Plant what you want to see grow
Some of us like New Year’s Resolutions, some of us don’t. Some are great at making it work, and others are not. Wherever you fall in the lineup, don’t fall into these traps – they just make you feel worse for the experience and don’t do anything to advance your progress!
Even if you’re not a “resolution-er”, consider this a good basis for any planning session.
If you are an “avoider” of all forms of future looking/past reflecting in this season of giddy optimism for a new calendar, what’s possible if you give a shot this time?
Here are some of my perfectly lovely traps for resolution making that allow you to have the deep, depressing validation of failure early into the new year.
Magical You –
That somehow, for some reason, something magical happens and you miraculously become someone new, with new routines, habits and maybe even skills.
Come January 1, you will magically go from someone who dreads making phone calls to someone who busts out 15 cold sales calls a day! (Because it’s in your plan…)
Uh huh. That’s going to happen… and then you are just going to have a great opportunity to beat yourself up for not making it happen (again.)
The Martha Stewart Calendar –
I’m particularly fond of this one.
Have you ever read the Martha Stewart magazine? Every issue she includes a monthly “planning” calendar which includes things like plant bulbs, clean out the pantry, create invitations to Easter party for 50, change the closet from winter to spring clothes, knit baby blankets for foster kids, and complete testing recipes for a new cookbook. (Yes, I’m making that all up – but read her calendars and you see where I am coming from – completely unrealistic expectations for mere mortals.)
The point is, that come January 1, we somehow decide that now is the perfect time –
1. to go to the gym five days a week (when this year you didn’t have a gym membership and have never managed to exercise more than two days per week,)
2. to plan and cook healthy dinners four nights per week (when “cooking” in 2017 looked like picking up a roasted chicken from the grocery store and opening a bag of salad instead of take out,)
3. you will suddenly have a strict and productive work calendar with time slots for five main activities (when 2017 looked more like a sprint from one past due, urgent task to the next.)
It’s not only a recipe for failure, but another chance to prove to yourself that you just aren’t capable of change, or a way to force a total change in order to end up abandoning every change.
I just want to point out that Martha has help – a lot of help. And Martha has spent a lifetime figuring out how to be Martha Stewart. Her empire and life wasn’t built in a day, and it’s possible she’s just hardwired that way. I am not Martha, and thankfully, neither are you.
Again, you aren’t going to move yourself forward any faster, and might even be a recipe for a set back.
Getting Ahead of Yourself
In a perfect world, we could wave magic wands and wake up the next day with the life and business we most want to have created a year from now.
It doesn’t work that way, and you actually have to think realistically about where you are now and where you want to go.
I talked to someone recently who told me that this time next year she wants to be making 6 figures and on vacation in Europe. Right now she’s not making any money in this endeavor and while she knows someone who has gone from 0 to 100k in a year, she doesn’t know how she’s going to get there other than in theory, and she has no track record of doing this before.
Now I’m not throwing cold water on her dream, but I am suggesting that it’s a bit like saying you’re going to enter a NASCAR race and be a winning driver in a year when you just got your license to drive a car last month. It’s probably a stretch – a REALLY BIIIIIIIIIG stretch.
Besides, growth that happens over a natural period of time, and in line with you and your work schedule/habits/desires and effort will be sustainable.
What does work…
Look at where you are now:
What’s working?
What did you learn that you think will be important to remember?
What do you want more of in your life?
What are you doing right now that you want to continue doing?
What would be a goal that is a bit of a stretch, but do-able for you if you work at it?
What skills will you need? What resources will help? Who do you need on your team/support to get there?
Now work backwards to build your plan. There are few tricks to doing this – and I’m going to be sharing them soon.
Starting your planning process for 2018 from where you are now is a good bet to set yourself up for success.
My thought today is this: Change is possible, but best done gently and practiced over time. How does this change your planning for 2018, if at all?
January Challenge starts Jan 8th – are you up for it?