ALBERT GALLATIN, map collector—knowledge of the geography of western North AmericaPREPARATION POSITIONS YOUR TALENT
What happens when you don’t prepare? Things you hoped won’t happen do happen—and they occur with greater frequency than the things you hoped would happen. The reason is simple: being unprepared puts you out of position. Ask negotiators what happens at the bargaining table when they are out of position. Ask athletes what happens when they are out of position. They lose. Preparation positions people correctly, and it is often the separation between winning and losing. Talent-plus people who prepare well live by this motto: “All’s well that begins well.”
GREAT CHALLENGES
What was the greatest adventure humankind faced in the twentieth century? Exploring the polar ice caps? Conquering the world’s highest mountains? Sending ships into space and landing people on the moon? Good cases could be made for each adventure.
How about in the nineteenth century? It was undoubtedly the exploration of the interior of Africa, Australia, and the Americas. Much global exploration had occurred from 1492 to 1800. Bold adventurers had explored the globe and been able to map and define all the continents in broad strokes, having accurately mapped their shorelines. But what lay within the boundaries of some of those continents remained a mystery.
In North America, the leaders of the newly formed United States were anxious to know details about the interior of their continent. Much of the territory between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River (south of St. Louis) had been explored, but in 1801 when Thomas Jefferson became president of the United States, two-thirds of the nation’s 5.3 million occupants lived within fifty miles of the coast, and few had traveled west of the Appalachian Mountains. The land west of the Mississippi River was unknown and still up for grabs. The fate of the nation would be determined by who controlled that land—the United States, France, England, Spain, or the native populations who inhabited it.
No American leader was more interested in knowing about North America than was Thomas Jefferson. Historian Stephen E. Ambrose asserts that Jefferson’s interest in exploration began in the 1750s. Ambrose writes, “In the decade following the winning of independence, there were four American plans to explore the West. Jefferson was the instigator of three of them.”1 In the 1790s, as a member of the American Philosophical Society, Jefferson tried to launch an exploratory expedition. He knew the key to its success would be selecting the right leader. He chose a trained scientist from France named André Michaux and directed him to find the shortest route between the United States and the Pacific Ocean, presumably up the Missouri River and somehow connected to the Columbia River in the West. In 1793, Michaux made it as far as Kentucky before Jefferson recalled the mission after discovering that the scientist was a secret agent of the French government given the mission to incite people to attack Spanish possessions in the West.
THE RIGHT PERSON FOR THE JOB
Jefferson’s best opportunity to launch the expedition of the American West wouldn’t come until he became president of the United States. The key still would be the leader of the expedition. It would require an extremely talented person. And Jefferson thought he knew who that would be: Meriwether Lewis.
Ironically, back in 1792, when Jefferson and the American Philosophical Society were preparing the ill-fated expedition that would be headed by Michaux, one of the people who asked to be selected to lead it was Lewis. Like Jefferson, Lewis was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, but at that time Lewis was only eighteen years old. It was true that Lewis had lived on the frontier in Georgia for three or four years where he had learned many frontier skills. As a boy of eight, he was known to go out hunting in the middle of the night on his own. Lewis’s cousin, Peachy Gilmer, described the young Lewis as “always remarkable for persevereance [sic], which in the early period of his life seemed nothing more than obstinacy in pursuing the trifles that employ that age; a martial temper; great steadiness of purpose, self-possession, and undaunted courage.”2 Lewis also already had experience as a leader. Because of his father’s early death, Lewis had taken charge of a two-thousand-acre plantation when he was still a teenager. But back then he didn’t have the wherewithal to lead an expedition. He was talented but green.
Years later, Jefferson explained why he selected Lewis instead of a credentialed scientist. He said it was impossible to find a person possessing “a compleat science in botany, natural history, mineralogy & astronomy” who could add to it “the firmness of constitution & character, prudent, habits adapted to the woods, & a familiarity with the Indian manners & character, requisite for this undertaking. All the latter qualifications Capt. Lewis has.”3
Lewis further honed those character qualities and frontier skills during six years in the army where he rose from the rank of private to captain. He served much of his time on the frontier as far west as Ohio and Michigan. At one point as a regimental paymaster, he traveled extensively, learned to understand much about the Native Americans in that part of the country, and refined his leadership skills.
