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.

Republishing Articles

Each month my e-newsletter gets republished in approximately 20 blogs, on-line publications, and internal publications for businesses, universities, and not-for-profit organizations. If you would like to republish all or part of my monthly articles, please send me an e-mail at dan@thecoughlincompany.com with "Republishing Article" in the subject heading. I will send you the article in a word document. All I ask is that you include my name as the author of the article and a short paragraph at the end of the article about me with a link to my website.

Take care and have a great month!

Dan Coughlin

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