#Adjust

The secret to lasting success…

Why do so many people love America? After all, America has had some bad years. 90ish years of slavery, a boatload of small pox blankets, the Macarena — ugly stuff.

Here’s why: America adjusts; most of us stay put. America iterates; most of us repeat.

“The American Way” will never be the perfect way. There’s no such thing — instead it will always settle to be the way dedicated to trying new things and learning (sometimes slowly) from their mistakes.

The best skill we can learn in school isn’t a skill at all; it’s an attitude, an attitude of embracing adjustment. In life nothing goes according to plan so enthusiasm for investigating what went wrong is extremely valuable. The investigation doesn’t always end as succinctly as a CSI:Wherever but it does push us to adjust. Merely developing a habit of adjustment is crucial to finding success in spite of failure.

There’s a great trick the army uses to achieve mission success. It’s called Command Intent (CI). Command Intent is the most simple and fundamental goal of the mission. What needs to have happened at the end of this day/week/campaign for it to be successful? When the final destination is clear, adjusting the route is simply a matter of choosing different roads.

Spend 15 minutes to write down a command intent for the rest of your year. What has to happen for it to be a success?