What Lewis most lacked was formal education. His other responsibilities kept him from studying as much as he would have liked. Why would that matter? The expedition to the West that Jefferson envisioned would be more than just the search for an all-water route to the Pacific Ocean. It was also to be a scientific and diplomatic mission. The president wanted to know the quality of the land for farming and for the support of future settlers. He wanted reliable information on previously unknown plants, animals, and fossils from the regions, and he expected many specimens to be collected, catalogued, and brought back east.
Jefferson directed the party to create accurate maps of previously unexplored regions. He wanted to know about the geography and weather. He desired facts concerning the culture and habits of the native populations. He also intended the party to initiate friendly relations with those populations and convince them of the value of trading with the United States. It was to be so much more than a mere trailblazing adventure.
EARLY PREPARATION
The way Jefferson decided to deal with Lewis’s raw but still largely undeveloped talent was characteristic of the president’s leadership and genius. As Jefferson prepared to assume his role as president, he invited Lewis to become his personal secretary, telling him it “would make you know & be known to characters of influence in the affairs of our country, and give you the advantage of their wisdom.”4 Lewis’s time at the White House did that and much more. The young man was treated as a member of Jefferson’s family, and he was, in fact, the only resident of the White House along with Jefferson, a widower, besides the servants.
Lewis’s first task was to help Jefferson as he reduced the size of the nation’s army. He frequently gathered information for the president, and he also copied and drafted documents. He was a frequent messenger to Congress. He functioned as the president’s aide-de-camp. They spent long hours working together, Lewis read extensively from Jefferson’s library, and the young captain always dined with Jefferson as he entertained the great thinkers, scientists, and leaders of the day. Lewis biographer Richard Dillon states that his experience in the White House functioned as “an ideal finishing school for Lewis.”5
But Jefferson wasn’t finished getting Lewis ready. In the summer of 1802, Jefferson procured and read a copy of Voyages from Montreal, on the River St. Lawrence, Through the Continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific Ocean, an account of Scotsman Alexander Mackenzie’s exploration across Canada. It spurred Jefferson’s desire to launch an American expedition. And it prompted him to become highly intentional in Lewis’s preparation. Jefferson helped Lewis study geography, botany, celestial observation with a sextant, and more. Ambrose says, “In short, between the time Mackenzie’s book arrived at Monticello [August 1802] and December 1802, Jefferson gave Lewis a college undergraduate’s introduction to the liberal arts, North American geography, botany, mineralogy, astronomy, and ethnology.”6 Their preparations for the expedition had formally begun.
BECOMING MORE INTENTIONAL
Two kinds of preparations were going on in the months prior to Lewis’s departure. The first was Lewis’s gathering and preparing the supplies and equipment for the trip. The second was Lewis’s preparation of himself. It’s hard for us in the age of Internet communication, worldwide overnight delivery services, and corner convenience stores to imagine how complex the logistical and physical preparations were. Today if you go on vacation and discover that you forgot to pack a book, you simply buy one. If you get sick, you visit a drugstore. If your clothes get lost or ruined, you buy new ones. If you forget your glasses, you can ask someone at home to overnight them to you. It may cost you more than you would like to spend, but in a pinch you can always charge it. These problems are solvable.
In the age before motorized transportation or rapid communication, mistakes of preparation could be devastating. In addition, the logistical preparations of Lewis were massive. He had to secure tons of supplies from an amazing variety of manufacturers and purveyors, everything from rifles and ammunition to delicate scientific equipment to paper and ink to medical supplies to food to gifts for the Native Americans they would encounter. He had to have a keel boat built for travel up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers (which he designed himself). He had to select the members of the expedition.
