Out with the Old/In with the New

So have you made your New Year Resolution? I heard a quote that 4 out of 5 people fail to achieve their resolutions. It sounds like we need a better plan to succeed.

For many years, fire has been used in ceremonies; from Buddhist monks or Native Americans burning prayers to the Burning Man ceremony; this has been a way to get rid of bad karma and move on. I've participated in a burning bowl ceremony, where people write down what they want to get rid of (bad habits etc) and put them in a bowl to burn. I like the idea of getting rid of something old in order to make room for something new. If we want to lose weight, we need to give up our bad eating habits.

This might be a symbolic first step, but we still need a plan if we want to succeed. This time of year I plan out my racing plans for the coming season; key races I plan on participating in, goals I want to achieve etc. Based on that, I plan out the type of training I need to be doing, down to a weekly level. As I get into the year, the plan may get modified, but I have a plan to follow, not just a vague resolution to exercise more. We need this for any of our resolutions; a plan to ensure we can achieve success. So set some goals for the year (resolutions) and plan out how you're going to reach them. What are you doing this week to help reach those goals?

How we learn

Last night at the KC Chapter meeting for PMI, the guest speaker was Cindy Meyer of LeaderQor Associates. Cindy focuses on leadership development and her presentation looked at how we can learn and achieve new goals.

According to Cindy, we learn only 2% from either inspirational or impacting activities. Inspirational would be listening to that great motivational speaker. Impacting is some major event, such as having a heart attack. The rest of our learning comes from spaced repetition. Think about how you memorized your multiplication tables in primary school.

This is consistent with other messages I've heard. One specific statistic is that it takes 21 days of repeated behavior to change a habit or create a new one. There's that repetition again.

Cindy laid out 7 steps for goal achievement:

1. Set up goals that are SMART (specific, measurabe, achievable, relevant, time-bound).
2. Understand the rewards or consequences for either reaching or not reaching the goal.
3. Understand the obstacles in your way.
4. Develop the solution to reach your goal.
5. Detail the action steps for the solution.
6. Assign target dates for the action steps.
7. Delegate tasks as appropriate (obviously this is for business goals, not personal ones).

Nothing surprising or earth shattering here. It's along the lines of Getting Things Done; break down your goals into pieces that can be executed on a day by day basis, the next action.

So what are you waiting for? Have you had that great idea that you never got around to? What can you do today to start working on that goal? It may only be 1 small task, but if you keep at it, you can reach your goal.

The Olympics and the Big Picture

Like many people, I have been watching a lot of the Olympics these days. From sports I love like track or cycling, to ones I didn't realize were around, like trampoline. There are so many stories of success out there.

These athletes aren't successful just because they worked hard for the last 6 months. They've been thinking about and preparing for the Olympics for years. We should have this same focus in our careers as well.

In the middle of a big project, it's easy to focus just on getting that project done without thinking about the bigger picture. We need to step back from the day to day chaos once in a while and think about our long term goals. My favorite approach to this is from Steven Covey. Picture your own funeral. What are people going to say about you? What is going to be written on your tombstone? This exercise is a good way to think about what you really want to do with your life.

So as you're watching the Olympics, think about where you want to be in 4 years when the next Olympics come around. Write your ideas down and start planning.