Do you get frustrated if you don’t see massive results in a short period of time? After 20 years of being business I think there is a sweet spot for things to come to fruition and I know this… it’s longer than we want it to be. Which brings up this great quote I heard Ray Higdon share not long ago…
“You will grossly overestimate what you can do in 90 days but way underestimate what you can do in five years. “ – Ray Higdon
Why is this quote so powerful?
Inherent in the quote is the idea that people want everything fast and now. Most great things take WAY longer than 90 days.
Granted, 90 days is a great way to batch the year in segments to get some intense, focused, actual work done. But, listen, you are not going to achieve all your goals (i.e. World Domination) in 90 days. It just won’t happen. Things always take longer than you think they will.
When I did time management training, I would always tell the group what Stephen Covey’s Time Management course suggested: plan your day for about 65% of your time. What about the other 35%? You set that aside for all the stuff that will pop up that you did not expect or plan for.
So, from a global perspective: stay focused on your ultimate goal without allowing the fact that your plans might not happen in the time frame that you imagine. Make it a matter of WHEN, never IF.
Our goals have always been, WHEN goals. IF we start a business was WHEN. IF we write a book was WHEN. IF we hit the best seller list was WHEN. And even today, IF we sell a million copies of Go for No! is simply, WHEN.
Ray is right about five years too. After launching our business in 1998, and five years later we looked back to see we had gotten amazing clients, traveled extensively, and wrote and published not one but three books. As it turned out, we would need another five years to hit the best seller list.
So be patient. If your goal is worth working for, it’s worth waiting for.
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