RATIONALIZATION IS THE CANCER OF ACCELERATION

Acceleration requires clarity, simplicity and consistency. Clarify what you want and why you want it. Simplify your approach to achieving it. Remain consistently focused on executing your plan of attack.

A healthy and fully functioning career accelerates from one level of impact to the next. (Not necessarily by title, but always by meaningful contribution.)

Cancer ruins health and reduces an organism to less than fully functioning.

Rationalizing why you won't achieve what you want to achieve is one of the most dangerous forms of career cancer. You can come up with dozens of rationalizations as to why you are not going to have the career you want. The economy, terrorism, your boss, your employees, your co-workers, your customers, your competition, your family, and time are all topics that can be twisted into rationalizations for not achieving what you want.

Here are my three points of wisdom: stop doing that!

If you know what you want and why you want it, then channel your attention, your energy and your efforts toward the achievement of what you want. Pour no attention, energy and effort into rationalizing why you can't achieve it.

I have several friends and family members who are running in marathons. (This idea is so far beyond my comprehension that I don't even have to rationalize why I'm not going to do it.) None of these folks are lifetime runners. They all just set a meaningful objective and focused on how they would achieve it. They poured their attention into proper training and not into the reasons why they couldn't achieve their goals. These people are accelerators, not rationalizers.

Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi put on a classic duel at the U.S. Open. It was the oldest men's final in history. Both could have easily rationalized why they shouldn't make it to the finals. Instead they focused on doing what had to be done to get there.

Serena and Venus Williams could have come up with hundreds of excuses during their rise to the top, but they didn't. They simply focused on what had to be done.

A few months ago, several miners were trapped underground for several days. Both the miners and the rescue workers could have rationalized as to why these men were going to die. But they didn't. They focused their attention on the achievement of their objectives.

Do the same with your career.

Decide what you want and why you want.
Decided what you will do to achieve it.
Remain fanatically consistent.

And don't rationalize for even a minute as to why you can't get there.

Take care and have a great month!

Dan Coughlin

Accelerate Update This section is always current to the current month

I suppose every book changes an author's life to a certain degree. My first book, which was self-published in 1995, was called Inside Out: A Catalyst for Conscious Living. It's out of print now for a number of good reasons. The layout, which yours truly did, looks like something a first grader could do today. And the ideas are very theoretical, which doesn't fit my approach anymore. However, I read the book a few months ago, and I was pleased by how clearly I had explained my early thoughts on improving performance.

My second book, Corporate Catalysts: How to Make Your Company More Successful, Whatever Your Title, Income, or Authority was published in 2005 by Career Press. That book was a step forward in clarifying my ideas on improving performance and understanding how to write a whole book. It's one thing to dream about getting a book contract and another thing to write a 70,000 word manuscript.

My third book, ACCELERATE: 20 Practical Lessons to Boost Momentum, which was published in May 2007 by Kaplan Publishing, has changed my business dramatically. Up until that book was published, I mostly did projects for four companies: McDonald's, Marriott, GSD&M, and Toyota. In the past 12 months, I've worked with business owners, executives, and managers within dozens of small, medium, and massive organizations in more than 20 industries ranging from boats to banks to software to financial services to trucking to lighting to home healthcare to hospitals to optometrists. It's been an exciting adventure.

If you want to see my speaking calendar for 2008, which we'll try to update every two weeks, please click here.

Currently, I have 66 speeches scheduled for 2008. If you would like for me to speak at one of your events in 2008 or 2009, feel free to contact me at dan@thecoughlincompany.com and I will be glad to see if we can make it work.

If you want to see my speaking topics and a video of footage from some of my keynote speeches, please click here.

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