Apply these five lessons to achieve success in your professional and personal life.

I set aside time a couple of times each year to reflect on how things are going in my life, make course corrections as needed, and set out on new headings. Call it goal setting, planning, or resolutions; I've learned a few things after nearly forty years of performing this practice. Here are five lessons from four decades that help me focus my energy, optimize my efforts, and achieve sustainable success.   

Paralysis to Progress: Just Begin

Often, when people seek change or begin a new endeavor, the first step they take is to outfit themselves with all the gear they think they’ll need. Literally. And that’s often a mistake.

Before they’ve walked the first mile, tried a new management strategy, or tested a new communication technique, they’ve spent hundreds of dollars on the best running shoes and equipment, poured over articles and videos filled with competing and contradictory advice, and found themselves thoroughly confused. Their desire to change evaporates as they doubt what is right and how to proceed. They think, “With so many choices, how can I choose the best one?” A few months pass, and they can’t remember why they wanted to change anyway. Cue the cries of, “Woe is me! Nothing ever changes around here!”

This isn’t permission to skip the preparation, but to begin taking action with what you’ve got. You’ve got to strike a balance between “don’t know how to begin” and “overprepared.” I aim for “good enough to go” and add skills, gear, and teams as my needs grow.

Don’t let “perfect planning” stall your personal or professional progress. Start where you are: success in life and veterinary practice thrives on action, not thumbing through catalogs.

You can never change what you don’t begin. The sooner you start, the more success you'll experience. And fortunately, there’s a template for change. 

Success = Consistency x Duration x Focus

I’m not a fan of “Ready, Fire, Aim!” but I do advocate for quick action.

The reason some folks suggest “aim” after “fire” was precisely the point of this first lesson: You earn success by initiating action rather than stalling due to “over-aiming.” Too many of us fail to undertake the change we need (“Ready!”) because we believe we don’t have all the resources we think we need to succeed (“Aim!”). Success requires action, not stuff (“Fire!”). Don’t allow a fear of “lack” to block your goals. “Aim” as carefully as possible as soon as you’re “ready.” If you fail to hit the mark, you recenter and repeat. But you “fire.”     

Consistency matters more than your gear, what the latest “influencers” advise, and even the techniques you employ. You can, and likely will, adjust all of those if you do something long enough. 

Duration or how long you consistently do something amplifies your actions. Walking a mile every morning for a week is good; a month is better, but doing it for ten years profoundly affects your health and well-being. 

Focus is another multiplier of success. You must focus on your goals to get more out of your actions and time. You must study, analyze, adapt, and refine your efforts to improve and sustain them. This process applies to relationships, leadership, communication, medical skills, business, and health. I got faster at Ironman triathlons by swimming, cycling, and running six days a week for years, carefully tracking and adjusting my technique and keeping up with advances in race tech. I found success in business by reading about and studying successful business leaders, assembling mentors, constantly innovating and iterating, and measuring my results over many quarters and years. Focus applied over time is one of the most potent principles you’ll ever encounter.

Reflect on what you want to achieve during the next year. Work on that goal daily, even if not as much or as hard as you’d like. If you don’t devote your efforts regularly and frequently during the first 90 days to an objective, chances are good that it will end up in the trash pile of abandoned resolutions. After three months, take stock of what’s working or not. Upgrade your resources or training as needed.

Non-Linear Progress is Normal

Nearly every success story is punctuated by setbacks. As a young veterinary practice owner, I was incredibly frustrated when things didn’t work out as expected. I blamed everything and everyone in sight and often made dramatic changes to the plan, sometimes going in the opposite direction as a means of self-punishment. 

Once I accepted that progress wasn’t a linear process, that every step wouldn’t - or couldn’t - be better than the last, I was able to separate myself from the plateaus. This detachment and understanding that undulations were part of the method allowed me to make minor adjustments based on feedback. Acknowledging that highs and lows were expected also helped me avoid freaking out or abandoning my plan every time I encountered disappointing results.  

This “willingness to fail” is a key trait of successful people. Perseverance in the face of failure separates high achievers from the rest. In other words, success is often a result of accepting inevitable losses in order to achieve a greater goal. Each setback holds valuable lessons; learning from these mistakes is essential to the non-linear progress of success - and life. 

