Years ago my favorite past time was to visit my local library or book store in search of the next motivational, self help book that would have the key to all of my desires. The problem is that I pretty much jumped from one book to the next without putting much practice into the lessons I learned. Things moved in my life but not at the pace that I wanted.
Then one day I stumbled upon an old interview of the late Phyllis Diller where she talked about taking on the principles of the Magic of Believing and applying it to her life. She studied the book for two years. Reading and reading it daily, underlining the most important aspects and PRACTICING the techniques over and over again in her daily life until she mastered them.
Once upon a time I chose to practice visualization several times a day. I was so bad at visualizing that I forced myself to do it often so I can get better. When I first began, my mind was all over the place and I could barely picture anything that wasn't already in existence. With each day that passed, the visions became clearer and easier to formulate (and manifest). Could you imagine where I'd be right now if I chose to keep that habit up for years like Phyllis and Tony did? This coming year I plan on selecting a few principles to practice as a daily habit. Some techniques that immediately come to mind are:
+ Writing & rewriting down my goals each day.
+ Visualizing goals each day.
+ Practice The Slight Edge Principle.
+ Pray, meditate and study the Bible daily.
+ Study one self help book for the year (practice the principles over and over).
I can go on but I'll keep this list short for the sake of brevity and focus. Let's not be like the guy who's practiced 10,000 kicks once. This person has no power. But the person who has one or two moves that they've practiced over and over again, to the point of mastery is able to accomplish anything.
Which technique do you plan on mastering in 2015?
Hey...I like this, by James Clear (a website). It rang true to me because I sometimes get disheartened rather easy, especially when I have a lot going on in my life that distracts me. He emphasizes committing systems instead of goals:
ReplyDelete1. Goals reduce your current happiness.
When you’re working toward a goal, you are essentially saying, “I’m not good enough yet, but I will be when I reach my goal.”
The problem with this mindset is that you’re teaching yourself to always put happiness and success off until the next milestone is achieved.
SOLUTION: Commit to a process, not a goal.
We place unnecessary stress on ourselves to lose weight or to succeed in business or to write a best-selling novel. Instead, you can keep things simple and reduce stress by focusing on the daily process and sticking to your schedule, rather than worrying about the big, life-changing goals.
When you focus on the practice instead of the performance, you can enjoy the present moment and improve at the same time.
2. Goals are strangely at odds with long-term progress.
You might think your goal will keep you motivated over the long-term, but that’s not always true.
This can create a type of “yo-yo effect” where people go back and forth from working on a goal to not working on one. This type of cycle makes it difficult to build upon your progress for the long-term.
SOLUTION: Release the need for immediate results.
In a situation like the one above, a goal-based mentality will tell you to finish the workout and reach your goal. After all, if you set a goal and you don’t reach it, then you feel like a failure.
Systems-based thinking is never about hitting a particular number, it’s about sticking to the process and not missing a beat.
3. Goals suggest that you can control things that you have no control over.
You can’t predict the future. (I know, shocking.)
But every time we set a goal, we try to do it. We try to plan out where we will be and when we will make it there. We try to predict how quickly we can make progress, even though we have no idea what circumstances or situations will arise along the way.
SOLUTION: Build feedback loops.
Each Friday, I spend 15 minutes filling out a small spreadsheet with the most critical metrics for my business. For example, in one column I calculate the conversion rate (the percentage of website visitors that join my free email newsletter each week). I rarely think about this number, but checking that column each week provides a feedback loop that tells me if I’m doing things right. When that number drops, I know that I need to send high quality traffic to my site.
None of this is to say that goals are useless. However, I’ve found that goals are good for planning your progress and systems are good for actually making progress.
Goals can provide direction and even push you forward in the short-term, but eventually a well-designed system will always win.