As daunting as those tasks were, they paled in comparison to the importance of the preparation of the man. If Lewis was not ready for the task, then the entire expedition—no matter how well planned and equipped—would be a failure. Lewis spent months with some of the top experts in America continuing to learn scientific skills and to prepare himself for his mission. Here is a list of the most notable ones along with how they helped Lewis:
ALBERT GALLATIN, map collector—knowledge of the geography of western North America
ANDREW ELLICOTT, astronomer and mathematician—skill in celestial observation using the sextant, chronometer, and other instruments
ROBERT PATTERSON—additional assistance with celestial observation and with the purchase of the chronometer for the journey
DR. BENJAMIN RUSH, physician—medical matters, the selection and purchase of medicines, and the creation of questions to be asked of the native populations
DR. BENJAMIN SMITH BARTON, botany professor—skill in preserving specimens and properly labeling them, and knowledge of botanical terminology (later experts judge Lewis’s knowledge to have been remarkable for an amateur)
DR. CASPAR WISTAR, anatomy professor and expert on fossils—fossil discovery and collection7
All the preparation paid off. Ambrose describes the result:
Two years of study under Thomas Jefferson, followed by his crash course in Philadelphia, had made Lewis into exactly what Jefferson had hoped for in an explorer—a botanist with a good sense of what was known and what was unknown, a working vocabulary for description of flora and fauna, a mapmaker who could use celestial instruments properly, a scientist with keen powers of observation, all combined in a woodsman and an officer who could lead a party to the Pacific.8
The final pieces in the preparation process were the selections of a fellow officer and the men who would become members of the “corps of discovery.” That was no small task. Lewis knew who the officer should be: William Clark, a captain under whom Lewis had served while in the army and with whom he had developed a remarkable friendship. Assembling the twenty-nine men who would make the trip took more time since, as Clark and Lewis agreed, “a judicious choice of our party is of the greatest importance to the success of this vast enterprise.”9 As Lewis traveled west from Philadelphia toward St. Louis, he continued collecting supplies, searching for suitable men, and making financial arrangements. It was during this phase that he got word from Jefferson that Jefferson had transacted the Louisiana Purchase.
FINALLY GETTING OUT!
On May 22, 1804, Lewis and Clark set off up the Missouri River from their winter camp just north of St. Louis where they had completed the last of their preparations. Counting from the time Lewis began working for the president in April of 1801, the preparations had taken a little more than three years for a trip that they hoped could be completed in eighteen to twenty-four months. Actually the trip took longer than that. The explorers made it to the Pacific and back to St. Louis in two and a half years, and to Washington four months later.
The expedition was an amazing success. The corps of discovery made their way across the continent. They skirted or passed through modern-day Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. They were the first non-indigenous people to see and cross the Rocky Mountains. James P. Ronda, the H. G. Barnard Professor of Western American History at the University of Tulsa, points out that they strengthened the claims of the United States in the West. They established peaceful contact with many groups of Native Americans. They set the pattern for scientific exploration in the U.S. They discovered 122 animal species or subspecies and 178 new plant species. And Ronda says, “The journals, maps, plant and animal specimens, and notes on Native American societies amounted to a Western encyclopedia.”10 Ambrose goes even farther: “Since 1803 and the return of the expedition in 1806, every American everywhere has benefited from Jefferson’s purchase of Louisiana and his setting in motion the Lewis and Clark Expedition.”11
What’s sad is that as prepared as Lewis was for his expedition and as well as he performed, he was not prepared for life after its completion. Jefferson made Lewis governor of Louisiana, a task for which he was not prepared, and he did not succeed in that post. As much as he tried to work on his extensive journals, he never completed their preparation for publication. Others had to work on them after his death. Lewis began to drink heavily. And when he was ill, he began taking medicine laced with opium or morphine, a practice he continued, though he vowed to stop. On October 11, 1809, in a bout of despair, Lewis shot himself and died a few hours later.
WHY PEOPLE FAIL TO PREPARE
The life of Meriwether Lewis shows a truth about preparation: spectacular achievement comes from unspectacular preparation. Talent, much like the eighteen-year-old Lewis, wants to jump into action, but preparation positions talent to be effective. Talent plus preparation often leads to success. Talent minus preparation often leads to disaster.
In hindsight, it’s easy to recognize the value of preparation. So why do so many people fail to prepare?
They Fail to See the Value of Preparation Before Action
Authors Don Beveridge Jr. and Jeffrey P. Davidson believe that lack of preparation is the primary reason for business failure today. “Poorly educated, poorly prepared, and poorly trained people fail because they do not have the skills or expertise to perform,” they say. “Inadequate financing, the number-one reason businesses fail, can also be traced to lack of preparation.”12
In the introduction to this book I wrote about how talent early in life or in the beginning of a career makes a person stand out—but only for a short time. Why? Talent may be a given, but success you must earn. Proverbs 18:16 states, “A man’s gift makes room for him.”13 In other words, your talent will give you an opportunity. But you must remember that the room it makes is only temporary.
