Everyone has heard the definition of insanity-"It's doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Or the one I prefer is the Dakota tribal saying: "When you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount." Both comments are great advice, aren't they? But why don't we do something different or dismount when we realize we need to? The answer most of the time could be because most of us don't really think the small stuff matters between success and failure.

Success and failure are similar and yet totally different. Success and failure are not the result of one single event that happens over night. We don't simply fail or become failures overnight anymore than we become successful overnight (in spite of winning the lottery). Both success and failure are an accumulation of small steps added together and repeated over and over again.

I like what Jim Rohn wrote in Success Magazine about failure:

"Failure's most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In the short term little errors don't seem to make any difference. Since nothing terrible happens to us, since there are no instant consequences we simply drift from one day to the next repeating the errors."

We simply do the same thing over and over and over again.

So what is the difference between success and failure: It's the lack of simple self-discipline and taking small steps in the right direction every day.

I like what Thomas Huxley said years ago, "the most important success principle is to do what you should do, when you should do it whether you like it or not." Or like one of my mentors in college, Dr. Paul Faulkner, said, "Let your 'oughter' ( I know I 'ought' to do that) take your 'wanter' (I don't 'want' to) by the throat and strangle it to death".

Want some homework for success? Pay attention to your repetitive patterns (thoughts/actions) and change anything you can about those patterns if they are not getting you where you want to go. And notice what you're doing when things are going better and do more of those.

So get off your dead horse and ride a fresh one!

rb

A friend, Greg Kraus, shared this quote with me recently by June Jones, who is the Head Football coach at Southern Methodist University:

"You cannot manage men into battle. You manage things. You lead people by conducting yourself in such a way that you will lift those around you to a higher level of performance."