Here we are… in the first week of 2018.
The year lies before you – waiting for you to make something of it, waiting for you to do something with another blank canvas that you’ve been given. Inviting you even, to make yourself proud this year.
What this year will turn out like, for the most part, will be highly dependent on your decisions and your behavior choices.
That’s worth repeating so you feel the weight of it – What this year will turn out like, for the most part, will be highly dependent on your decisions and your behavior choices.
Do what you did last year, and you’ll get very similar results. Maybe for some that’s good because you had a great year in 2017; but for others, 2017 feels like something you’d rather not relive.
Of course there will always be things that happen to us – both good and bad – that are out of our control, and we have to adjust. But, for the most part, your year – and the success or disappointment of it – will be determined and governed by you.
That’s pretty powerful.
Want this year to be different? Want this year to be memorable in really good ways? Want to do things you only dreamed possible? Want your business to grow exponentially?
Check out this list below and make sure to incorporate these into your January, so you strengthen those muscles and create good habits for your 2018.
- Maintain focus – when working on anything, it’s not realistic to maintain 100% focus for long periods of time. So schedule in short increments of time throughout your day (30 minutes to 1 hour) where you put every distraction aside and focus intently on the task at hand.
- Make your future exciting enough – if you’re not looking forward to, and actually visualizing with anticipation, what lies ahead, you will just not be motivated or disciplined enough to actually get there.
- Make your goals and aspirations visible – most of us are visual people. We need to see something in order to remember it. You know the old saying, “out of sight, out of mind”. This is never more true than with our core values, goals, or things we want to accomplish. Seeing it every day on your computer, or white board, or phone, or desk (or all the above) will remind you of the good path you are on.
- Get accountability – I just don’t understand why people think they can accomplish things consistently without accountability. As humans, we are hard-wired to need others. Maybe you can get a few things done, but true accountability will propel you into your future desired state quicker than anything else. Inviting a chosen few others into your process and year will give you feedback and encouragement that you are on the right track (or not). Check out our M3 groups for an affordable and amazing option of weekly accountability.
- Have a clear plan – why is it that we spend more time planning a one week vacation than we do planning our year and our life? If you don’t have a plan, mark my words, unfortunately you will stumble through 2018. In our online Hub platform, we have a complete Strategic Plan template that you can download and customize for you and your business.
- Download a habit tracker app – Yesterday, I downloaded Strides to my phone. In the app, you enter your goals and it helps you track your progress. I’ve chosen the paid version (paid a year in advance – $39.99) because I wanted it to cost me something so I’m more inclined to use it. The more tools I can have in place to remind me, the better chance I actually have of hitting my goals. There are other options for habit trackers as well if you prefer a different format (just Google “habit tracker apps”).
I don’t know about you, but this year is going to be different for me.
I will not get to Dec. 31st and be frustrated that I didn’t make every effort to accomplish those things that I wrote down this past week as important.
There are very specific things I want to accomplish that are clearly laid out in my plan. It will be hard. It will take a crazy amount of work. It will require me to make good (and sometimes difficult) choices.
But I know the only way I can get to the end of 2018 and not be discouraged for failing to hit my goals is to consciously choose to live every day by the one word I’ve chosen to guide my year – DISCIPLINE.
Motivation can come and go like the wind, but discipline is a conscious choice every day to do (or not do) those things that matter to you.
Discipline (not just motivation) creates freedom. And… who doesn’t want freedom??