Are You An Island?

John Donne once wrote “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.” There is a lot of wisdom in this quote. First, I believe he means that we are all connected, and two, that we cannot live our lives alone. We need other people to connect with, to laugh with, and to count on. To achieve any goal we need all kinds of resources and people are some of the most important resources we could have.

This is true for anything that we want to achieve whether it’s in business, in our family life, or in our health. Sometimes achieving a goal can be hard because we try so many different things and it doesn’t always go the way we want. The good news is that when you develop a plan and follow it – and it doesn’t work, you can change it.  And to know what changes to make or how to shorten your learning curve you can rely on people who are experts to show you the way.

People who have achieved what you want to achieve have already figured out a way to achieve success. They know the ropes and a lot of the time they are more than happy to share the pieces of the puzzle that will get you to where you want to go too.

The most important thing you can do to achieve success in anything is to ask for help. Find a mentor, a coach, a friend, or a teacher who can help you stay on track and put the puzzle pieces together to achieve your goals.

Trying to figure it out yourself will eventually get you there too. But this is the long way to get achieve something – it’s like being an island out in the middle of the ocean. This island mentality can be a very frustrating path and can lead you to quit before you ever reach your goals. Instead, you can think of yourself as a sprocket that’s turning and connecting with other sprockets who help you turn. It takes a lot less effort and you get there faster.

Even Sinatra didn’t move his own pianos – he relied on others to support him and assist him. Successful people do not become successful on their own. They have a team supporting them. And so can you. Take a look at the goals you want to achieve and ask yourself if you’re acting like an island as you work towards them. If you are, how can you become a sprocket?