I first have to apologize for misrepresenting the content of this blog, and starting off the new year making up for having missed my chance to pull one over on you last April 1st! However, I knew that getting you to read anything between Christmas and New years was not going to be easy, so in order to get your attention I used the gimmick of "Top 10" because it usually gets readers to tune in.

Instead of 10 items, however, I have just one meandering thought that I'd like to share with you today. It's something that I've observed in many people who aspire to success but never quite make it…and then wonder why. I was going to title this blog "The Number One Reason Most People Fail," but it sounded like such a downer. I'm hoping, instead, that it will have the opposite effect, and will help you conjure up a newfound commitment moving into 2012. I trust, at the very least, it will help you think through your own blind spots and/or help those you coach do the same in the coming year…

In any particular profession, there are always those people who have established themselves as beacons of success, and who everyone else aspires to emulate. From the perspective of everyone around them, it appears that everything they touch turns to gold. Others, especially anyone new to the industry, fantasize about becoming like these individuals…successful, confident, respected, able to make the right connections, and effective at influencing others.

And while there are a few people who will eventually achieve the success that they've aspired to achieve, most will not. Why? What is the difference between those who do and those who don't reach the pinnacle of success in their industry? The number one difference is the huge gap that exists between what the successful person is willing to do, day in and day out, to earn success, and what most people are unwilling to do.

For those who are really serious about actually making it in their industry, rather than merely dreaming about it, there are two ingredients that must be in the mix:

1. Interview the successful: Most people never approach these very successful people and ask in minute detail, what activities were required daily to reach their success. Only through understanding the accountability to daily tasks, moving into situations that reek of uncertainty, and moving past failures and doing the right thing every day for years, can a person get a glimpse of what it will take for them to acquire what they aspire to. The trick here is to ask questions that the successful person might have forgotten about. Most successful people build a certain amount of amnesia around the vast number of tasks that they initially undertook to get to where they are now. You have to prime the pump for this information. Don't be afraid to ask, down to the detail, what they did every day to get where they are.
2. Implement the plan: Here's where the rubber meets the road. Successful people do the hard, boring stuff, without fail, every day. You have to ask yourself if you're the kind of person who can do this…or are you the type who has to be told what daily tasks to perform in order to follow through. Can you take ownership enough to work when nobody is patting you on the back, or giving you constant direction, and when you don't know what the near term benefit will be, when you are bored and there are "better things" you could be doing? The answer to these questions determines a lot.

If you can discipline yourself and keep yourself accountable, good things will happen. If you cannot do this, no amount of dreaming will make 2012 any better than past years. So, partner with some people who get things done, make a plan, break it into daily chunks, keep each other accountable, and aim for something big!

Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.