Fire for Effect – On Target For Overwhelming Success
Have you ever gotten right to the edge of your dream and then pulled back? Many have toiled and struggled to get almost to the end goal and then stopped… Why? Was it fear of failure or were you afraid of something else?
In the military, we have a term – it is called FIRE FOR EFFECT! In other words, once the target is dialed in – BLOW IT UP – an overwhelming success!
Too many times, we get to this point and then pull back. Why? Sometimes it is because of fear. We are afraid that we might miss or that we are somehow off the mark. Or maybe we think we have forgotten to include something or maybe we are at a point of analysis paralysis.
In moments like this, our self-esteem screams that we are not enough and then our mind races to find things that justify our lack of self-esteem, that we just spoke into existence. This leads to both mild to severe depression and/or anxiety as well.
I have a friend that loved to build model cars and paint them and make them really nice. But he was never finished. He shared that one day, one of the truck drivers he dispatched came into his office and asked about his work. He told him that he had not finished the car. The guy looked at the car and then at my friend and said – We often stop short of finishing something to avoid criticism. When we are asked about it, we can always say – it’s still a work in progress and this helps us to avoid any hits. When the truth is if we do not finish the work, we can’t enjoy it and we prevent others from the same. Finish the work – fire for effect!
Other times, the project takes so long that we lose heart and want to give up – sometimes we do give up! In those moments we doubt the work we have done – was it just a pipe dream. We dismiss all the research or due diligence we have done that made the dream seem possible. We are tired and we lose our vision of the future and the potential of our project. And we quit…
There was a man with a similar story. He found this plot of land that was in an area that was known for gold veins. He did his homework and research. The geology of the area pointed toward this place and that it should have a gold vein on it. So, he staked his claim, bought the equipment and hired some men to help him start digging. He worked tirelessly alongside his men for over a year and they found nothing but rocks. The owner of the land was tired, disillusioned and broke. He gave up on his dream of a gold mine and sold his stake to someone else, along with all of his equipment – at a huge discount.
This man, who had done the same research that the first man had done, knew that there had to be gold there. So, he hired a couple of men and they started digging one morning and by the end of the day – they had dug two feet into the rock, and they found one of the largest gold strikes in California history.
The lesson – when we know that we are on the right track – don’t quit – FIRE FOR EFFECT!
Finally, on a daily basis, I have a lot of things pulling for my attention. It can be difficult to focus at times. This past week I had a huge federal project I have been working on for an organization that was really important and that had a deadline that was looming – May 17, 2023 1159pm. In order to focus, I had to set everything else aside and put all of my energy on that project. I had to go all in and FIRE FOR EFFECT! At any point, if I had allowed all of the other things that demanded my attention get me off-track, I would have missed my deadline and the opportunity would have been lost. I got it done because I made project my primary target and I absolutely gave it all I had.
It was overwhelmingly successful.
You can do the same! Don’t give up – especially when it gets hard. Believe in yourself, even when all around you are doubting – including yourself. And when you get locked onto a project – go all in and do not stop until it is done! Then I want you to celebrate the victory!
FIRE FOR EFFECT!
Dr Cliff Robertson, Jr
Warrior Consulting/Counseling
Speaker| Writer| Consultant| Trainer| Counselor
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