Change is hard.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s totally possible. As a coach I witness it – and even help facilitate it – almost every day. But I will say that it doesn’t come cheap – you have to trade something for it.
If it required nothing, then we wacky humans would make the necessary change to have everything we want all the time, everywhere. And all of us know that’s not how it goes.
Well, growth is change. And we all want to grow. In lots of ways, but naturally everyone in this room has a yearning for growth in our networks and the bottom lines in our businesses.
The reason why change challenges us is because there’s two sides to that trade. Cost and benefit. The benefit side is what has us desire the change. But the cost side is what has us stop short of attaining it.
So what can we do?
I wish I could offer you the ultimate silver bullet. And unfortunately I can’t. But I can offer you some things that will raise the quotient of possibility for that growth you wish to attain.
And right now, on the cusp of a new year, a new decade, is the perfect time to implement.
First of all, Vision. We need to know where we are going. If it were a vacation, and you needed to pack, it’s not enough to say “somewhere outside the U.S.” Or even Europe. Or even Italy. You need a specific understanding of your destination prior to the journey. What are your specific measures of success? Dollars earned? Number of clients or customers or deals? Think about it. Write it down.
Second, do yourself a favor and write a journal entry. Write it now, today, and in the present tense. But date it in the future, on the day of when your goal has been achieved. Describe both the specific, tangible goal you have achieved but also the experience of what it feels like living life in that place. When the journey feels long and you get tired, pull out that “North Star,” and let it motivate and guide you back on track.
And lastly for today, create the milestones from that future place, backwards toward present day. If you’ve ever been to a diner and done that maze that’s on the placemat, you may know that doing it from the finish back to the start is way easier than from start to finish. So begin designing the path at the end, and work your way back to today. Then you can walk the path from today forward.
Vision, Journal, Milestones.
A year from now you’ll wish you started today.
Here’s to 2020. A new year, your year, our year.
