However, obsession with your work or business matters extremely for you to be one of the greatest

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“Rather than focusing strictly on the results of your accomplishments, take notice of the small steps needed to achieve success. If you allow yourself to enjoy small victories along your journey, reaching your goal will become a new adventure each day, and you will be more likely to stay on track. By doing this, you will learn new and exciting things along the way, which can help you grow as a person,” said Jennifer Herrity in her June 29th 2023 article published on https://www.indeed.com.

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She also wrote “Avoid being burned out. Focusing on your goal is important, but do not obsess over it. Keeping your journey productive but also fun will ensure you're motivated without overworking yourself. Sitting around and thinking about your goal all the time can cause you to?burn out”.

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I concur totally with her on the 1st paragraph but I want to share some thoughts on her points in the 2nd paragraph. The below details contain the reason why I do so and I’m going to begin with the 1st paragraph.

Comments and relevant details on the 1st paragraph

It is true that focusing on outcomes will first prevent or hinder you from appreciating small actions required to attain the overall result, if you keep your mind concentrated on the result you intend to achieve. This will then discourage you since it will cause you to disregard these small actions while it is they that certainly take you to the general result you aspire to accomplish. Then, downplaying these small steps will automatically prompt you to abandon your goal.

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This has always occurred to me. When I bear a goal to achieve and that I merely immerse myself in small actions designed to enable me to fulfill it, by the end of the day I find myself before a goal already attained. But when I always take time to think about the goal, it demoralizes me so that I suddenly relinquish the goal while I could actually realize it if I were determined. I say that I could accomplish the goal, if I didn’t give it up since this constitutes an observation that I have already made. I won’t now provide typical examples to establish it, but it is a truth that I have discovered on me. There are some goals that I have abandoned for the same reason, so that if I had at least resiliently pursued one of them, it could have drastically transformed my life more by far than it now stands.

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A number of sources substantiate my point. They also maintain that it is really considerably advised to avoid focusing on your outcomes, as according to them, otherwise it will dishearten you. They instead highly recommend you to concentrate on the process which will permit you to reach where you aspire to get. The process entails small daily actions, steps or mechanisms through which you will turn your desired outcome into a reality.

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The Disciplined Rebel https://disciplinedrebel.com is one of the sources. “Most people spend far too much time thinking about WHERE they want to get in terms of their goals. And not nearly enough time on the SPECIFIC STEPS it will take to reach them. Society teaches us that in order to be successful, you need to get results. However, society doesn’t always emphasize that in order to get the best results, you need to focus more on the process. And not only will focusing more on the process get you the results you are looking for, it will also make you a whole lot happier.”

The Disciplined Rebel highlights that focusing on the process is a lot more encouraging and that this is due to the fact you are concentrated on the small and individual component of your goal. “Most goals can take a long time to accomplish.?If you just focus on the outcome, you might get discouraged because you aren’t achieving your goal quick enough. And those little things are much more achievable in the short-run.”

Meanwhile, it’s noteworthy to note that all successful personalities that you know in addition to the most successful people in the world have first taken long time, to reach success, besides hardships they have experienced. Amazingly successful figures like Bill Gates, Jack Ma Yun and Mark Zuckerberg, just to name very few didn’t register overnight success though people generally think so. They have started at a crawling pace.

The Disciplined Rebel continues, differentiating two approaches with which people deal in any field on the journey of goal accomplishment, a journey where most people fail because of favoring one approach which doesn’t really deliver. The same source uses the example of a student in the field of studying. “If you are studying, there are two ways to go about it.

Outcome-Focused Approach:?studying to reach a certain desired result. For example, getting a good grade in a class you are taking or doing well on an exam. Process-Focused Approach-focusing on the specific processes involved, such as taking notes as you are reading, doing practice problems, memorizing information, or simply paying close attention to the reading material itself.”

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According to The Disciplined Rebel, concentrating more on actions generates you better results than focusing on your intended goal. “It helps you concentrate on the task at hand. Imagine you are studying and are fully absorbed in what you are doing. And not getting constantly distracted by thoughts like ‘I hope I do well on this test’. When you are deeply focused on something, your performance improves substantially. ?Therefore, paying more attention to the process will help you get in that deeply focused mindset.

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It makes it easier to spot opportunities for improvement. As you focus on the process more, you become more aware of which specific components are going well and which are not. This increased awareness enables you to spot opportunities for improvement. If your mind keeps drifting to the end result, it won’t be as easy for you to recall all the little details and how to adjust them. But if you are fully immersed in what you are doing, you will notice things you might not have been aware of otherwise.”

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Exemplifying the act of learning to play the guitar, The Disciplined Rebel tries to explain the consequence of focusing on the outcome. “If your mind is focused on the outcome where your goal is to get good enough to start a band. If you are distracted with daydreaming about starting a band while playing, you might not pick up on subtle things about your technique that you could improve upon. Like not holding down some of the notes hard enough in certain chords.”

It however points out that you are more likely to respond to those small opportunities for improvement, if you focus on the process while practicing. “Which will lead to more efficient progress towards your goals.”

