“It took me 10 years to succeed…, overnight.” 

I love this quote that I encountered in a lost magazine at a bus station.
It reminds me of 2 common illusions most achievers fall into at one point or another:

 1/The sprint does not exist.

The sprint doesn’t exist for one simple reason; What you desire the most, not an intermediate goal but your true ambition, your real quest, is an infinite game that will never be done once and for all.
You tend to it, you take it step-by-step, you expand and get bigger and better on your path, but still your journey is infinite.
The pursuit of it IS the matter.

Think a moment, when you become number 1 in your field, you discover that the game is still not over: You become your own challenger and compete with yourself to be better than you were yesterday - MJ-style.
The untold truth is that since the very beginning, you were and you are your own unique challenger. Most of the time you only realize it fully when...

Jonathan has worked as a free-lance real estate agent for the last 3 years.
He admits that he has no special interest in his job, but during his mid-life crisis he had decided to jump in for financial reasons only. Reaching for wealth!

Unfortunately, most of the time he is still today struggling to have a constant flow of money.
Lately, riding the wave from new COVID requirements, one of his highly successful friends offered him the opportunity to join a very promising business in public space cleaning.
Looks like a winning ticket on his way to becoming Wealthy Jonathan!
Yet, Jonathan wondered if that was a good option for him, and eventually declined.

I didn’t get it.
When I asked him why, he responded with one word: “Freedom.”

Reporting to a boss does not sound like heaven for a lot of us.
I get that. Actually, I relate to that vision to such an extent that I ran away from the very first company I worked for, after 2 years only. And I would not go back to that...

When was the last time that you won big?
You could legitimately ask me to define what counts as big or at least where it starts.
But the truth is, it’s not really that relevant to establish a formal definition here. What is big for me might not be big for you, and vice versa.

What we might actually have in common is looking for the next step ahead and feeling thrilled. This is where our “Big” takes place.  
Where is your next big achievement settling?
Are you lining up with it?
How?

1/ Winning is not (yet) the point.
Focusing on “BIG” is. It will force you to become better at what you do and, in the best case scenario, at who you are too.
Indeed, I don’t care if you manage it successfully, now. I’ll care about that when you’ll be trained enough, and not missing out any more opportunities when they come across and smile at you.


2/Are you an opportunity-taker?

Are you an opportunity-observer?

Are you an opportunity-blinder?

...

Twice a month I coach a newcomer CEO who brings concrete goals we work on to strengthen his empowerment.
Last time we worked on a classic issue: time management.

”Jeanne, I am overwhelmed. I just have too much on my plate now. I don’t tell anyone, but I am not as effective as I should be… I am not as available to my teams as I would like. I feel stressed and frustrated about it all.”

We all experience this sooner or later, right?
Bottom-line: We managed to find the possibility of an extra day. A full 7-8 hours.
No, I haven’t told him to work on Saturdays.
To the contrary, in order to find 7-8 hours in a week over your fullest packed agenda, you ought to look closely at what fills in your days and re-allocate your time. There is no secret here, you must deal with the causes, not the symptoms. 

But more important still, we built a new awareness and commitment to enable him to sustain this new time ethic with the following “Time Ethic...

In any relationship or transaction, what you actually deal in is trust.
It is less about ice-cream, clothes, consulting, or law services than it is about trust.
The same goes for your lover, your marriage, your kids, your friends. Same for your presidential candidate. Same for the vaccine to end this pandemic… Anything.
What you expect – and what you offer –  is TRUST.

Back to our question. Are you trustworthy?
My guess is we know when we are, and we know when we are not.

Notice that I haven’t said “IF” but “WHEN”.

Using “IF” would imply that there are only 2 categories: those who are trustworthy and those who are not. I don’t believe in this binary; There is no such thing as Manichaeism when it comes to humans. The grey area, and its thousands of nuances represents the majority.
Besides, we are all evolving and changing constantly in real life.

Using “when” is indeed a sweet reminder that...