Two Way’s to Live Your Life

January 14, 2011 by Jim Dryburgh in Personal Growth, Professional Development, WorkLife Balance

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It’s a new year and once again I’m going to remind you that there are two basic ways to live your life the next 12 months.

Way #1

One way, and in my observation the most common, is the following 3 step process:

1.       Show up

2.       Stuff  happens

3.       Respond well

This practice has the advantage for those who use it that if the 3^rd part works out, you can look like a hero. If it doesn’t work out, well, you can blame the fact that you couldn’t possibly have known that that Stuff would happen.

Personally, I don’t recommend this strategy. It might carry you along for a while but over time you gain the reputation of a non-planner, not being in control, being reactive vs. proactive … not characteristics that are going to take you to or keep you in the executive suite.

But, hey, it’s your choice. Personally I think it’s like rolling dice … maybe you’ll be lucky, maybe you won’t but it won’t be your fault. It won’t be your fault that you haven’t been promoted, it’s not your fault that you haven’t had a raise since 2001, no one can say it’s your fault that life hasn’t worked out for you. You’re just not lucky. By the way, good luck with that choice.

Way #2

The second way to live your life is to choose to live the next 12 months WITH PURPOSE! It goes like this:

1.       Set one goal for where you want to be in 3 years  (January 2014) – personally and career-wise

a.       E.g. Personally – Weigh XXX lbs, have run my second marathon, debt free except for mortgage. Seriously reflect, if you could have one aspect of your personal life be different 3 years from now, what would it be?

b.      E.g. Career-wise – Promotion to Director, recognized by my industry as an expert in my field, am established in a new career in the XXX field. Again, seriously reflect on how you want your career to progress or change at the end of three years.

Remember to make these SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.

And, by the way, it doesn’t matter if you’re 18, 28, 38, 68 or 98 … everyone needs goals to live with purpose. If you’re retired, set goals for volunteering or meeting new people or mentoring a young person or raising award winning roses or travelling to faraway places … have a purpose, a reason to get up in the morning!

2.       Now look at your first goal.

Does it look daunting? Step back, think about it, you’ve got 350 days left in 2011, BONUS 366 days in 2012, 365 days in 2013 and 15 days in 2014 – that’s 1096 days to make this one thing happen.

If your personal goal was to lose 200 lbs, for example, take that weight loss and divide it by 1096 … how much is it you’d have to lose per day? Is that doable? By my calculation that would be 3 ounces per day … by the end of 2011 you’d be down 64 pounds.

You see often our problem is that when we look at a goal it can be daunting. What we need to do is chunk it down into bite-sized pieces that feel more achievable and will give a sense of accomplishment and the confidence to keep going.

So, take that 64 pounds and break it down again into 90 day milestones. By the end of March you will have lost 14 lbs., by the end of June another 17 lbs, by the end of September yet another 17 and finally by January 14, 2012 you’ll have lost another 18 for a total of approximately 66 lbs.

And, the good news is that by this time whatever you have been doing to lose weight; diet, exercise, less wine, whatever; you now have new habits so continuing on to lose the rest is much easier.  In fact, I suspect that you will have lost more than 66 pounds if you’ve developed these habits.

Now go through this same chunking down exercise with your career goal. What could you realistically achieve by the end of 2011? And, 366 days later? Then set out the activities you will want to accomplish over each 90 day period to generate progress toward accomplishing this goal.

3.       Finally, get out your calendar. Put calendar entries for the milestones that will hold you accountable.

Weigh yourself every week and track it. Are you losing 3 ounces a day – a pound and a third a week? Don’t worry about ups and downs but hold yourself accountable and make course corrections if necessary.

If three years seems too long a time frame for you to stay motivated then set your goals over a shorter period, one year or two.  Whatever works for you …

Okay, now here’s the magic. When you set goals and WRITE THEM DOWN and create milestones to hold yourself accountable … your brain figures out that you’re serious about this and it finds ways and means to help you do it more quickly, better, easier. You’ll find yourself looking at opportunities differently … in fact; you’ll see opportunities that you wouldn’t have recognized before you started this process. You will have trained your brain!

Don’t take my word for it. Thousands of people over thousands of years have written about this, practiced it, helped others do it. Why, because it works!  Don’t believe me, just Google: goals. You’ll find 123 Million results!

So, as I said at the beginning, it’s your choice.

It’s your decision to either live the next 11 months and 16 days with PURPOSE or to let life “happen” to you, be a victim of circumstances and look back on New Year’s Eve 2011 and ask yourself what the heck happened to the time. What did I accomplish?

If you want some help with this stuff give us a call. We do it all the time for ourselves and we help others do it.

Here’s to a happy, healthy, purpose driven 2011 that will lead to prosperity and fulfillment.

image courtesy of clara zamith

Tags: career management, goals, personal growth