Preparation is a major key to achieving any kind of success. It alone can position your talent to achieve its potential. Military people know this. General Douglas MacArthur said, “Preparedness is the key to success and victory.” He also stated it more bluntly: “The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.” The actions of Meriwether Lewis demonstrated that he had a similar attitude. Despite all the dangers and deprivations, the brutal weather and hostile Native Americans, Lewis lost only one member of his party, Sergeant Charles Floyd, probably from peritonitis cause by a ruptured appendix. No preparation on Lewis’s part could have saved him from that. In fact, in 1804, Floyd probably would have died under the care of a trained physician.
They Fail to Appreciate the Value of Discipline
It’s been said that discipline is doing what you really don’t want to do so that you can do what you really do want to do. Meriwether Lewis’s most evident weakness was a tendency to be a bit rash and take offense. In fact, one of Jefferson’s serious concerns was that Lewis might alienate the Native Americans and either start a war or get himself and his party killed. Lewis came close several times, including a tense standoff with the Teton Sioux. The explorers were one wrong move away from being wiped out and becoming little more than an obscure footnote in American history. What saved the day? Ambrose says Lewis’s rashness was compensated by his tremendous self-discipline. With guns loaded and aimed and dozens of arrows pointed in their direction, Lewis waited out the situation. Eventually a Sioux chief managed to get the angry braves to stand down and defuse the conflict. Lewis understood the value of discipline.
A frustrating thing about preparation is that it usually takes much more time than the actual event one prepares for. Musicians may practice many hours preparing to perform a three-minute piece. Stage actors practice for weeks to prepare for a performance that lasts two hours. I know that when I create a leadership lesson that may take me less than an hour to deliver, it usually takes me eight to ten hours to write it. Discipline is required to keep preparing long hours for something that will be over quickly.
Alexander Hamilton, a Founding Father of the United States and its first secretary of the treasury, said, “Men give me credit for genius; but all the genius I have lies in this: When I have a subject on hand I study it profoundly.” Hamilton was a disciplined and highly productive man. He understood that no matter your circumstances, resources, or natural talent, certain things were always within your control—your ability to work harder and smarter than anybody else. That bears remembering as you prepare yourself for the challenges that lay ahead of you.
PREPARATION PRINCIPLES
Automaker Henry Ford observed, “Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.” Ford understood the power of preparation and all the things it can do for someone:
1. Preparation Allows You to Tap into Your Talent
While I was working on this book, I was scheduled to make a trip to Latin America to teach leadership and meet national leaders in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Peru. I would be gone more than ten days, so before I left, I spent an entire day making sure I had the materials I would need to keep working on the book. I reviewed the chapter outlines, gave some thinking time to the subject of the first couple of chapters, and pulled quotes and other materials from my files to take with me. And of course, I packed several new legal pads!
I also wrote the book’s introduction. A group of excellent leaders and thinkers would be accompanying me on the trip, and I wanted their comments on the direction I was taking the book. I had copies made of that introduction so that I could hand them out to my fellow travelers, and I asked everyone to give me feedback and ideas. (I’m a strong believer in teamwork when related to talent too. I’ll write more about that in Chapter 13.) And since we spent a lot of hours flying on a plane, during much of that time I pulled out the materials I had packed and did some writing.
As the trip concluded and we were flying back home, one of my travel mates, David McLendon, said to me, “I’ve learned a valuable lesson on this trip. You came prepared to maximize your time because you knew what you wanted to accomplish. While the rest of us read and talked, you got a lot of work done. You outlined two chapters. You even engaged all of us in the writing of your book!”
What he observed was possible because I had prepared. “You know, David,” I replied, “I’ve found that every minute spent in preparation saves ten in execution.” And that had been the case here. Because I spent a day preparing, I was able to work for ten days on that trip. It’s not difficult; it just takes planning. The questions I ask myself before a trip like this are really very simple:
What work is to be done?
How is it to be done?
When is it to be done?
Where is it to be done?
How fast can it be done?
What do Ineed to get it done?
Answering these questions prepares me for what lies ahead. And when I am prepared, my talent is positioned for maximum effect.
2. Preparation Is a Process, Not an Event
We live in a quick-fix society. We think in terms of events and instant solutions. But preparation doesn’t work that way. Why? Because it’s about you. Anything having to do with people is process-oriented. The Law of Process in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership states, “Leadership develops daily, not in a day.” The same can be said of maximizing your talent.
Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden says that the best way to improve your team is to improve yourself. He learned that lesson from his father, Joshua Wooden, who used to tell young John, “Don’t try to be better than somebody else, but never cease trying to be the best you can be.” That’s good advice whether you’re playing basketball, parenting, or conducting business.
In 1983, I began teaching and recording monthly leadership lessons. Today, more than two decades later, I am still teaching them, and I have produced more than three hundred different leadership lessons. How was I able to do it? By continually feeding my mind and adding to my pool of resources. Every day, I read and file quotes, stories, and idea starters. Every month, I draw upon those filed resources. Every year, I use some of those lessons to write new books. My productivity comes more from my preparation than anything else. That positions whatever talent I have so that I can use it to my maximum potential. It is an ongoing process. And if the daily learning and preparation ever stop, so will my productivity.
3. Preparation Precedes Opportunity
There’s an old saying: “You can claim to be surprised once; after that, you’re unprepared.” If you want to take advantage of opportunities to use your talent, then you must be prepared when the opportunities arise. Once the opportunity presents itself, it’s too late to get ready.
If you study the lives of dynamic men and women, you will find that preparation for opportunity is a common theme. President Abraham Lincoln said, “I will prepare and some day my chance will come.” Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli of England remarked, “The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his time when it comes.” Oprah Winfrey asserted, “Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.” And President John F. Kennedy observed, “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” All of these people had talent, prepared themselves, and then made the most of their opportunities when they arose. Many people believe that their greatest barrier to opportunity is having one, but the reality is that their greatest barrier is being ready when one arrives.
4. Preparation for Tomorrow Begins with the Right Use of Today
Recently, a few friends and I were privileged to have dinner with former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and his wife, Judith, in Orlando after a speaking engagement. I found the mayor to be a very warm and personable man who was an easy conversationalist. During our conversation, I of course asked him about his experience during 911. He talked about his impressions from that day and how the event impacted him as a leader. He said that leaders need to be ready for anything. They need to study, acquire skills, and plan for every kind of situation.
“Your success will be determined by your ability to prepare,” he said. He went on to explain that when a situation like that on September 11 occurs—for which there was no plan in place—leaders must take action and rely on whatever preparation had taken place. In his case, it was the emergency drills they had followed. Both helped during the crisis.
Preparation doesn’t begin with what you do. It begins with what you believe. If you believe that your success tomorrow depends on what you do today, then you will treat today differently. What you receive tomorrow depends on what you believe today. If you are preparing today, chances are, you will not be repairing tomorrow.
5. Preparation Requires Continually Good Perspective
When I was a kid, my first love was basketball. From the time I was ten until I graduated from high school, I was shooting hoops at every free moment. One thing that I still enjoy about basketball is how quickly one player can change the tempo and momentum of a game. That’s true not only of the stars and starters but also of the players who come off the bench. That’s why the “sixth man,” the player of starting caliber who is often the first substitute in the game, is so important. Former Boston Celtics coach Tom Heinsohn observed, “The sixth man has to be so stable a player that he can instantly pick up the tempo or reverse it. He has to be able to go in and have an immediate impact. The sixth man has to have the unique ability to be in a ball game while he is sitting on the bench.” What makes the sixth man capable of that? Perspective. He has to have both a coach’s mind-set as he watches the game from the bench and a player’s ability once he steps into it. If he does, then he is prepared to impact the game.
Howard Coonley, the executive after whom the American National Standards Institute named its award honoring service to the national economy, stated, “The executive of the future will be rated by his ability to anticipate his problems rather than to meet them as they come.” Perspective not only helps people prepare, but it can also motivate them to prepare. I love the quote from Abraham Lincoln, who said, “If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six sharpening my ax.” Lincoln had split rails with an ax as a young man, so he knew the value of a sharp ax. Perspective always prompted him to prepare—whether he was getting ready to cut wood, study law on his own to pass the bar, or lead the country.
6. Good Preparation Leads to Action
What value has preparation if it never leads to action? Very little. As William Danforth, former chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis, noted, “No plan is worth the paper it is printed on unless it starts you going.”
