Back to top

The Arrival Syndrome

Member Content Rating: 
5
Your rating: None Average: 5 (77 votes)

Image by Natalia Lavrinenko from Pixabay

When some people reach their goal and “arrive” they tend to fall back and say “I’ve made it!” and then not stay on top of the behaviors that got them there in the first place. Comfy in your corner office you lose sight of the numbers. You abdicate instead of delegate. You skip the gym and have dessert a little more often because you’re at your target weight! You made it. You don’t have to do all that stuff anymore. Or do you? - Lindley Craig

The answer is "YES."

A mentor once told me of the Arrival Syndrome, whereby professionals who had attained great achievement in their field absolutely refused to accept they were not proficient other areas.  Since they’d ‘arrived’, they felt there was no need to defer to other professionals. They thought they knew everything there was to know about finance. - https://savemoregivemore.wordpress.com

Well, they didn't.

This phenomenon probably limited the achievements of mankind more than anything else. When this ‘thing’ infects us, we stop growing, stop learning. We turn off or tune out the ability to receive inspiration — because we ‘already know all there is to know.'” If that doesn’t make you stop and ponder for a moment…  - Nelson https://lifesuccesslegacy.com

It certainly does.

Other than talent and opportunity, what makes some people more successful than others? One important determinant of success is self-control—the capacity to regulate attention, emotion, and behavior in the presence of temptation. A second important determinant of success is grit—the tenacious pursuit of a dominant superordinate goal despite setbacks. Self-control and grit are strongly correlated, but not perfectly so. This means that some people with high levels of self-control capably handle temptations but do not consistently pursue a dominant goal. Likewise, some exceptional achievers are prodigiously gritty but succumb to temptations in domains other than their chosen life passion. Understanding how goals are hierarchically organized clarifies how self-control and grit are related but distinct: Self-control entails aligning actions with any valued goal despite momentarily more-alluring alternatives; grit, in contrast, entails having and working assiduously toward a single challenging superordinate goal through thick and thin, on a timescale of years or even decades. Although both self-control and grit entail aligning actions with intentions, they operate in different ways and over different timescales. This hierarchical goal framework suggests novel directions for basic and applied research on success. 1

As I’ve studied other highly successful people across all aspects of life, I’ve found that they are almost always obsessed about seven things. They are healthy obsessions that ultimately lead to success, if you are intentional about them.

1. Courage

It always starts with courage.

The courageto start.

The courage to stand out.

The courage to do something in the face of fear.

Highly successful people are always courageous.

It took courage for Michael Jordon to keep trying after being cut from his high school basketball team. It took courage for Thomas Edison to attempt to invent the lightbulb.

Jordan could have embarrassed himself.

Edison could have been made to look like a fool.

But they were obsessed with being courageous.

2. Commitment

Highly successful people are all-in. As Yoda said, there is no try. There is only doing or not doing. If you are going to reach your full potential, you must be 100% committed to whatever it is you are pursuing. There is no Plan B. Ask yourself every day if you are committed. Are you all-in RIGHT NOW? If not, it’s time to get honest with yourself about why…which brings us to the next obsession.

3. Candor

Highly successful people are honest with themselves and others. Are your skills in line with your dreams and goals? If not, what do you need to do about it? Do you have the right dreams and goals? Candor with yourself means assessing your own abilities. If you are 40 years old, 5 feet tall and weigh 120 pounds, your dream of being an NFL lineman might be a little unrealistic. You need to be honest with yourself. At the same time, if you have an employee who simply does not have the personality for sales, you need to be honest with yourself and him. That means letting him go even though you don’t want to. It means having difficult conversations with others. Candor isn’t an occasional practice, though. It’s ongoing. Every day, you need to be honest with yourself about your performance, your goals, and your abilities.

4. Conscious Choice

Highly successful people make a conscious choice to take personal responsibilty  for their lives and their success. Notice that personal responsibility is a choice. It is not something that you just wake up with one day. The highest achievers don’t blame anyone for their situation. They don’t blame the government, dwell on the mistakes of others, or allow themselves to stay stuck in the past.Throughout each day, their inner voice tells them that if they are to accomplish their goals for the day, it is up to them to make them happen. (No, that does not mean you have to do all the work, but you are responsible for those who work for you!) Highly successful people make a conscious choice to take personal responsibility for their lives and their success.

5. Continual Self-Improvement

Highly successful people are obsessive about learning. Learning and experience leads to competence. You might be the best in the world at what you do right now, but what are you doing to get better? Right now, someone is out there working harder than you, learning more than you, and trying to take your spot. In order to keep up, you have to get ahead. You read that right…in order to keep up, you have to get ahead. You have to continually improve yourself to stay ahead of the competition. Are you reading the right magazines or books for your industry? Are you attending the right seminars? Are you getting better every day at what you do professionally? Are you improving your relationships? If not, you’ll never reach the next level. Because it takes competence to develop confidence.

6. Confidence

Highly successful people are obsessive about maintaining and increasing their confidence.The best way to get more confidence is to become more competent aka the Competence-Confidence Loop. Once you reach competence, maintaining and increasing confidence requires intentional effort (are you sensing a theme here?). You have to work for confidence. This is done through positive declarations and affirmations. It is done byremoving negative influences in your life and replacing them with positive people. Which brings us to the last obsession of highly successful people…

7. Community

Highly successful people don’t do it alone. No matter what myths you’ve bought into about the solitary leader,  it’s not true. Successful people intentionally surround themselves with positive, affirming, encouraging people. You need a team and you need others to reach your highest potential. 2

1. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0963721414541462

2. https://www.mattmcwilliams.com/the-7-obsessions-of-highly-successful-people/