In fact, goal achievement goes through the following stages: planning, execution, monitoring and evaluation.

The recommendation to focus on the process or actions which will permit you to accomplish your goal doesn’t mean that you need to only favor the execution phase in the detriment of the other phases. No! Each step carries its huge contribution.

It instead signifies that you have to only focus on each phase during its time. If you are at the planning level, focus on this stage only. If you reach the execution process, concentrate on it and only think about what you have planned to achieve if you are monitoring or evaluating it.

This monitoring and evaluation will permit you to conduct control wherever needed. In fact, during the implementation you have to regularly monitor your work/ actions/ performance. This exercise enables you to pinpoint lessons, failures and challenges so as for you to improve your performance in a bid to reach your goal.

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Planning, monitoring& evaluation are very important and hard but execution is the hardest and most important. Here, I don’t intend to say that there is a stage to be ignored since they are generally all important. But execution surpasses them since it is this step which will actually turn your plan into reality and you can’t monitor or evaluation what has not been done.

To comprehend my point more, you can read this article accessible at the link “ https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/alarm-sounded-organizations-across-world-awake-ndabananiye-fq61f?trk=public_post”. But in summary, this article demonstrates that execution is extremely very hard; which is explained by the staggeringly big number of organizations failing to implement their plans across the entire globe.

It reads “According to a study presented in Intellibridge, approximately 90% of all organizations fail to execute their strategies successfully. This staggering statistic highlights the significant challenges that companies face when it comes to turning strategic plans into tangible results.”

Things, goals or plans are usually easier said than done. This claim is corroborated by Spence (2010) who said that even then most organizations executed an extremely small portion of their strategy. Spence said that in 2010 he had spent seven years, teaching a class at the Wharton School of Business on the topic of “Strategic Thinking” and that one of the critical aspects of that program included understanding that ‘having the best strategy in the world is useless if you cannot effectively execute it!’

?“I typically get 100 – 200 senior executives at that workshop and the consensus from all of the past classes is that most organizations execute about 10–15% of their strategy. WOW, if that number is accurate (and unfortunately I believe it is) – and YOUR organization is in that range — think of the lost revenues, profits, and market share. The numbers are potentially massive and should be a major wake-up call that this is a serious issue and a HUGE opportunity. Imagine what would happen if you could instill a strong culture of disciplined execution across your entire organization. The rewards would be significant to say the least,” Spence in 2012.

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Comments and relevant details on the 2nd paragraph

Herrity advises to avoid being burned out and I agree with her perfectly on this because burn-out is intensely disastrous as even witnessed the definition of the word. According to the Collins Dictionary, if you?burn?yourself?out, you make yourself exhausted or?ill?by?working?too?hard. Burning oneself out means ?being?forced?to?stop?working?because you have?become?ill?or very?tired?from?working?too hard, as defined by the Cambridge Dictionary before adding that burn-out means ?extreme?tiredness?usually?caused?by?working?too much.

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The words “Focusing on your goal is important, but do not obsess over it. Keeping your journey productive but also fun will ensure you're motivated without overworking yourself. Sitting around and thinking about your goal all the time can cause you to?burn out” also contain aspects I agree on and those on which I want to comment a bit.

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First, I don’t think that you have to focus on your goal if you are at the stage of implementing actions designed to fulfill the goal. If I don’t think that you need to focus on it, it is self-evident that I can suggest you being obsessed with it. Yet to me, focusing on activities decided to be conducted and which are expected to lead you to the achievement of your goal is already equated with focusing on your goal, but of course not indirectly. You are focusing on the goal since you are concentrating on activities which will carry you to the accomplishment of the goal.

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The other words suggest that you don’t have to be obsessed with your work, so as to protect yourself from burn-out. It is actually on this point I disagree with her a bit, but without any reservation I agree with her on “keeping your journey productive but also fun will ensure you're motivated without overworking yourself.”

To justify it, let me use some elements from an article which you can access at https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/hard-work-key-trait-employees-craving-exceptional-must-ndabananiye/?trackingId=Vyr0KrIGSbirFKLO3PTLmQ%3D%3D, for more clarification since I will furnish a few.

In the article I cite the blog,?wwwhttps://summation.net?by Auren Raphael Hoffman. Hoffman is an American entrepreneur and CEO of Safegraph, a firm tracking people’s GPS locations. The website states “To be one of the best in the world at something, you have to work hard. Malcolm Gladwell theorizes that it takes 10 000 hours of deliberate practice to become a master at something.”

Those hours equal around 416.6 days which correspond to about 13.8 months. It means that you can possess a field, if you combine all the hours for which you’ve practiced it, and reach those months. “But it is not just the hours, it is obsession that matters,” this website writes. “You cannot be great at something, unless you are obsessed with it, you need to be thinking about it all the time.” “That obsession may consume you, it may not be healthy for you, but that is the difference between the great and the merely good.”

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Thought the blog recognizes that this obsession might be unhealthy for you, analyzing it, you find that this problem can’t happen if you are in the right industry. First, it says that people who have changed the world are those who were workaholics. Workaholic is a person who feels compelled to work excessively. “Look at Martin Luther King Jr., or Mahatma Gandhi, or Alexander Hamilton. They all put in many hours more than a standard 40-hour week.”

