Habit of Thought

A New Definition of Success for A New Year

"Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person we become."

—Jim Rohn

One of the challenges in today's complex society is how to define success for yourself. In the olden days, success was pretty clear: food on the table, a roof over your head, clothes on your back, maybe education thrown in.

Today the media scream that success is lots of money to buy European cars, exotic vacations, expensive watches, designer clothes, and all manner of material things. The people in those ads look so happy and relaxed, comfortable in their own skin (which hasn't a blemish on it), without a care in the world.

It's tempting to let the outside world define success for us. Various studies claim we're exposed to  anywhere from 247 to 3000 ads a day.

I propose a definition of success that is universally applicable to all humans regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, income, geography, religion, or job.

"Success is the continual achievement of your own predetermined goals,
stabilized by balance and purified by belief."

What's your definition of success? How does it compare to this statement?

Tracking Great Ideas

Is there anyone out there who truly lacks for great ideas, whether you need one for business, professional, or personal challenges?

My problem is definitely not lack of ideas. It's that there are too many of them and more coming every day from blogs, Twitter, e-newsletters, conferences I've attended, meetings, books I've read, and even some I've dreamed up myself.

This morning, while looking for something else, I stumbled across the idea journals I started when I began my business ten years ago this month. The journals worked well to collect the ideas. As I skimmed through them, though, it was clear I hadn't done much with them.

When I Google "tracking great ideas," it offers over 8 million links. The first two are go to the same article about the US Department of Defense "Great Ideas" competition. A scan through the next couple of search results pages provided no sites devoted to the idea of how to track great ideas.

After a bit of experimentation with search terms, "capturing ideas" finally brought up what I was looking for. LifeDev gives 25 Tools for Capturing Ideas Anywhere. Now, if I only had a place to download all those ideas...

As an aficionado and disciple of Getting Things Done (Amazon) by David Allen, I know the book would suggest setting up one or more file folders, one idea per 8 1/2 x 11 page. But that feels too cumbersome and requires use of paper, not very green. And I still need something to collect the idea when it hits, which more often than not is not when I'm in my office.

My main idea collector today is my Outlook Task List, which conveniently synchs with my Blackberry Tour. The Task List has become a bit of a dumping ground, though. Sorting through it for ideas means I have to ignore all those tasks with past-due dates.

So, I declare my first 2010 resolution to be:

1. Establish a system to (a) capture ideas as they come along.
2. Establish a place to store ideas I want to keep for consideration.
3. Review the list monthly to select ones to implement, archiving or discarding the rest.

How do you capture great ideas? How often do you review them and select one to do? Any suggestions?