Month: January 2014

This Coach Improved Every Tiny Thing by 1 Percent and Here's What Happened

 

A great recent post from Michael Hyatt, worth repeating …

As 2013 has rolled over to 2014, there has been the usual emphasis on New Year’s resolutions. Network television, radio shows, podcasts, and blogs have all had features on the topic.

But the truth is, New Year’s resolutions don’t work. Get this:

• 25 percent of people abandon their New Year’s resolutions after one week.
• 60 percent of people abandon them within six months. (The average person makes the same New Year’s resolution ten separate times without success.)
• Only 5 percent of those who lose weight on a diet keep it off; 95% regain it. A significant percentage gain back more than they originally lost.
• Even after a heart attack, only 14 percent of patients makes any lasting changes around eating or exercise.

But while New Year’s resolutions don’t work, goals do. Surprised?

The research is conclusive. Dr. Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at Dominican University in California, did a study on goal-setting with 267 participants. She found that you are 42 percent more likely to achieve your goals just by writing them down.

I have found this to be true in my own experience. Here are just a few goals I have written down over the last three decades:

• Marry a passionate, supportive wife who is committed to long-term marriage.
• Make $100,000 a year doing what I love.
• Lose 25 pounds and get in the best shape of my life.
• Complete a half marathon.
• Write a New York Times bestselling book.
• Become the CEO of Thomas Nelson.

Of course, most people don’t bother to write down their goals. Instead, they drift through life aimlessly, wondering why their life lacks purpose and significance. I am not saying that committing your goals to writing is the end-game. It’s not. But it isthe beginning.

The secret to accomplishing what matters most to you is committing your goals to writing. This is important for at least five reasons.

1. Because it will force you to clarify what you want. Imagine setting out on a trip with no particular destination in mind. How do you pack? What roads do you take? How do you know when you have arrived? Instead, you start by picking a destination. The same is true with the milestones in your life. Writing down your goals forces you to select something specific and decide what you want.
2. Because it will motivate you to take action. Writing your goals down is only the beginning. Articulating your intention is important, but it is not enough. You must execute on your goals. You have to take action. I have found that writing down my goals and reviewing them regularly provokes me to take the next most important action.
3. Because it will provide a filter for other opportunities. The more successful you become, the more you will be deluged with opportunities. In fact, these new opportunities can quickly become distractions that pull you off course. The only antidote I know of is to maintain a list of written goals by which to evaluate these new opportunities.
4. Because it will help you overcome resistance. Every meaningful intention, dream, or goal encounters resistance. From the moment you set a goal, you will begin to feel it. But if you focus on the resistance, it will only get stronger. The way to overcome it is to focus on the goal—the thing I want. Steven Pressfield’s book, Do the Work, is must-reading on this topic.
5. Because it will enable you to see—and celebrate—your progress.Life is hard. It is particularly difficult when you aren’t seeing progress. You feel like you are working yourself to death, going nowhere. But written goals are like mile-markers on a highway. They enable you to see how far you have come and how far you need to go. They also provide an opportunity for celebration when you attain them.

Check out Michael's goal-setting course – “5 Days to Your Best Year Ever.” More than 2,000 students have already enrolled in the course and are well on their way to creating an extraordinary 2014. The good news is that the first three videos are free. Even if you don’t enroll in the course, these videos will help you clarify what you want and give you a leg-up in designing your best year ever. Check it out.

We've just spent the last series of BLOG posts doing some Planning for the New Year exercises. Over this time we have looked at six steps for leading your own life. Each of these six simple steps can also be applied to your church, your ministry, your organisation or business, your family, as well as your career. You need to know God’s (1) mission and your (2) roles. You need to establish (3) goals and organise your (4) time. You need to put your plan into (5) action and finally you need to take regular time to (6) evaluate your progress.

I have found this type of template incredibly helpful in keeping my own life and ministry in balance and focused. It has helped me to view my life holistically and it also provides a filter that helps me know what to say “Yes” to and what to say “No” to. It also helps me to notice when I have drifted and to make appropriate corrections so I get back on track.

Let’s face it, you cannot do everything but you can do the few things for which God has placed you on the planet.

For those interesting in going a little deeper in the area of Life Planning, I recommend the following resources:

• Successful Christian Ministry by Mark Conner. The six steps we've looked at over the last few weeks are fully outlined in chapter 5 of this book.
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. This best-selling book is a classic on principles for living life effectively.
• First Things First by Stephen Covey. This is another best-selling book on principles of time management and establishing priorities.
• Half Time: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance by Bob Buford. This is a very good book for anyone over 40 years of age, who is thinking about the rest of their life.
• Focused Living Resource Kit by Terry Walling. This is an excellent resource for reflecting on your life and planning your future. It includes the concept of creating a personal 'time line'.
• Go Put Your Strengths to Work by best-selling author Marcus Buckingham. This is an excellent book to help you discover and build on your God-given strengths.

