403 Quotes About Effectiveness

If you want to excel in any endeavour you must pay attention to detail, know exactly what you want, have the detail on how you want it done and how you will get it done. You must realize the importance of definitions and love defining things in your life and about your life – Define your mission, define your problem, define your future, define your path and the finer details of your vision. Use your sense of imagination and creativity.

Your attitude should not settle for the average when you have what it takes to become the best. You excel by choice and you must be focused like a laser beam. Even the sun, powerful as it is, will not be able to burn a hole into a piece of paper until a magnifying glass is used to channel the power of its rays onto one spot. Focus your intellect and your knowledge to get excellent results.

No matter how much I care for you I cannot grow for you, you have to do your own growing – it’s your personal responsibility. Make a plan on how you will get the skills and experience required to become a practitioner of note in your area of choice.

Do not lose focus because of small wins or temporary set-backs. You can only score if you keep your eyes on the ball and be certain of where you want to place it even if you are not in physical sight of the goal. Visualise the dream but never take your eyes off the dynamic plan of action.

You must be willing to be disciplined as well as make personal sacrifices. It takes discipline to go through rigorous training and study programs. You need a coach or coaches and sometimes mates to help you stick to your planned program in execution of your responsibilities. To be excellent and effective, the non-essentials must give up time and space in your life – some sacrifices have to be made. Work hard and work smart.

Take your mission and yourself very seriously. Stick to your schedule and keep time. Cut expenditure of time and money from non-core activities and redirect to those that give more value to the pursuit of your purpose. Never embark on your work or a project without a plan, even if it’s just a mental plan. Use the old carpenter’s rule – “Measure twice and cut once.” Do not leave room for substandard results.

Even if you are counted amongst the best, you will slip into mediocrity by remaining comfortable being the worst of the best. You might be relevant, but because your level of effectiveness is in the bottom tier and your impact minimal – you will soon become obscure as your relevance begins to wear off.

Shift from mediocrity to excellence. Mediocrity and Excellence are like jealous suitors fighting for a partner and competing to please him/her, to the extent they do all they can to reproduce in sets of twins. Mediocrity gives birth to Irrelevance and Obscurity, whilst Excellence breeds Relevance and Significance. These sets of twins cannot inhabit the same life, only one compatible pair can co-exist.

Review and question what you already know or have. In most ball sports and games, you confirm whether you have scored by checking whether the ball has gone into the goal or hit its target. So evaluation of results means that you must look at your goal to see if the ball has hit its target. Look at your educational aspirations or dreams and say “am I on track to meet my 2020 PhD target?