Correct Choices Are the Key to Success

As with Tracy’s Flight Plan, we are once again told that there are no shortcuts on the road to success. In Monday Morning Choices, David Cottrell reasonably claims that success is realized by making more good choices than bad ones and recovering quickly from bad choices when you do make them. Making good choices is the trick.

He divides success enhancing choices into 3 areas: Personal Choices (choices people make that will mold their character), Action Choices (choices that move you beyond just talking about what you want to do) and Investment Choices (those choices about investing in people who will make your life better). To help you to develop your skills for making good choices, he has designed a weekly Ben-Franklin-type program that addresses four key choices in each of the three categories. As Monday sets the tone for the rest of the week, he suggests starting each Monday morning with one of the areas and make a commitment to do something different as a result. In brief, the 12 key choices we all need to address are:

• The No-Victim Choice: Don’t let your past eat your future.
• The Commitment Choice: Be Passionate Enough to Succeed. Be willing to pay the price.
• The Values Choice: Success often brings enemies. Choose your enemies and your friends carefully.
• The Integrity Choice: Do the right thing.
• The Do-Something Choice: Choose to do something that will make a difference.
• The Persistence Choice: Learn from your mistakes.
• The Attitude Choice: Take the Enthusiastic approach.
• The Adversity Choice: Conquer difficult times. Explore workable alternatives.
• The Relationship Choice: Connect with success and be a mentor for others.
• The Criticism Choice: Embrace tough learning.
• The Reality Choice: Face the truth.
• The Legacy Choice: Be willing to share what you know.

Cottrell has a well thought out chapter devoted to each of the above choices. Each chapter has discussion questions that you can use with your own team each Monday morning.