People who enjoy preparation sometimes find themselves caught in the trap of overpreparing, and they sometimes do so to the point that they fail to act. Kathleen Eisenhardt, professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University, studied the decision-making process at twelve technology companies. She found that the fast deciders, who took two to four months to make major decisions, were much more effective than their slower counterparts who wanted to get all the facts of their situation and create consensus. The slower group took up to eighteen months to plan and decide, and by the time they did find resolution, the decision they made was often irrelevant.
Preparation does not mean mastery of the facts. It does not mean knowing all the answers. It does not necessarily mean achieving consensus. (Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher remarked that “consensus is the negation of leadership.”) It means putting yourself in a better position to succeed.14
TALENT + PREPARATION = A TALENT-PLUS PERSON
PUTTING THE TALENT-PLUS FORMULA INTO ACTION
Sports have always been an area in which you can see the value of preparation. It doesn’t matter what sport—good athletes talk about it all of the time. Tennis champion Arthur Ashe explained, “One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.” Quarterback Joe Namath said simply, “What I do is prepare myself until I know I can do what I have to do.”
Friend and fellow golfer Rick Bizet once told me that his golf coach taught him that the only thing that relieves pressure is preparation. If you want to see that preparation in action, observe any professional golfer’s pre-shot routine. I particularly appreciate the routine of professional golfer Tom Kite. It contains three main steps: assessment, alignment, and attitude. In fact, I use it as a guideline, not only when playing golf, but also in other situations when I need to prepare myself. I believe you can do the same.
1. Assessment—Am I Evaluating Correctly?
Good preparation always begins with assessment. If you don’t accurately evaluate where you need to go and what it will take to get there, then you’re likely to get into trouble. In golf, good players typically ask themselves these questions to assist in the assessment process:
Where do I need to go? The process begins with finding the right target. That target must be appropriate to your talent. You don’t want to be like the Miss America contestant that Jay Leno quoted as saying, “My goal is to bring peace to the entire world—and to get my own apartment.”
How far is my goal? Next, a person needs to assess the distance. I enjoy telling my fellow golfers that I have a great short game—but unfortunately only off the tee! It may sound obvious, but you’ve got to know the distance to your goal to have a shot at making it there.
What are the conditions? Good golfers always take the wind into account. The conditions make all the difference in the world. One of my personal highlights related to golf was the opportunity to play at St. Andrews in Scotland. And I shot really well that day—a 79. How did I do it? There was no wind! My caddie told me, “It’s a whole different game with the wind.”
What will it take to get there? The final step in the assessment process is knowing what club to use. Gary Player says that bad club selection is the number one error of amateurs. They hit the ball short. It’s important to know your skills and limitations when making your assessment.
How would I translate these questions for non-golfing situations? I’d say that you need to know what exactly you should be doing, what it will cost you in time, effort, and resources to get there, what obstacles you are likely to face, and what your personal limitations are. If you know these things, you will be well on your way to preparing yourself to achieve your goals.
2. Alignment—Am I Lined Up Correctly?
A good golfer can perform the assessment process flawlessly and still miss his or her target horribly. How? By lining up poorly. Psychologist James Dobson said, “What is the use of climbing the ladder of success only to find that it’s leaning against the wrong building?”
When I first started playing golf, I tried to teach myself the game. I held the club with a baseball grip and lined up in a baseball stance, and more often than not, if I hit the ball any distance, I sent it into the woods. To improve my game, I had to change the way I played golf. I had to relearn the game, and that meant getting help.
If you want to take your game to the next level—personally, professionally, relationally, or recreationally—you need to find someone who is better than you to help you with the preparation process. Be open and honest with that person, and he or she will be able to evaluate your “alignment” and help you get on course.
3. Attitude—Am I Visualizing Correctly?
The final step after assessment and alignment is attitude. In golf, after you select a target and line it up, it’s really a mental game. You’re not just training your body—you’re training your mind. But that’s true for any endeavor. You have to believe in yourself and what you’re doing. You have to be able to see yourself doing it with your mind’s eye. If you can’t imagine it, you probably will not be able to achieve it.
Preparation is one of the most obvious choices you must make in order to maximize your talent and become a talent-plus person. Sometimes the preparation process is long and slow. It may require formal education. It may necessitate your finding wise mentors. It may mean getting out of your comfort zone. Or it could mean simply fine-tuning a skill you’ve nearly mastered. But whatever it requires, remember that you must be ready when your time comes. People don’t get a second chance to seize a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.