Jolt!, Phil Cooke [reading women txt] 📗

moan. “What about company policies?” they plead. “We have to figure our company limitations into the solution.”

Not at this point. This is the place where anything could happen and we start with a blank slate.

Why? Because this is where the most innovative solutions come from. You don’t solve existing problems with existing rules. To do something new, you can’t keep doing something old. Thinking in old ways will never solve new problems. You’ll never be innovative unless you start with the greatest number of possibilities. Of course, many of your ideas won’t work, but you’ll never know unless you write them down and address them.

And you’ll discover that very often the most creative and unusual solution will jump right out of that list, and it will be a solution that never would have been considered by someone whose thinking was restricted and bound.

So get your goals down first. Anything, everything, whatever you can think of or want to accomplish.

NARROW YOUR FOCUS

The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.

—DENIS WAITLEY, MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER AND AUTHOR

After a few of these blue-sky sessions, you should have a list of interesting possibilities about where you want to go with your life and issues you want to change. Keep these notes because you’ll find yourself coming back to the list from time to time.

Start by exploring the possibilities from the list and begin focusing on the goals that match your personality, gifts, and passion.

» FIRST, LOOK THROUGH THE LIST AND TOSS OUT GOALS OR CHANGES THAT SIMPLY CAN’T HAPPEN.

For instance, if you’re fifty years old, chances are you’ve missed your chance for an Olympic gold medal. It was a good dream, but that one’s out of reach. Perhaps you can get a job working with the U.S. Olympic Committee or help mentor or train a local athlete, but short of a miracle, your competing is pretty much out of the question.

Other goals might be unattainable for a variety of reasons, such as geography, finances, or education. Don’t toss those out yet, because you never know what can be achieved with a little creativity and someone determined to change. (Remember Booker T. Washington.)

» THE NEXT STEP IS TO SPEND TIME THINKING ABOUT YOUR GOALS IN TERMS OF YOUR PERSONAL GIFTS, TALENTS, PASSION, AND WILLINGNESS TO SACRIFICE.

Nearly every week, I meet people who spend enormous amounts of money and time dreaming of a career they simply don’t have the talent or ability to do well. All the passion and desire in the world will not make me a successful NBA walk-on or Super Bowl MVP. At some point, we have to realize the limitations of our abilities and not continue wasting our lives in the pursuit of an impossible goal.

On the other hand, there are millions of people with lofty goals who have simply not made the commitment it takes to achieve them. Being in the entertainment business, I am constantly meeting people who have written screenplays, and I usually have a stack of scripts on the edge of my desk. To be honest, 90 percent of the scripts are simply awful pieces of writing. Many producers and studio executives use the “ten-page rule” in reading these screenplays: if it doesn’t capture our attention or impress us with compelling writing within ten pages, it hits the trash.

Many of these writers have great passion for their work and have sometimes put years into the process. I often get very emotional and passionate cover letters from writers who believe very strongly in their potential. Some believe they have an almost divine purpose in writing and desperately cling to the hope that a producer will eventually see the brilliance in their scripts and give them a shot.

While passion and desire are important, so are training, education, and preparation. Far too often I find writers who tell me they just don’t have time to take classes or work with a writing teacher. They’re convinced passion is all they need to become successful.

» WOULD YOU HAVE BRAIN SURGERY BY A DOCTOR WHO HAD GREAT PASSION FOR HIS WORK BUT WHO DIDN’T HAVE THE TIME TO ATTEND MEDICAL SCHOOL?

I doubt it. In the same way, we have to realize the importance of laying the groundwork and building the right foundation to make our goals and dreams happen.

Perhaps that’s a change you need to make right now. Maybe your dreams have been frustrated because you haven’t made the commitment of preparation. Want to be a pastor? Enroll in seminary. Want to be a doctor? Head to medical school. Want to be an architect? Get the training. Find an internship, volunteer, or develop a mentor relationship with someone with expertise in the area you want to pursue.

We’ll discuss this in a later chapter on personal growth, but for now, I urge you to put in the preparation it will take to achieve your goal. Penicillin wasn’t the culmination of a vast research project, it was the result of an accidental discovery. But it never would have happened had those scientists not had very definite goals in mind.

Chance favors only the prepared mind.

—LOUIS PASTEUR

You are different from every other person on the earth, and there are abilities and talents you were born with that will help determine your ultimate career, goal, or calling.

I’ll use the word calling from time to time, which means “a sense of destiny and spiritual purpose.” In the Christian sense, it means that God has called you for a specific purpose and that divine purpose is your reason for being. People of different faith perspectives have similar feelings about this area, and it’s something I recommend you explore further. Some people have a calling to help inner-city children, some feel called to expand medical care to needy countries, and others