The Hard Parts Can Be the Best

Achieving success is rarely easy. Working as hard as you can to accomplish a goal is exhausting. I wish I could share a “shortcut to success” or “goal hack,” but the truth is there’s simply no substitute for “the grind.”

Hard work and repeatedly pushing your limits aren’t natural. Evolution has conditioned us to take the safe and easy route whenever possible. Hard work is often equated with risk and danger, and we’ve developed protective mechanisms to avoid both. That’s perfectly acceptable until we want to do something different, challenging, or extraordinary.

The discomfort you feel, both physically and mentally, when you take on something new is normal. The ability to “push through” or “grind it out” is part of any success journey. Overriding the desire to quit and ignoring the doubts that you’re weak, not smart enough, or incapable are traits of those who succeed. 

Hard work is an acquired skill. People who conquered great obstacles can often translate this ability to other facets of life. Success in one realm often applies to many. We become stronger the more we “do the work.” 

The tough patches are where growth occurs. You gain little progress without challenge. Muscles only grow when pushed to failure. Knowledge is gained through study, review, and application. Relationships flourish by addressing differences through structured communication and attention. 

The next time you want to give up, stop, or feel like you’re wasting your time, go a little longer. The real gains come in the last efforts. Athletes who do extra reps after practice, scientists who revisit a problem one more time, and business leaders who try one more tactic are usually the ones who achieve success.     

The 3 D’s: Drive, Discipline, and Desire

Looking back on my proudest accomplishments, I realize I achieved them because I wanted to do it. I really wanted to do it.

Whether the goal was personal or professional, the intensity of my drive, adherence to discipline, and strong desire to finish the challenge were all integral to success. 

When setting goals, take a moment to ask if you have the drive for it. Can you adhere to the mechanics, hard work, and process required? Do you want it so badly it hurts not to try? If you hesitate with any of the “three D’s,” reflect on how you can turn a “maybe” into an “absolutely!” Consider another goal if you’re not resolute in your drive, discipline, and desire to achieve it. 

The End is Only the Beginning

After every finish line, business deal, or award, I’ve never felt an overwhelming sense of relief. If I’m being honest, as soon as I achieve one goal, I’m already well into planning the next.

It isn't a sense of dissatisfaction, disappointment, or a pathological pursuit of “more,” but rather inertia that propels me toward the next objective.

Newton's First Law of Motion (also known as the “Law of Inertia”) states that a body at rest will remain at rest unless an outside force acts on it, and a body in motion at a constant velocity will remain in motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an outside force. I believe this applies to our personal and professional trajectories as well. I tend to stay in motion because, well, physics. Perhaps more correctly, metaphysics. You tend to find certain folks always doing new, challenging things while others are content to assist and aid. Both are accomplishing great things. But what about the rest of us?

Trapped in life’s danger zone are those milling about on the sidelines, unwilling to risk getting in the game, complaining about the sport. You can’t finish what you don’t start, and complaining about a lack of progress without making changes will never lead to success.  

The end of a plan also isn’t where joy is found. Finishing a big project or achieving a goal probably won’t make you as happy as you’d like. You may find yourself let down the day after the marathon, questioning what you did and why. That’s normal. The value of succeeding in goals isn’t the goal itself but the process. It sounds like a cliche, but it doesn’t make it any less true. The joy is in the journey.  

Start With a Win

One of the reasons I coach my veterinary colleagues to tackle small goals first is because these wins build momentum. That momentum moves them forward toward a more challenging pursuit. You can’t complete a marathon without training for months, usually completing a progression of 5k, 10k, and half-marathon events before toeing the line for the full 26.2 miles. It’s the same in business and relationships. Sustainable success is built on a foundation of ambitions, learnings, and accomplishments.   

Start this part of your life with a series of wins. As I’ve shared in this column, beginning your day with a positive result “tilts the day toward success.” Get up 30 minutes earlier (go to bed earlier, too), walk around the block, journal, or conduct a gratitude practice or meditation; no matter what you do, do it first thing. These minor victories teach your doubting mind that you can complete what you set out to do. Use that compounding inertia to move on to greater challenges. Before you know it, you’ll be scaling (metaphorical) mountains!