What are you doing different in 2011?
W.L. Bateman said “If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got.”
Over the past couple of years, I’ve tried the resolution route, that”This year I’m going to…”, inevitably 90% of these are abandoned by March – either because the original premise was too complex or in the end on March 1 it wasn’t as important as it was on Jan 1. The resolutions I’ve been able to carry from resolution to habit to just another thing I do are the ones where I can see the potential benefit, are easy to integrate in my day to day life and take only a few minutes a day.
For those of you who know me, you know I’m not a “This year I’m going to exercise every day” or “This year I’m going to volunteer 40 hours a week at the local charity”. While these are great goals they are just not something I would do. But things like “Take a portion of my salary every month and put it aside to make our year end taxes easier” or “Write a blog post once a week” or even “Get back to doing 1 fun thing as a complete family once a month” – these are things I can handle.
So here’s this year’s plan for both the business and personal
- Pay more attention to our clients. While I am always listening to what our clients say, I think I’ve been avoiding the tough discussions with them. This year, it’s more proactive conversations with clients.
- Do 1 fun thing with our family every month (like we used to). In January, it’s an Atlanta Thrashers hockey game.
- Get to blogging at least once a week – wordpress.com motivated me with their The Daily Post challenge (you can find out more by reading my Jan 1 blog).
- Give myself a mental break from work 1 day every weekend – since the middle of the year it’s been a 7 day a week operation around here – every one’s mind needs a break. I was pretty sick in 2nd half of December and it forced me to take a mental break, I was able to come back recharged and ready to go.
There’s some others more minor stuff that I’m trying out this year, but the 4 above are the big ticket items.
So what are you going to do different this year, in your personal life and at work? Are you going to use Twitter more (or less)? Are you going to finally get that start-up company you’ve been dreaming about off the ground? How about that vacation you’ve been dreaming of – are you going to start saving for it? Trying to run a half-marathon this year, what’s your training plan?
The reality of it is, if you keep doing the same things over and over, you can only except the same results. How are you going to change the result you are getting by changing the things you are doing? Let me know, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
