The Long Cut to Success

When you fail to hit your goals, do you immediately look for externals to blame or for short cuts to get there?

I know I do.

I get caught up in achieving short term goals that when I fail, I need to find a reason that doesn't involve ME or I do anything possible to hit them, even at a cost to long term development. It's as if my brain believes that short term goals are more important than long term success. 

But true success is built over decades, not quarters.

Think 10 years, not 1. This month matters a whole lot less than this decade.

Sure, strive to hit your short term goals. They are important. But don’t take short cuts to get there.

Take the failure, learn from it, grow from it, and get better because of it. 

Short term losses will fade away, but long term greatness will come if you maintain a relentless, single-minded focus on the long term in spite of the short term failures.

If you don’t have a long term vision, stop everything now and find one. Without it, your work will be in vain.

Never lose sight of what you are building, drip by drip, every single day.

Shun the short cut.

Focus relentlessly on the long term.

Stay humble.

Work ridiculously hard.

That's my formula.

What's yours?