Risk & Business Magazine General Insurance Services Magazine | Page 13

BY: JACK DALY 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 15 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 13 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 200 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 system 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 30, 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 13 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 BEING SUCCESSFUL 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 one to two 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 24 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 13