Achievement
“The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to
live up to
one’s opportunities and make the most of one’s resources.”
~ Marquis de Vauvenarques ~
French
moralist and essayist, 1715-1747
Pop taught me the secrets to achievement were several
simple steps, however I came to learn that what he thought was simple, wasn’t necessarily so. As an example, he
taught me that the first step in anything should always be a bold one. Some of the synonyms for bold are adventurous,
confident, courageous, daring, gutsy, presumptuous, resolute, and/or unafraid as opposed to afraid,
cowardly,
fearful,
meek,
shy,
timid,
or weak.
In Pop’s way of thinking, the stuff that needed to happen prior to (or in order to take) that first ‘bold’ step,
would be preparation or as he said; “getting ready to go!”
Some of the ‘stuff’ happens in these stages. First you are in the pre-contemplation stage, which is before you
even think about doing something. This stage doesn’t mean the things didn’t exist; just that it has not previously
come into your area of contemplation. You may have observed this thing, read or heard about it without
it captivating your full attention. In the contemplating stage, you actually become intrigued by what you observed,
read or heard about this thing. It begins to stir your imagination and simply will not go away. It’s like
that itch in the center of your back that you cannot scratch. At some point, something triggers your motivation,
to actually do something about this thing. You stop just thinking about it and decide to actually take a look at
the pros and cons, the upside potential and the downside risk.
Somewhere about this time you begin to share this thing with one (or more) of your networks. I’m not sure when
Pop made me aware of networks or the effective use of them; however, they are a fact of life. If you see anything
beside your reflection, if you are linked to anyone for aid, you are networking. The most common of these networks
are friends, family and associates. The bud’s you hang with, the clan you were born into and those you are involved
in with your career. If you are truly lucky, you will have a small network that includes all three of these elements.
Nevertheless, at some point you will begin to feel out how others react to this idea, this thing which you are
now becoming serious about.
At some point after you have ran this thing up the flagpole, thrown it on the table, played the devils advocate,
received the benefited from the brainstorming, feedback, advice and just about beat this thing to death, you come
to the decision stage. Is this thing going anywhere or not? Is it going to become a goal or objective or just some
more slag or leftovers from the refining process? If the decision is to move forward, the next thing that has to
happen is planning.
At this point, you may have decided that all these stages are actually steps toward a goal or objective. Not
so! The definition of planning easily clarifies that issue. It is simply deciding upon a course of action before
acting. The more complex definition is reasoning about future events in order to verify the existence of a
reasonable series of actions to take in order to accomplish a goal or objective.
As somewhat of a review of Pops lesson about achievement, let’s assume that a great new fishing hole caused
by a Beaver Dam, was discovered about 300 miles away from our home. Several months went by before those folks living
in Paducah even heard of the place (pre-contemplation). Finally, a cousin from the area of discovery came into
my town and told of the trophy fish he had recently caught. Within weeks, the story made its way through the family
and I became aware of this ‘fish story’. As it were, I had an old girlfriend who had moved to the area where the
new “Beaver Dan’ fishing hole was located and I thought; I might just go see Missy Sue (contemplating) and check
out this body of water.
I talked to a few friends about the idea and Bubba said he would like to go with me if I went, and then added
he would bring his boat. Of course, Mary Bell was not all that happy with the prospects because she knew that Missy
Sue lived near the new fishing hole. If we were to go, Bubba and I knew that it would have to be after the tobacco
was in the barn and hay was bailed. We also secretly thought that by then, all the good fish would be gone and
the reason or objective of going would be a pipe-dream. However, every time we thought about getting out of town
for a few days we liked the idea. As we got closer and closer to the end of the harvest season, the idea became
better and better, so we began to plan that trip and gather the resources we would need to maximize our potential
success. PS: I also called Missy Sue.
We asked our cousin to send us a map of the area that directed us to the fishing place and, asked him to mark
where he had seeded his hole. We took Bubba’s outboard to the shop and had them tune it real good. We had decided
we didn’t want to sleep in the back of his pickup truck, so we took the trailer hitch off of it and attached it
to my old station wagon. Come the second Saturday in September, we loaded all of our gear in my old ‘Woody’, went
to Bubba’s and hooked up the boat, stopped by the Mini Mart and filled up the cooler. As we exited Paducah we honked
the horn and waived to the crowd at the barber shop. My old station wagon back-fired a couple of times as we climbed
the hill just outside of town and Bubba and I just grinned because our first step was everything we thought it
should be, bold, adventurous and resolute. Beaver Dam Fishing Hole or Bust.
FINAL THOUGHT
American Author Henry Miller once said: “In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to
everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.”
All those things that Pop taught me to do prior to taking that first step were clearly not shortcuts.
Some would think that Pop taught me that having an objective, destination or goal and a well established plan
was the secrets to achieving success. In reality, Pop taught me that success is/was not attained when you achieved
the desired ‘thing’. Success is/was actually the process of becoming the person to whom that desired thing belongs.
The achievement, with respect to the new fishing hole, was not earth shattering nor will it go down in history
as a great one. However, Bubba and I clearly took the opportunity presented to us, made full use of the resources
we had, caught a few fish, fully enjoyed each others company and when I left that new fishing holes area, Missy
Sue still had a smile on her face. I would say that I owned that one…
JS6/06