But it adds a key ingredient which has enabled them to be so. “The difference though is that their work is an extension of who and what they are, they worked hard because it did not feel like work.”

It additionally says that even today great achievers are workaholics, providing an example of remarkable players and musicians. “Think about those professional athletes who have achieved remarkable accomplishments. Consider the way they take care of their eating and sleeping habits. Is this separate from their “work” day? What about the time they spend in gym? Or cryotherapy, and massage therapy they spend hours undergoing??Each hour of the day becomes an extension of what they are at their core: athletes who want to sweat, improve, and win. Hard work is not an option for these high achievers, it’s their default.”

It thus admonishes employees unhappy with their jobs to take time to consider two important issues. They first have to assess whether they are in the right industries. If they are in fields that they deserve, it’s then time to check whether they are working with the right people. “If someone finds their job hard and exhausting though, the idea of working 60-80 hours per week will sound like torture. But it means they are working on the wrong things or working with the wrong people.?

If you are going to put in enough time to change the world with your work, it has to be fun for you. It has to be joyful and filled with meaning. Otherwise, you won’t stick around long enough or move fast enough to make a lasting impact on your industry.”

The blog adds that massive success requires massive sacrifice, delayed gratification, and focus on work. “To those in the right industry, hard work feels like play. If you are one of the best at what you do, your work probably feels like play. Find something you love to do- that you are good at.”

This actually signifies that accomplishing your goal encompasses being addicted with what you perform for you to attain it. This is corroborated by Times of India in its 14th July 2021 article by Muskan Rathi.

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It reads “Addiction may reflect a harmful routine but what if you get addicted to success. The skill of achieving success is easiest than everything until you don’t complicate it by yourself, your addiction to it will help you in moving ahead and grabbing your ideas. Craving of a thing is adopted when we keep on doing that very thing, again and again, same as in case of success when you start subsequent a particular thing again and again without any idea of result at that time you can say with pride that you are getting addicted to success.”

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There is entrepreneurship training I facilitated for some people in Rwanda very short time ago. A Canadian man with vast experience of around 30 years in that field as he also accompanied me to also provide his contribution, he told the participants “Passion and resilience are the most important attributes for you to be successful.”

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Times of India’s article also touts this attribute of passion; which involves the aspect of obsession or addiction. The writer says he carries some rules to achieve the ultimate addiction of success. Some of the rules are the following ones.

The 1st rule is passion. “There is a very simple method of life. “Dreams + Obsession = Passion, and Passion = Life. If you are a person with no passion, no doubt that you are unconscious in life. If you really want to see obsession, then see a person playing his life at the ultimate peak because it’s passion that brings them to such height. For getting addicted to success you have to live through passion and have to make it your addiction.”

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The 2nd rule includes the practice of achieving small goals daily. “Success is the amount of little hard work constant Day In and Day Out. Assume your dream is to create a successful application which can be broken into design, coding, testing, submission and marketing. Divide your day with little goals that would take at nearly all four hours or less to achieve.”

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The 3rd rule involves burning the fire inside you. “If the plan doesn’t work, modify the plan not the Goal. If you actually desire to be addicted to success, then let me inform you success is nowhere but inside you. The easiest rule of success principles is “Fire Up!!”. This can be seen by you not more than two words but there is nothing more powerful than these two words. Burning the fire inside you means living your life at peak point.”

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Another rule is that you have to live your dream. “If you dream it, you can do it. Every day of your life should be the day of your dream. If it’s not, sorry to say you moved for the wrong goal. Having little goals will help you to achieve your real goal.”

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To conclude, the secret for you to be obsessed with the achievement of your goal which entails the execution of daily actions is that you must be in the right field with the right people. Your right filed is the field in which you possess knowledge and skills and this field should match one, some or most of your natural gifts: talents.

While working in your field, you will never feel extreme tiredness and of course if you are tired, you will take rest. Rest represents one of mechanism for people to perform to their full potential. For instance, we are recommended to sleep for 9 hours and when we do so, we are galvanized to work hard on the following day. Otherwise, you won’t be productive. In other words, your rest features among factors enabling you to work hard and then accomplish your goal.

But an interesting thing among people being in the right industry and with the right people is that almost all they do benefits their goals and courses of action to achieve them. These people find themselves self-compelled to be always reflecting upon how they can enhance their operations and I don’t think that this harms them.

By Jean Baptiste Ndabananiye-Media, Empowerment& MBA.?

ADEPE Deputy-Programs Manager, with a demonstrated history/experience of involvement in women’s empowerment, project/program management, peace-building/conflict transformation, training, public awareness campaigns, governance and budget transparency, advocacy, documentation, the broadcast media industry, and community justice, among others.

?He is skilled in English and French, Project& Program Management, Media Production, Peace-building, Leadership, Advocacy, and Kinyarwanda- English-French Translation, among others. Strong management, media and communication professional with a Bachelor's and Master's focused in Journalism& Communication and MBA-Project Management respectively from University of Rwanda and Mount Kenya University.

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