Industry Magazine Get JACK'D Magazine Summer 2018 | Page 29

adversity more as a challenge, and in their efforts at self-mastery,
they act accordingly and overcome their obstacles. Successful
people are willing to do whatever is necessary to be successful,
whereas those struggling are unwilling to stay with it. Rather than
waiting until all the details are figured out, successful people in
life embrace the uncertainty, and therein lies the breakthrough
opportunities!
More often, failure in the future is the result of inadequate
imagination in the present. I think about growing up in a modest
family environment with my Dad working six days a week to
put a roof over his family, food on the table and clothes on our
backs. Then, I look at myself racing and finishing fifteen Ironman
competitions; bungee jumping the world’s highest jump; flying a jet
fighter plane; hang gliding above the Christ the Redeemer statue
in Rio de Janeiro; diving with great white sharks off the coast of
South Africa; traveling the world as a professional speaker; and
the list goes on. This despite being educated as an accountant; not
knowing how to swim at the age of 58; no flying lessons; and a fear
of public speaking! This begs the question—how?
Let’s go back a long time, when I was thirteen years old. I worked
as a caddie at a private country club and quickly realized that the
members were living a significantly better life (success as I saw it)
than my Dad. Given a choice, I’d have preferred their life! So, while
carrying their clubs, I ended up “interviewing” about two hundred
of them. I peppered them with questions as to how they achieved
such success and what advice could they share with an ambitious
kid who sought similar success. Here’s what I heard: 1) Set goals,
don’t pick too many, and put them in writing; 2) Build a written
plan on how you will achieve the goals, indicating both activities
needed along with associated time frames; 3) Have a s ystem of
measurement of activities; and 4) Share the goals and have some
folks hold you accountable.
I picked four goals, all of which I would complete by the “old age”
of thirty, covering the following areas: Financial, Professional,
Education and Family. Once I had my vision/destination, the task
was to “reverse engineer” and identify the things that needed to
be done in order to arrive at the desired end zone. Well, the goals
were all accomplished and in less than the stated time frames. This
did not happen without incurring sacrifices. This did not happen
without facing down adversity. But the magnetism of the goals
and the sharing with others all assisted in me pushing through to
the end zone. The amount of “no’s” I had to express was at times
overwhelming. The social events I missed were numerous. The
question to be wrestled down is, how bad do you want it? In order
to ask that question, you must first determine what “it” is! Then,
laser focus and grit.
What was started at thirteen years of age has continued through
the years, and here I am in my late 60s and the process continues.
I encourage a visit to jackdaly.net to see my personal goals for the
year and my Life Bucket List (75 percent complete). Over the years,
my central categories have changed. I’ve worked with others, and
they’ve set categories of a different nature because the definition
of success can differ from person to person (no right, no wrong).
Health has become a significant category for me as my life has
progressed (without that, nothing else matters). What one does
Professionally will generally be a key category. (Happy there leads
to happy in many other arenas. Put another way, unhappy there
and likely unhappy elsewhere as well.) For some, the category
of Spiritual will be a significant category; for others, it might be
Financial; for others, Family, etc. Identifying your categories of
importance and painting a picture of your “success” is the Vision.
Then there is the task of breaking each down into actions with time
lines, and we are on our way to success!
Here are a couple fun exercises aimed at enhanced personal
success.
1. Photo A Day
Every five years (I do this on milestone years like age 50, 55, 60,
65, etc.) I decide to take at least one photo each day during that
year. Some days merit several photos while on others, I might
struggle to snap one. Once the year is over, I then produce a photo
book I call “A Year in the Life of Jack Daly.” Since I have plenty of
notice when that year is upon me, I find myself building an over-the-
top year of special events. My goal for the year is to have such a
year that when people view my photo album, there is a sense I’ve
lived more in one year than most have lived in their lifetime! A funny
byproduct is going to bed each night having a sense of excitement
for tomorrow’s photo but then waking up in the morning looking
to top it—total fun. What you don’t want is a photo album of 200+
photos of you sitting in front of a computer or something similarly
less inspiring. Life is to be lived!
2. Go To Your Room!
Take an evening where you and your significant other will each go
to a separate room with a pad and pen. (A computer can work too; I
just like the creativity I get with pen and paper versus a keyboard.)
Pleasant music playing in the background tends to improve the
results of this activity. Set a time frame for the activity (maybe 1–2
hours). The goal is for each party to write down as many things as
they can think of that they would like to do “before they are too old
to enjoy them.” The key here is quantity. Don’t bother with ranking
or prioritizing at this stage. Once finished, put the lists away with
no discussion for twenty-four hours between you and your partner
about what made it onto the lists. The next evening, both parties
share the same room, place the lists adjacent to each other, and
discuss and develop a merged “Life List” in some order of priority.
This part of the exercise might go on beyond one evening and will
require some negotiation. Once you have one list, begin setting
time frames for completion. You know you have your Vision, and
it’s all about the process of identifying specific actions to “Make
Life Happen.” Have fun!
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters
compared to what lies within us.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson
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