Saturday, December 17, 2011

Why People Fail

Today will be a great day. I am already feeling productive. Ran 5 miles. Read a book. Life is good.

Part of what added to my productivity this morning was planning ahead(said redundantly for emphasis). I planned last night what I was going to do today. I even had my running clothes set out. Makes it all happen seamlessly.

I worry a bit that I am a busyholic. I always seem to be swamped. I know that it is my choosng though so I must like it like this.

The book I read was Why People Fail - The 16 Obstacles to Success and How You Can Overcome Them by Simon Reynolds. I normally like reading about success although I do always say Fail Often, Fail Fast, Fail Cheap.

I loved the book. It starts with a chapter "Unclear Purpose". It is so obvious - the main cause of failure is not lack of clarity. "Vagueness leads to failure". The chapter goes on with concrete examples of how you can set your purpose. It even suggests setting a purpose for the week. For me, purpose comes before goals. The book tends to lump them together.

There is a good chapter on low productivity and what to do about it (perhaps a trick like planning ahead might work).

And one of my favourites - Daily Rituals (or habits). Something that I have blogged a lot about.

I guess if I have any beef with the book, it is the negativity of the title. It really is a success book.

2 Comments:

At 6:37 PM, Blogger Rick Baker said...

Jim,

Does the author define "Failure"?

It would be helpful if business leaders could agree to a definition of that word.

How do you define "Failure"?

Regards,

Rick

 
At 11:09 AM, Anonymous Manage Better Now said...

Thanks for the book recommendation. I take ten minutes at the end of each day and list out what I want to get done the following day. Then I prioritize the list to ensure I work on the most important things first. If I run out of time, then some of the more trivial tasks may get pushed to the next day. Seems to work for me.

 

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