The full title of the article is, “If You Are Going To Follow Someone, Do What They Do.”

I presume that you have all played or at least heard of a party game called, “Telephone” or “Party Line.”  It can be played as a competition or just for fun.  You line up a group of people, or a couple of groups, and whisper something into the ear of the first person in line.  They turn to the next person and repeat what they heard.  That person turns to the next, and then the next, and so on down the line until the last person repeats it out loud.  My experience has been that over 99% of the time the final version if very far removed from the original. 

I believe this happens because we pass on what we understood the previous person to say and not the words they said.  We pass on our interpretation of what we heard.  Often our interpretation of what we hear isn’t even close to what was said.  Sometimes, what we think we heard can even be totally the opposite of what we were told.   

So, what does that have to do with the title?  I’m glad you asked.  To begin to answer your question, let me ask you one.  Have you ever bought a training course, read a book, attended a seminar, the purpose of which was to improve your life somehow?  Maybe its purpose was to help you deal better with difficult people, raise your children, find a better job, start your own business, or make more money. 

Let’s say that this was a good quality method that was laid out step by step.  You start the process all gung-ho and after a while you find this wonderful new plan isn’t working.  You become frustrated, complain about another “great product” that just doesn’t work, bemoan the money you spent whether it was $20 or $2000.  “That crook sold me some junk that just doesn’t work.”  You might be right.  We have all bought something that is supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread only to find out the guy was a phony and only after our money.  But is that always the case when something doesn’t work?  Maybe it is, but maybe it isn’t.  I have found from my own experience and from those I have talked to that sometimes we must share some of the blame. 

How can that be true?  It is possible that we are following someone but nor really following them.  Let me explain.  Have you ever been in a process (any of the kind mentioned above, or any other) and you discover that the next step that you are supposed to do requires something you don’t have or is a little too difficult to accomplish?  Have you told yourself, “This is just too hard, I’ll do this instead.?”  Or maybe, “I don’t have that but I do have this.”  What you have done is cease to follow the plan and gone off to do your own thing.  Occasionally, you might be able to get away with deviating from the plan but once you get off track, it is very east to wind up lost in the weeds and the process quits working.  All to often we then blame the process when we quit following the program and that is what caused the problem.  Are we really following them if we aren’t doing exactly what each step tells us to do?

I have done this myself more times than I am willing to admit.  There have also been times when I have followed a program to the letter, start to finish, and it still didn’t yield the promised results.  That happens.  The big take away here is that if you want a program or plan that you are using that was created by someone else, you stand a greatly improved possibility that the program will work if you follow the steps provided to exactly as presented.  The more you deviate from the plan, the greater the possibility that you will not achieve the desired results.  

If you find that this has happened, go back to where you got away from the plan and get back on track.  Start back up from where you were following and continue from there, only doing exactly what the program directs.  You might find yourself making progress again and not needing to look for something else that might work “better.”  

If you are going to follow somebody, do exactly what they do!