I hope you've enjoyed our discussion on Planning for the New Year. If you put the time in to follow the steps and the exercises, I believe that you will benefit greatly from it. In fact, it's worth doing at least once a year. Also, feel free to share this with your friends.

All the best for a fruitful year!

Our final step in Planning for thre New Year is …

STEP 6 – Evaluate.

Effective life leadership requires that we take time to evaluate our lives and our progress. Every Christian needs to periodically take a spiritual “stocktake”. We need to bring ourselves to account, to see how we are really doing.

It is very easy to live by the “clock”, focusing on working faster, harder and even smarter. However, going faster is not helpful if we are heading in the wrong direction. We must regularly take out the “compass” and ensure that our lives are aligned with our Mission, our Role and our Goals. There is often a gap between our ideals (what we say is important) and our present reality (how we're spending our time). The urgent so easily squeezes out the important.

Unless we focus on our Mission and our Goals we will be easily distracted by many other things (Prov.4:25). Evaluation helps us to see where we have drifted and allows us to make course corrections to get back on track so that our daily actions reflect what we say is truly important to us.

Sometimes we’re trying to do too much and we need to say “No” to some things, even if they are not bad things. We must know what our priorities are and then infuse them with a sense of urgency so that they are not pushed aside by the many unimportant things that so frequently scream for our attention.

Climb a Tree

There is a big difference between leadership and management. Management tends to focus on “doing things right” while leadership focuses more on “doing right things”. Here is a good story to illustrate this difference. Imagine a group of people cutting through a jungle. The managers are right there, making sure things are going smoothly – organising rosters, providing sharp machetes, arranging regular rest breaks, ensuring adequate first-aid facilities, etc. The leader is the person who climbs a tree, looks around and yells, “Wrong Jungle!” But the managers respond by saying, “But we’re making such progress!” Yes, they’re making progress, but go fast in the wrong direction is not true progress.

Life can be a bit like a jungle. There’s so much to do, so little time to do it in, work can be hard going most of the time, and the pressure can become intense. I have found great benefit in scheduling a regular “Climb A Tree” day. I have been doing this monthly for many years now and it is one of my favourite habits of effectiveness. What I do is schedule one day for each month of the year where I “retreat”. I spend it totally by myself and I try to get out of the office (either go for a drive in the car or a walk in a park).

I spend the day reflecting back over the previous month and asking myself some key questions such as, “Father, what are you saying to me right now?” “How am I doing … as a husband, father, pastor, leader …?” “What’s going well?” “What needs to change?” I then look forward to the coming month and do some prayerful planning and preparation for the future.

I also may take time to review one or more of these following items (which we've covered over the last few weeks in our Life Planning exercises): my mission statement, my core values, my personal vision, prophetic directives, my personal shifts, my roles, and my goals. These things, together, become like a personal 'constitution' that provide direction and foundation for my life, so I don't just drift from day to day.

As I reflect, I record my thoughts in a notebook or journal. Writing things down helps you to focus (your mind can’t wander when you’re writing) and it also gives you a record of what God says to you so you can review it later on (I usually review my journal from the previous month as part of this day).

The accumulated years of regularly doing this month after month give you a sense of continuity and progress as you see God’s work in your life. I come away from these days rejuvenated and with a clear fresh mind ready to face the coming month. By the way, I discovered that this is a Biblical concept. Not only were there weekly Sabbath rest days in Israel. Every New Moon was a special holy day or festival, like the Sabbath, for God’s people (Num.10:10. Psalm 81:3). They were not to work on these days but were to offer special offerings and I imagine they took time to reflect on the previous month and get ready for the next one. Hey, God thought of it first!

Climbing a tree every now and then makes sure you don’t get lost (or eaten!) in the jungle. Take time to think about how you are going and where you're heading. Jesus did this regularly and I believe it was the key to his focus and his effectiveness. After all, at the end of only three and a half years, he was able to say, “It is finished!” Wow, wouldn’t that be great! He didn’t do everything that could have been done but he knew what he was called to do and he did that alone.

If you can, set aside a day each month for things such as evaluation and reflection. If not, you may be able to set aside just a few hours. Either way, it will be a valuable investment of your time.

Conclusion