THE CHALLENGE:

Do you want to get high returns on all the dollars spent on learning? I definitely want to!

I have attended many, many training programs and seminars over the years. And usually by the end of each, I had invariably been motivated to take action on the things I learnt. To put into practice what I learnt. To implement the education I got. To get returns on the investment on learning.

However, once I got back to my regular life after the program, very often I had not been able to actually turn my good and sincere intentions into actual action. The result? I was left wondering whether the program made any difference at all to me? Did the investment in the program matter at all? My returns on investment from this learning investment was almost ZERO. Now how can you GET MORE out of such learning investments?

These investments may have been made by you, or may have been made by others such as your employer. How can you MAXIMIZE returns on learning investments?

WHY DOES THIS CHALLENGE OCCUR?

Why are we not able to put into action our intentions?

One, we could really be very busy. Though we want to, we may not be able to succeed in finding the time to do what we wanted to do.

Two, procrastination. The feeling that we can do it later. The only problem is that the “later” somehow never seems to arrive.

Three, priority. Once we get back to our “regular” life, we seem to be pressed with so many “urgent” things that clamor for our attention. And slowly, slowly, slowly (and sometimes may not be so very slowly ? ) other urgent tasks push these intentions (what we wanted to implement from the training program) further and further into the background.

Four, fear, feeling of incapability, … and, there could be so many other reasons…

These ARE real challenges I face. How can I, in spite of all these, really MAXIMIZE returns on learning investments?

OVERCOMING THIS CHALLENGE:

Now how can you get started on the path to turning intention to action? Think about this for a moment …

In 1953, there was a study done of Yale graduates. A survey was carried out, and it was found that only 3% of those surveyed had clear written down goals for life. Twenty years later, the same people were surveyed. This study threw out an extremely important analysis. The study found that …

Twenty years after the initial survey about goals, it was found that the 3% who had clear written down goals for life had greater assets than all the remaining 97% put together.

Wow!!!

That Yale study’s result is mind blowing.

So, what is our take-away from this study?

It sometimes sounds too simple to be true. But the fact remains, that to succeed, it is EXTREMELY important to WRITE down your intentions and goals clearly.

So the way to get started is to take some time to WRITE down what actions you want to take as a result of the learning program invested in.

Let me repeat this, because this is so simple, yet so very critical in achieving success. Please take a few minutes to write down the actions you want to take as a result of this learning program.

Coming back to the Yale Study, the 3% who had written down goals had a Critical Success Factor (CSF) on their side. Without this CSF, they could not succeed. And what was the CSF?

The CSF was that this 3% of persons had something they could track against, could compare against, till the goal was completed successfully.

Stephen Covey gives the example of an aircraft in flight, in his bestselling book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” regarding this CSF.

Let’s say a flight is about to take off from JFK Airport, New York to O'Hare Airport, Chicago Before it takes off, a flight plan is prepared for the flight. It specifies for every minute of the flight from take off to landing what the direction, speed and altitude (and other such parameters) would be. For example, one could know that at the sixteenth minute of the flight, in what the direction of the plane would be, at what speed it would be traveling and at what altitude it would be.

There is an interesting fact however. It was found that when actual measurements were done, for more than 90% of the time, the flight is actually NOT at the direction, speed or altitude it was supposed to be at. Due to unexpected factors such as wind speeds, air pockets, and so on, the plane is not where it actually should have been most of the time of the flight.

Surprised??? I was too. But inspite of this, although for most part of the flight it was not actually traveling as per the flight plan, the plane DOES land at the destination.

How does this happen? Based on the actual planned target destination, the plane makes small corrections on a continuous basis, either through the plane’s auto-pilot facility or through actions taken by the pilot. As a result, the plan is back on track to be able to reach its intended destination.

That is how important it is to have written down goals. Just like the corrections made by the plane, written down goals, it allows you to check your progress against it over a period of time till you succeed in turning your intention to action. Additionally writing your goal also forces your thinking to be clear about your intention.

With written down goals, although you may go off track, you have something to track against, so that you can make sure that you reach your intended destination, your intended action. Without written down goals, achieving success has a much, much lower, and almost zero likelihood.

Once you have written down goals, you need to track to make sure that you implement your goals.

Best Wishes to Succeed Even More,