Hopefully you’ve managed to spend some time with family and friends over the festive period. I find the period in between Christmas and New Year a chance to reflect on the year ahead and also an opportunity to review progress against previously set personal goals.
On the eve of a new year it can be very tempting to come up with some pretty stretching resolutions to get stuck into as the beginning of January gets under way. However how many times have we found that those ambitious good intentions fall by the wayside within a few weeks, if not sometimes days?
It is often the small changes in our behaviour that once practiced eventually become habitual helping us make some major progress towards larger, more challenging goals.
So what can you do to maximise the chances of success? Here is a process for you to consider that could help build some routines that will help you achieve your bigger goals.
- Firstly review some of your existing goals and identify one that is still incomplete and in need of some additional focus. You may have found that other distractions got in the way. This can be particularly common if the goal is particularly large and challenging which can often lead to procrastination.
- Identify a daily habit that could help you move forwards towards your goal.
Research suggests it takes 21 days to build a particular action into a habit so that is why you need to pick an action that you can carry out everyday.Here are a couple of examples:
Identify a specific time of no more than 45 minutes first thing in the morning to review and respond to emails. Do not be tempted to return to them until later in the afternoon and again for no longer than 45 minutes. This will not only free up time to work on your bigger goals but provide you with less distractions to improve focused attention.
If your bigger goal is improving personal health then choose one daily change that will be beneficial. This could be as simple as having breakfast everyday or preparing a healthy mid-morning snack to take into work.
- Once you’ve decided on the daily action you need to write it down as follows.
‘For the next 21 days I am going to ..........................................................................’
Put the written commitment somewhere where you will see it everyday to remind you of your pledge.
- Finally identify someone who will help support you through the next 21 days. They need to be someone who will both hold you to account and help motivate you to succeed
Best wishes for 2012 and hope that those new habits will help accelerate you closer to achieving the goals that will truly make a difference in the year ahead.
For a free copy of my guide to the seven steps that can improve your company’s competitive advantage please click on the link below.
http://www.martincrisp.com/freebook/
