The eight P’s of personal achievement are: Plan Purposely, Prepare Properly, Proceed Positively, and Pursue Persistently. Let’s look at these one at a time:
Plan Purposely – Another way of saying this is, “Prior planning promotes professional performance.” Most people spend more time planning a vacation than they do planning what they want to accomplish in other areas of their life, including their career. When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
Prepare Properly – The Scout motto, “Be Prepared,” is something everyone should heed. It’s been said that luck is “preparation meeting opportunity.” People who outperform their peers, excel in their career, achieve acclaim, and appear “lucky” have been better prepared.
Proceed Positively – You can plan purposely and prepare properly, but unless you take positive action, you will not enjoy the success you are capable of achieving.
Pursue Persistently – For small goals and easy accomplishments, planning purposely, preparing properly, and proceeding positively might be enough. However, for larger goals, more difficult tasks, and when obstacles and roadblocks get in your way, it is time for stronger measures. Persistence, or dogged determination, will help you break through hindering circumstances, past conditioning, obstacles, and roadblocks. Persistence will also help you get past the negative influence of what other people say, think, or do.