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The Follow-Through Factor: Getting from Doubt to Done - Softcover

Hayden, Gene C.

 
9780771038174: The Follow-Through Factor: Getting from Doubt to Done
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0771038178 ISBN 13: 9780771038174
Verlag: McClelland & Stewart, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

A practical guide to achieving your goals - from starting a business to running a marathon - despite anything and everything life throws at you.

We all have an idea or project that we'd like to pursue, and countless reasons why we can't: it may be that it's too expensive, or we lack the time, confidence, or skills. Inevitably, there are obstacles that get between us and our aspirations, but those who achieve their goals know that strategies exist for getting past these barriers.

First as a journalist and then as a certified life and career coach, Gene C. Hayden interviewed achievers from all walks of life - artists, executives, professionals, small business owners - who tackled insecurities and obstacles on the road to success. Those consulted didn't have any special advantages to ease their way, but they did have the follow-through factor, a practical mindset that drives action towards a goal, regardless of circumstance. And most importantly, Gene tells us that this is something anyone can learn. With her vast experience, realistic advice, and encouraging voice, Gene is the perfect guide for those who are eager to achieve their ambitions.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

GENE C. HAYDEN started her career as a journalist, and was a humour columnist with Modern Woman magazine and the people editor at Maclean's. After ten years in this field, she moved on to co-develop Hayden Communications Inc., a successful international media and marketing company that turned products into household names and people into corporate stars. Gene then became a certified professional coach and now works in North America, Europe, and Australia with hundreds of individuals and teams, in both the private and public sectors. She is also a popular corporate speaker on the follow-through factor. Gene lives in Toronto, Ontario, with her husband and daughter, and their two dogs.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

— One —
Yes, but what is follow-through?
 
 
Follow-through is a choice, disguised as a major headache and potential time-waster. As an option, it doesn’t sell itself well. If you go with it, you put faith and effort on the line. If you choose not to exercise it, nobody cares. People aren’t even going to notice. You can be fairly sure that no one will signal “loser alert” behind your back when you enter a room. Of course, no one will be jumping up to pat you on the back either, but you’ll still likely get asked to meetings and dinners on occasion.
 
That’s the tragedy of the matter. The worst thing that happens to those of us who fall short in follow-through is nothing. Life goes on as is. Nothing happens. Just as the opposite of love isn’t hate but indifference, the opposite of success isn’t failure, it’s status quo. And that’s fine. Except that for the ambitious among us, fine is a four-letter word.
 
And I’ll tell you what else is all too fine. Most of us feel we’ve got plenty of follow-through. So when we’re frustrated that we’re not where we want to be, we don’t accept that our problem might be neatly summed up in one hyphenated word: follow-through. As we tick off all the reasons why we aren’t achieving our goals, it never even dawns on us to include follow-through on our list And why would it? We get our assignments done. We meet our targets. We get our reports completed, our vacations planned, our closets sorted. Perhaps that last one is going a bit too far, but many of us have, at one point in our history, assembled an apartment’s worth of ikea furniture, and what better proof of our determination and grit could there be than that?
 
Just as we all think we’re better drivers than we are (truthfully, do you stop the recommended three seconds at every stop sign?), most of us of tend to think we’re stronger at followthrough than we are. That’s because we typically misinterpret follow-through as being something different than it is. Contrary to popular belief, follow-through is not the same as commitment. In fact, compared to follow-through, commitment is a walk in the park.
 
Commitment vs. follow-through
Slide commitment and follow-through under a microscope and you’ll detect a key difference. Commitment is discipline; follow-through is a state of mind. Commitment comes with a how-to manual. If you want to build a cabinet, read the diagram. If you want to lose weight, stick to a diet and exercise program. If you want to climb a mountain, complete a training program. If you want to buy a house, adhere to a savings plan. If you want to write a book, hold fast to a writing schedule. Commitment demands double-fisted resolve but delivers a predictable return on effort. You know what you’ll end up with if you commit to your plan.
 
Commitment is a map with well-marked roads that you can travel to arrive at your destination, whereas follow-through is more of a pirate’s treasure map. You have to figure out for yourself how to get to the X between the palm trees. You are inevitably going to have to problem-solve as you make your way through uncharted territory, with little more than a vague sense of which direction you should head first. Venturing into the unknown requires an adventurous mind, since you can never be sure what awaits you around the next corner or how you are going to tackle the unexpected. You may arrive at your Emerald City quickly, or you may take longer than expected and encounter more obstructions than you could have anticipated. But follow-through offers this guarantee to the wary: if you persist, you’ll get to some place you want to be and you’ll arrive much wiser.
 
Follow-through and commitment work in tandem. Commitment is the body of your idea, follow-through is its legs.
 
Say you decide to write a book on the elves of Iceland. You need commitment to churn out three hundred pages about Iceland’s invisible population. If you stick firmly to your research and writing schedule, you can guarantee that your investment of hard work will result in a manuscript. But once you have printed out three hundred pages, you are faced with the daunting question “Now what?” Having a manuscript in a drawer won’t change your life, it won’t make you a published author, it won’t broadcast to the world that you’re an expert on Icelandic beliefs. If you just leave your manuscript in the drawer, all you will have is three hundred pages that’ll gather dust over time.
 
The only way to bind those pages into a book with your name on the spine is to flex your follow-through. And that means taking a deep breath and putting time, money, and, toughest of all, ego on the line to send that book to every agent and, perhaps after that, every publisher in the English-speaking world. You can’t know what the result of your efforts will be, which is extremely nerve-wracking. If you think writing a book is tough, sending it out for possible rejection by every single person in the book publishing world is like going through root canals, tooth after tooth.
 
Follow-through is the only thing that separates the dreamers from the goal-getters. If you get nothing but rejection slips in the mail, it’s follow-through again that will keep you going and trying something else you have no experience with – self-publishing. If that’s the road you take, you’ll need to venture further into uncharted territory to figure out how to promote and distribute your self-published book. Certainly, in the end, it’s only because you exercised follow-through that you’ll be able to call yourself a published author, highlight the fact on your resumé, and introduce yourself forever more by saying, “You may have seen my book.”
 
Best-case scenario: Getting your manuscript published, or self-publishing, will launch your career as an author. Worst-case scenario: You can mention your book to distinguish yourself from the competition when you meet a potential client or employer or a blind date. In either case, following through will have created new possibilities for you. And you’ll feel better about yourself than if you had just put your untouched manuscript in a box in your basement.
 
Think of follow-through as a free fall compared to commitment’s bungee jump. Sure, to bungee jump you need to psych yourself up and find the guts to leap off the edge. But let’s not forget, you’re going off the bridge with a harness secured to your waist. You can plot out in advance how the jump will proceed and how many times you’ll swing back and forth before you are pulled back on the bridge. With follow-through, you jump out of a plane with your eye on a designated landing spot, but for all you know a sudden gust of wind could blow you off track and leave you dangling on a farmer’s backyard laundry line, miles from your target. As a result, you may have to figure out how to detangle yourself and either hike a few unexpected miles or sweet-talk your way into getting a tractor ride.
 
Typical to follow-through, you can never be sure how the path will unfold, which is why it requires a leap of faith. And as the following chapters show, such faith may often be tested, in different ways. But those with the follow-through factor have strategies to share for winning every test, and illuminating perspectives to guide you on your path. As you set off, here’s one piece of good news. You no longer have to count on luck to help you.
 
 
Follow-through doesn’t require...

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Verlag
McClelland & Stewart
Erscheinungsdatum
2010
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0771038178
ISBN 13 
9780771038174
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
256
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Verantwortliche Person
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