Here are 4 principles that can help you accomplish more in the next few months than you have done all of last year. Chances are, you are already familiar with these principles. They are simple and easy to implement, but the rewards are enormous.
The first principle is to set goals and keep them. We know that every year millions of people set goals, and by the end of January, millions of those same people abandon those goals. An often quoted statistic is that less than 3 % of the population consistently set and keep goals. And guess what? They make up some of the most successful people in the world. When you set goals you give your brain a roadmap on which to focus, and as the saying goes, the things you focus on are the things you expand. It is unlikely that you would leave on a journey with no idea where you are headed, so why would you do that with your life?
The second principle is to safeguard those goals. You do this by sharing your goals with someone who will support you and who will hold you accountable. Goals that are made in isolation often fail because there is no one to keep you honest. The second way to safeguard your goals is to protect them from dream stealers. Dream stealers are usually friends, relatives, and spouses with whom you have shared your dreams and then they talk you out of going after them. Many times they are trying to protect you from failure and in so doing they leave with self-doubt. The best way to handle dream stealers is to keep them on a need-to-know basis; they only need to know your dreams after you have accomplished them.
The third principle is to make the commitment to live outside of your comfort zone.
It is so much easier to exist in place in which you are familiar and feel safe. The problem is those places offer no growth. Know that is ok to do things that make you uncomfortable, commit to take calculated risk, and be willing to fail. These are the prices of greatness. Remember, if you are feeling nervous and uncomfortable, it means growth is about to take place because the experience will require that you draw upon strengths you didn’t know you had. A smart person once said, a mind that has been stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions so be willing to step into uncharted territories.
The fourth principle for making this your best year yet is to embrace the idea that life is a journey, not a destination. You have undoubtedly met people who wait for a series of things or destinations before they decided to get happy. They wait to meet the right person, they wait to have the right job, they wait for the promotion, they wait for their businesses to succeed, they wait to lose the weight. While they are waiting, life continues. Understand that the journey is not always ideal, and there will be bumps in the road. Instead of waiting to get over the bump, simple hold on more tightly and commit to soak up all you can along the journey because it is your journey.
Thanks for the encouragement