my golf handicap - so I could say at least once I played off single figures and ensured my performance was consistent.

There are lots more but these give a flavor of what I am talking about in different areas, so what comes to your mind?

Areas where I started something but didn’t have the success:

Learning Spanish - Started three times over the years but never kept at it.

Be proficient at software coding - Again started a few times but never had the commitment to keep going.

Work objectives - over the years I’ve committed to areas I wanted to excel or improve KPIs for performance reviews etc. and sometimes they didn’t happen. I’m talking about the ones I had 100% control of so fully on me.

As I’ve contemplated this over the years and noticed similar issues with my clients, there are “goal needs” we have to reconcile if we are going to have a chance at success with anything.

The typical extrinsic goal needs we’re familiar with:

• You want to do a good job and on the face of it the task seems like a good idea for you and others to benefit.

• You want the rewards that come with a good performance to fuel life and social ambitions.

• You want to keep up with peers and align with your competitive nature or feel you must compete even if you don’t want to.

• You want to learn more, use the knowledge and show a bigger impact in the role and be targeted for promotion.

The not so typical Intrinsic goal needs:

These are not always obvious but are the keys that will either make or break your goal, task or challenge.

• Purpose - Why do you really want to do the work for this task and does it align to some overall purpose that you believe in, gives you energy and plays to your strengths? If this is missing and when the work gets hard or you have too much on, low energy or competing priorities you will drop it like it's hot as they say. Even if it's a yearly performance objective task, you will find some way to justify not doing it and self-sabotage.

• Belief - That you have the capability and resources to be successful and make it happen. How many times have you started something with a doomed feeling that it is not something you can do or want to do but your manager wants it done or you feel you need to keep up with the Joneses so accept it. However you never fully commit to it. Remember you should have a strong say in what objectives you will go after no matter who cascades them down. Better to have an honest discussion upfront, best for you and company.

• Believe - That you believe the idea is a good one and all things being equal, if you put the effort in you will be successful with no major external blockers going to stop the work. Honest all up appraisal about the reality of the situation is so important as aligning with your purpose and belief in yourself only won’t get you over the line. If you are taking on something you don’t believe will be possible or depends on too many other people to get right who are not aligned to your goal, then prepare for some pain.

• Commitment and determination - To keep it moving even when things seem tough you need to have strong ongoing commitment and determination. This will help you keep taking action and overcoming setbacks. A mindset of being deliberate and focused backed up by an organised approach with a system for managing the work, enabling good routines leading to results orientated habits is so important.

The secret sauce I find is the HOW. When you put time aside for a task and it's time to do the work, faff around figuring out what you will do in that time? Map out your HOW upfront.

What = “I will read 3 chapters of the book.”

When = “I will read 3 chapters Wed 5th June @ 9am for one hour”

HOW = “I will enter my office, shut the door, turn off the phone, read 3 chapters, take notes, take 1 break, assess progress to the goal and update the plan as needed.”

If you don't start well and build progress the chances of failure go way up and you use those time slots for other work like the urgent and important fire fighting work versus the not urgent and important. Or worse again the not important but urgent stuff. Search for the “Time management matrix” for background on this.

Mindset is always the hidden success factor behind any successful performance backed up with solid practices and routines. So think about the intrinsic needs or factors before you commit to doing something with your time.