The Dream
Dale Carnegie Training has a partnership with renowned leadership trainer, Marshall Goldsmith. Together, we strive to impact real people to change real patterns in the real world. One of the books that I often reference when I have the pleasure to deliver leadership or sales training is titled What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – by Marshall Goldsmith. In this book, there are several profound ideas that have impacted me and they will impact you too when you read it.
One of the take-aways from the book is related to the study that Goldsmith and his team performed related to the compliance rate from his training. Of the tens of thousands of business people who have come to his lectures and training classes, seventy percent of the participants ever followed through on what they learned and actually did something about it. That means that thirty percent of the participants were non-compliant.
Marshall and his team have sought to understand why this is. They interviewed hundreds of people who have participated in his training. They asked the people that did nothing with the training why they did not live up to the commitments that they made after they attended leadership training. These people who were non-compliant seemed to be just as intelligent and have about the same values as the ones who stayed true to their commitment.
So, why don’t they do what they committed to do?
The answer that Marshall Goldsmith and his team found is simple. They found that these participants are all having a similar dream. It’s a dream that I have all the time, and my guess is you have this dream too. It goes something like this:
“You know, I am incredibly busy right now. In fact, I feel about as busy today as I have ever felt. Some days I feel completely over-committed. In fact, every now and then my life feels out of control. But, we are working on some unique and special challenges right now. I feel like the worst of this is going to be over in about three months. After that, I am going to take a couple of weeks, take a little time off, get organized and spend some time with the family and start working out. Everything is going to change. This time will be here soon. After that, it won’t be crazy anymore. I will make the changes at that time!”
Have you ever had a dream that sounds similar to this one? How many times have you had this dream?
You know the sad truth about that dream is that this “slower-paced” time will never come. I am confident that three months from now, you will be just as busy as you are today. The same goes for me.
The message is simple and the message is this: The time to change is now. Not three months from now. Not next year. Not even tomorrow. The time to change is right NOW.
-CK