Accelerating People to Success

what does it really mean to "accelerate people"?

Isn't the world we live in fast-paced enough already?

Don't people need to put their foot on the brake instead of speeding up?

The answers point to a combination of everything. The problem is not speeding up, but speeding up without direction, like on a rollercoaster going from nothing to nowhere. It is speeding up when it is time to stop, and stopping when it is time to speed up.

I see people around me complaining of a constant sense of frustration. Of not being able to get their dreams down on paper, or of having left them behind at some bend in the road. 

However, as University of Illinois psychology professor O.H. Mowrer said, if happiness represents the main goal of human endeavour, frustration is its antithesis. The verb frustrate comes from Latin, meaning "to do something in vain". And researchers working on the subject have come to the same conclusion. 

According to science, frustration occurs when a person continuously acts with the expectation of obtaining some gratification or a desired result, but simply does not achieve what he wants. To investigate what happens in the human brain when someone is subjected to frustration, scientists turned to neuroimaging. And they found that frustration causes changes in brain activity in the same structures affected when we go through an acute stress crisis. 

After a frustrating event, our emotional response is stress, irritation, sadness, anger and aggression, elements that, combined in different proportions, constitute what we call frustration - or, in short, the opposite of happiness. 

It would be no exaggeration to say that today we live in a "frustration epidemic", around the world, economic, political, financial and moral crises serve as fuel to our daily frustration. However, if there is one thing I have learned in my journey it is that to reach success - and success, here, means achieving what you want in life - you must learn to overcome frustration, which is nothing more than the greatest of all "decelerators" of people I know. 

You may even think you're speeding up, that your routine is all about running around non-stop, up and down. However, if all that running around isn't getting you where you want to go, you're not really speeding up - you're just frustrating yourself. 

At the root of frustration is a sense of powerlessness, of not having control or power to overcome barriers that separate us from our goals.

The work, thus, starts from the inside out. It is about regaining control and joy of life, focus and energy, a sense of direction and the power to connect with our fellow human beings, to invest in what we believe in and to go from dream to realisation. Of knowing how to undertake, how to overcome and, despite the obstacles, how to enjoy the journey with the pleasure and delivery of someone who has discovered - or rediscovered - who they are and what they want on this incredible journey we call life. 

This is how, after reflecting on what it means to be a "people accelerator", I came to the following conclusion: it means putting my experience and my life story at the service of those who want to exchange the verb to frustrate for the verb to accomplish - and they want to do it quickly, very quickly!

With these thoughts in mind, I started my research. I found that they confirmed what my experience was already telling me. ACCELERATING is a process, a route, since mapping out the route is the essential condition to be able to increase speed safely. 

To facilitate this journey I have created an anachronism consisting of 8 phases:

Phase 1 - A - Believe

The starting point is to have a dream and believe in it. What does it mean to believe and why is that so powerful? How is belief distinguished from simple magical thinking? What about beliefs that get in the way of your actions, how do you get rid of them? What beliefs fuel you? What is your fuel? What do you believe is the destination of your journey? How do you reconnect to that destination?

Phase 2 - C - Connect

Here we will see what the basis of good relationships is; how to bring the right people together so that it starts to accelerate. We will learn how to create a really powerful mastermind, which according to Napoleon Hill means "the coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, working towards a definite purpose, in a spirit of harmony". 

Stage 3 - E - Choose/Educate

By rescuing dreams, reviewing beliefs and connecting with people, many ideas and options will begin to emerge. Which path to follow? Where to direct your efforts and newly gained vital energy? This is a crucial moment, as a mistaken or illusory choice can lead you back to frustration. To distinguish a true call from a "siren song", we need to educate ourselves, which involves information, self-knowledge and preparation. 

Phase 4 - L - Freeing yourself

Thinking outside the box, getting rid of everything that might be limiting you, seeking the new, daring - that's what we'll be dealing with here. To accelerate, to the point of reaching the sphere of great entrepreneurs, you need to cut ties. Here we will look at how to accelerate your business or your career (if you are an intrapreneur) - wherever you are.

Phase 5 - E - Expand

After breaking free, it's time to expand, broaden horizons, allow yourself higher flights and accelerate even further. Let's talk about strategy, planning and vision: what future do you want to build and for what? What resources do you need and how to get them quickly? And what do you need to develop to be the person you want to be?

Phase 6 - R - Restore

The time has come to learn an essential secret of acceleration: the pause. If you have to stop to refuel on a car journey - and even in a Formula 1 race this is necessary - in your personal journey things are no different. The risk of accelerating without stopping is fatal: you run out of energy when you need it most. Let's talk about stress and burnout, and how to avoid them in order to renew your energy and carry on with more pleasure, mood and, why not, with more happiness. Professor Tal Ben-Sharar, whose course on happiness was the most attended in the history of Harvard University, has some important lessons to teach us about this.  

Phase 7 - A - Acting

Conscious and result-oriented action, persistence, strategy and self-discipline - these are the "weapons" of the good "accelerator", that is, the person who accelerates because he knows very well where he wants to go. This is where the occasional marathon runners start to distinguish themselves from true champions. Willpower and self-motivation are the key words. However, what experience shows us, science proves: we are not talking about innate characteristics, but about skills that can be developed. Here you will find out how. 

Phase 8 - R - Reborn/Reinvent

The journey has not yet come to an end, and perhaps it never will. This is our final great discovery. The destination you outlined in the beginning is just a stage. New ideas will come, new achievements, new conquests. Settling for success is another recipe for frustration. You have to know how to recreate yourself, reinvent yourself and even be reborn. The dream continues as long as we live. And as long as we invent new ways of speeding up.

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