New Year’s resolutions are often lofty and hard to achieve, setting you up for failure before February rolls around. But meeting your goals is possible, if you take it one step at a time.
I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. Sure I’ve made dozens of them, all with good intentions and a bit of magical thinking, believing this time the resolution will stick. Maybe a few have, but generally these wishful self-promises end up broken. And when that happens my self-esteem suffers.
You see, every time you break a self-promise, your self-trust is weakens. Every time you give up on your commitments your self-confidence takes a hit. And every time you look back on broken resolutions, your self-assessment hurts, not helps, your performance future.
By contrast, I am a huge fan of goals or dreams or aspirations or targeted focus. Call it what you like. Mine come in a variety of forms, anything from a life-to-do-list to aspirational dreams. But their achievement hinges on the same element – incremental action. I learned in 20 years of management the power behind small steps. One baby step, then another and another eventually leads to achievement.
Most of us are unlikely to hit home-run equivalents with our work or life goals. But by incrementally nibbling at them, we can accomplish most anything, actualising life dreams and winning at working. Like the Chinese proverb reminds us, “The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” So, instead of New Year’s resolutions, I suggest you try an alternative this year. First, assess your progress.
Second, align your direction. Start by writing down your accomplishments for the last 12 months, asking yourself, what’s different today from a year ago. These don’t have to be big or work-only achievements, but note incremental progress in any part of your life. If I can do more sit-ups this year than last, that goes on my list. If I’ve read 30 books, I put that down. If I have a better relationship with a client, it’s there.
Now, take a few minutes to savour your list, breathing in the powerful feeling of personal progress. It’s amazing how good it feels to see what you have accomplished. Whenever I observe a tangible list of what I’ve achieved in just 12 months, it fuels my energy for what I can do in the next 12.
And that leads me to the second part of the experience: seeing where I’m headed. Like a compass, the list helps me align my focus and build incremental goals in the direction I want to be traveling. You see, people who are winning at working leverage the power of incremental progress to build their performance, reach their goals, actualise their dreams and impact their results.
In the process they build their self-esteem, self-trust and self-confidence. They know accomplishment breeds accomplishment; success produces success; and progress multiplies progress. Want to be winning at working? Start fueling your progress with incremental action.
Nan Russell is a writer, columnist, small business owner and online instructor. For more information or to subscribe to her eColumn, visit Nan’s web site at http://www.nanrussell.com
