Last week I suggested that the one thing you must do if you want to be successful, in anything is to START.
Lots of people I meet, talk about big dreams they have, but they are often attached to a word that will almost guarantee they will never come to life…SOMEDAY!
We all know someone who started something and didn’t follow through. In fact most of us have done it. We start something, with great enthusiasm, only to fizzle out.
And don’t get me started about New Years Resolutions…did you know that the majority of them are abandoned before January is over?
So what’s the deal?
If people set goals, and even start them, why are so many left in the dust; and so quickly.
What does it take to keep going? What does it take to push past the frustration of not seeing results we want right away? What does it take to remain consistent even when life is chaotic and we are tempted to walk away?
There are a number of things we can do, and today I want to emphasize just one.
Ready? Here it is.
Instead of finishing what you started…PRACTICE WHAT YOU STARTED
Practice…uugghh…who just thought back to their piano lessons when they were a kid?
But if you want to succeed in your goals; if you want to stick to your plan, well past January and throughout the year…then you must practice.
Practice what, you ask?
The daily habits that you need to be doing to accomplish something.
Okay, how do I do that?
You must create a life you enjoy!
If your goals include doing things that you hate, or aren’t good at, or really don’t want to do, you’re not likely to make much progress.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t push ourselves, or want to grow, or that every part of your day is going to be filled with bliss…we all have to do things in our lives that we don’t love to do. But we should strive to include things that we enjoy. Then…
PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE
This is why I’m not a fan of “quick-fix” kind of diet programs. Beside being virtually impossible, they will ask you to do things in the short-term that you could never sustain for the long haul. Most of those things can’t be done for long…who would want to?
But if you want to lose 10 pounds, for example, you are more likely to have success if you’re doing things you can sustain for the long haul.
What I’m saying is, you’re best to make lifestyle choices that you can do now, next month and the month after that, and the month after that…next year and the year after that.
You get my point.
So, can I ask you a question? Do you like your life? I mean, do you like your day-to-day routines? Do you like the habits you’re currently practicing?
If you don’t, you’re not likely going to succeed. Any progress will be short-lived and you’ll probably abandon them with more frustration and disappointment.
To avoid this, be intentional about how you want to live your life. Decide ahead of time the things you will do and not do. Choose daily habits that you can actually do daily, then watch those days turn into weeks and months.
When you can add more and more daily habits that you enjoy, you will string more successful days together; and success takes time; more time than we want to admit, so we need more of those days.
A couple of weekends ago, Kathy and I were talking about the things we do day-to-day, and we both came to the same conclusion…we look forward to Mondays.
Sometimes we feel like weekends are an interruption. I know, weird right?
Don’t get me wrong, we like weekends, especially when a motorcycle ride is part of the plan. and we take advantage of them to change up our routines, but we both can hardly wait for Mondays.
Kathy runs a busy chocolate factory and I work from home writing and coaching, and everyday flies by so quickly, for both of us. But you want to know something? If I was at the chocolate factory, the day would drag on! And if Kathy worked from home, she would go crazy from boredom. Now, we don’t love everything we have do throughout the week, but we do enough things on a daily basis that we thoroughly enjoy and I love that we enjoy our work and weeks that much.
You can too!
So where do you start?
I’ll address that next week.
Feeling stuck? Not sure what to do next? Your life not where you want it to be? Life coaching can help. Contact me for a free 45-minute discovery call. Let’s talk.
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