Time to Start Achieving

There is a saying if you can dream it you can achieve it. There are also a few caveats. Be realistic about your goals, remember this is a marathon, not a sprint and you want to reward all the small goals along the way. Be aware of what you are doing and if it is helping or not. Have an accountability partner to help keep you on track Get information about what has worked for others and what hasn’t.

But if you want to be different, if you want to achieve differently, the only opinion that truly matters is yours.

Take it from Mark Cuban. “When it’s your baby, a lot of times it’s hard not to take all the (criticism) personally. It’s hard not to feel it inside of you,” Cuban said. “To be a great entrepreneur, you have to be so competitive. And when you’re that competitive and people are talking bad about your (company) … it’s hard not to respond.”

Or Steve Jobs. “You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future,” Jobs said. “You have to trust in something: Your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

Or Jobs’s successor, Tim Cook. “In today’s environment, the world is full of cynics and you have to tune them out,” Cook said. “Because if not, they become a cancer in your mind, in your thinking. And you begin thinking that you can’t.”

The next time someone criticizes an idea, ask how they arrived at their opinion. Look for the data behind the conclusion. Otherwise, ignore everything that isn’t data–warnings, cautionary tales, and well-intentioned but poorly grounded advice–since you already know all those things anyway. Then keep in mind, analysis can only take you so far, especially since critical thinking tends to steer a decision towards conventional wisdom.

Innovative products or services are only groundbreaking in hindsight. At some point, someone believed when others did not. Think about all the things that you use today that have been around for less than 1 year, 5 years, 10 years