The Go – Getter
I believe one of the greatest satisfactions of living life to the fullest is doing the best you can with whatever you have. Doing anything less than your best has a way of eroding the psyche. We are creatures of enterprise. Life seems to say to us, “Here are the raw materials — your creativity, and 24 hours to use it. What splendid things can you produce?”
I read a book once called the ‘Go Getter’ in which the reward was the blue vase. The Go Getters are disciplined, dedicated enough to seize opportunities that present themselves, regardless of the current situation, limitations, struggles, or obstacles, to get the reward of ‘the blue vase’. They don’t see the work, they see the reward.
Think of the few people you know who are really Go Getters. Think of people in the news, in your office, in your neighbourhood, who manage to succeed regardless of the obstacles. What do these people have in common? They’re probably always on the go — busy people, developing a plan, following a plan, reworking the plan until it fits. Go Getters are resourceful and never allow an obstacle to stop them. They were possibly one of those kids who, upon hearing the word “No,” said, “Bring on the challenge.” Especially now as an adult, when they have birthed a vision for their future, “no” doesn’t mean a thing. When challenges present themselves, their attitude will be, “There has got to be a way to make this work, so watch me,” and they hit the “I’ll show you button” of focus, persistence and determination in their psyche. They don’t give up by merely shrugging their shoulders and quipping, “It won’t work.”
Go Getters are people who can vision the future in the present. They always will find a way to take advantage of situations, not be burdened by them. And Go Getters aren’t lazy. They don’t wait for opportunities to come to them; they go after the opportunities. I remember hearing a motivational speaker say once, “Circumstances! Heck, if I don’t like my circumstances, I make my own”. This is the mark of a Go Getter. They are “Enterprisers,” which means they always find a way to keep themselves actively working, moving towards their vision, taking advantage of circumstances.
Non-achievers are usually the poor people or those who need to justify their lack of success. You often will hear them say, “I just don’t have the time or the energy”. When you look at their calendar and lifestyle, they go to work, often spending much time around the water cooler, they eat junk food to give themselves an energy spike, then they come home complaining about how hard their day has been and how tired they are. This justifies spending the rest of their day “recovering” in front of the TV with a beer because it has been “such a hard day.” As we already know, the truth is “Everyone on the planet has the same 24 hours a day.” What a person does with their 24 hours is what makes the difference to their outcome. Go Getters’ priorities are different. When you observe the Go Getter you will find they work with focus, work longer and with a happy, committed attitude. They seem to understand the principle of ‘work smarter’. Everyone will have a dash on their tombstone between the born date and the die date. The Go Getter chooses what the dash will be. The non-achiever allows life to happen to them.
To get better results from ourselves we can make an hour more valuable through total focus and concentration on the job at hand. There is a proverb which talks about workers cutting down a forest of trees. Some went rushing out with their axes, furiously chopping away and, in the beginning, it looked good for them. But those who took the time to sharpen their axes first were far more effective in the end. They were working smarter, not harder. One hour of their chopping was as valuable as that of the others who took 10 hours to cut the same amount of trees. We can get as much done in a day as we used to get done in a week by being the smart “Go Getter”. “Prior planning prevents poor performance” is an old saying. Imagine the potential compounding effect of working smarter — being a Go Getter. Imagine the difference in our world.
By practicing a few simple disciplines every day, you can use time like the successful, achieving Go Getter of the blue vase — with wisdom, focus and effectiveness.
