Is there something you intended to do or start in 2017 that has, so far, eluded you? What is the single thing that you really want to have started before the start of 2018?
I’m writing this on Halloween, shocked to realize that tomorrow will be November 1, when you are reading this. Like most people, I wonder where this year has gone, and why it has gone so fast.
At the end of September, I thought about which of my goals or intentions had taken a back seat, and reassured myself that I had three months – a whole quarter – to get started. As of tomorrow, just two more short months are left, and both of them are crowded with holidays and obligations, potentially limiting discretionary time to focus on our goals.
My best laid plans stretch back to July, when I first launched my Clear-Eyed Coaching & Consulting website. I committed to putting out a newsletter to my mailing list every two weeks. I wanted to have a practice, a routine of sharing my thoughts about professional and personal change, organizations, team work, and strategy, among other topics. It was a clear and simple goal. It would serve my audience, my clients, and me; it would serve the work.
Working in a corporate environment, I was generally able to achieve the goals I committed to. My observation is that it’s fairly common for people to get their work goals done, and that personal objectives are the ones we skip out on. Whether it is to have more family time, exercise consistently (or at all), plan (and take!) vacations, engage in our community, start writing that book, or take an art class, we tend to put those on secondary priority, on a back burner to the front burner of work items.
We often don’t even give ourselves the room to think about, to imagine, what we want our lives, all in, to look like. Or what sorts of changes we’d like to make in our lives.
If, like me, you had the best laid plans for 2017 but a few things remain untended as of today, now is the time to Filter, Find your Compelling Why, Focus, and Find a small step Forward.
Filter: most of my clients are over-achievers, and they dream big. Their goals list is long. Take a few minutes to make a list of those things you had hoped to get started or done this year, and zero in on the one thing that means the most to you. Filter out those things that are “nice” or “useful” or “makes others happy,” and see what’s left. Ask yourself which thing you’d be most satisfied having started, or most disappointed to defer. It’s usually the one ‘secret’ personal wish, or the most personally challenging.
One of the ways I sort through my ideas and plans is to imagine how I’ll feel in the future – next year sometime, for example – if I do or don’t tend to them. What thing with progress will delight me and be an investment in the future me? What thing, left undone, will leave me disappointed in myself, or become the thing that creates self-doubt that will get in the way of other growth?
It absolutely matters that you assess your idea, and decide that it merits recommitting, before revising plans. Do you still care about that goal? If it isn’t the most important thing – to you – that you can get going on, perhaps it is time to release it.
Find the Compelling Why: once you have your one thing that matters the most to you – yes, I’m suggesting you only squeeze one more thing onto your active to-do list for 2017 from the pile of good intentions – write down a few “why’s.” Find what is most compelling for you about getting going on this intention or goal.
Be curious: ask yourself about the “what” behind the “why,” and keep peeling the layers until you have the hook to what really matters to you behind the goal. The Compelling Why is the thing that helps you show up to do the work, no matter how small the step, because you “get” why it is important to you.
For example (albeit a tried and true one): my intention is to get started on an exercise routine. Why? To feel better in my body, get fit, get lean. Why is that important? What results does that bring to me? I will have more confidence in front of an audience and feel better when I do public speaking or run a meeting. I love public speaking and want to do more of it. Feeling more confident will also support my long-term goal of being an in-demand key note conference speaker.
Focus: Our dreams are always headlines. Our efforts to get to those headlines, by contrast, are small, incremental steps, sometimes even footnotes. Identifying those steps requires focus. Headlines, the ones you imagine, are the vision that draws you forward; your Compelling Why the hook that keeps you attending to that vision. However, neither the headline nor your why’s represent the daily investment in progress. That’s where focus comes in. Brainstorm on paper or a white board a few things you could do to just get started (include the brainstorming – that counts!).
Find a small step Forward: Once you have a list of some potential steps, chose one to act on today. Commit to doing one small thing every day that focuses on your intention, the smaller the better. Maybe you even repeat the same small step every day for a few days, and then add another, or switch it up.
Why focus on small steps? Because your life is already crowded and probably can’t fit another BIG thing in it. But you can accommodate a small step in service to a bigger dream. Doing something consistently every day, no matter how small, builds on itself AND builds your sense of success. You are making progress every day, and you’re not overwhelming yourself or swallowing the ocean of potential headlines.
You have time in 2017 to make progress on the one thing you’ll be most disappointed to leave behind. If you are getting this missive, it is my first step on a redirected plan. The old plan isn’t relevant anymore: I will take a small step every day around my coaching practice and this newsletter.
To recap:
Every day is an opportunity to start the thing we really want to get going on, just as every day is a chance to review and maybe stop doing the things we think or say we “should” do. Every day is a chance to redirect our energy to that which is most meaningful to us.
The smallest step, each day, is the way forward, each step building on its predecessor and creating a sense of forward motion and success.
What’s your single most important intention or goal, and what is the one small step you can take today to get started?
You got this!