Introduction

In today’s cruel environment for leaders, success does not happen. It is engineered, instead. In a previous article written by the same author, basic rituals of engineering success have been explored. This engineered success needs to be protected, however.  Like a “Strategic Architect,” to attain the long-term goal, adopting only a vision is not sufficient. A comprehensive system should be built to provide structural support against the weaknesses in the design. This will lead to avoiding failure and achieving sustainable success. Top achievers focus on skills that reinforce their foundation of success. This article explores three major habits that protect success from failure. 

Habit 1: Pre-Moterm Ritual 

First and foremost, a Pre-Moterm Ritual is needed to shield one’s success from failure. 

When adopting a postmortem ritual of a failed project, one learns from past experience. When adopting the Pre-Moterm ritual, however, a Strategic Architect imagines the possible reasons behind its failure even before encountering the early signs of such failure. This proactively engineered thinking process helps one pose a question like, “What would be the cause for the failure of this project after six months?” When performing according to this strategy, one can preemptively think of such predictable issues such as monetary leaks, changing market conditions, or any lack of resources.

Habit 2: Ruthless Priority Filtering 

Priority Filtering comes as the second ritual of shielding success against failure. In order to attain success professionally, there must be a definite way to differentiate between what is urgent and what is essential. Drifting from priorities results in failure. One should recognize where the energies are depleted by the performance of unimportant tasks, leaving no energy for mission-critical items. The only way to avoid such problems is to utilize a filter, which would say a big “NO” to everything except that which supports the success framework.

Habit 3: Daily Calibration Loop

The final ritual in the architect’s strategy is the Daily Calibration Loop. This is the daily corrections ritual. The ritual should usually be done in the early morning, at around 5:30 AM to 7:30 AM. During this time, one engages in deep work, journals, and plans for the day ahead. In other words, the blueprints for the whole day are analyzed and tweaked if necessary during that early time of the day. When skipping this daily practice, even minor mistakes in thinking or execution would eventually accumulate and result in a disastrous outcome. This comes as a result of overlooking them. 

Conclusion

In summary, achieving sustainable success comes as a result of one’s ability to be well-prepared for failure and have the resilience to focus on tasks with the highest priorities. When adopting the pre-mortem ritual, ruthlessly prioritizing tasks, and creating a daily calibration process, one manages to elevate from being a dreamer to becoming a professional Strategic Architect. Such practices go beyond motivating progress. Instead, they build an impassable fortress where failure cannot find any place to thrive. When arriving at one’s workstation tomorrow morning, it must be realized that habits developed today will become the map to the success attained tomorrow.