Happy New Year love! It’s that time again for reflection and resolutions. How was your year? Did you accomplish your goals? What do you want to achieve in 2017?
One of my big goals for 2016 was to finish and publish my next book. It was a big goal and in the end I didn’t achieve it.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who set a big goal last New Years and failed to achieve it. Why?
The answer lies in your behavior, which is fueled by the choices that you make every day.
Bringing Awareness to Behavior
I finished up an excellent book called the Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. It inspired me to become aware of my behaviors and how they’ve kept me from achieving my goal.
What stands between you and your goal is behavior.
– Darren Hardy, The Compound Effect
You say you want something. You write it down and look at it every day. But the only way it’s going to happen is if you make it happen. Actions speak louder than words, as they say.
You are a creature of habit. You may be doing things every day that you don’t even realize you’re doing, until you start to pay attention.
The first step to changing your behavior is to gain awareness of your behavior.
Where Does the Time Go?
The biggest hurdle to me finishing my book, the biggest “excuse” is that I don’t have time. But is that really the case?
To see, I started tracking my time on a little yellow lined notebook. Every time I switched tasks I wrote down what time it was and noted the time when I was done.
After only a couple of days of writing down the time I spent on different activities, I could see where a majority of my time was going: social media! Like a ridiculous amount of time.
Tracking your behavior is eye opening. It can help you see what’s keeping you from achieving your goals with your health, your family, your career, whatever it is that’s of most concern right now.
You may say you want something, but your actions tell otherwise. What behaviors are standing in your way? What needs to change?
Identify Behavior + Make Change
Once you identify the behaviors that are keeping you from your goal, then it’s time to implement change. It doesn’t have to be huge. It could be a simple step in the right direction.
What if I took an hour of the time I was spending on social media and instead I sat down for focused writing time? What if I scheduled check-in times to social media, so I wasn’t on it all day?
I tell you what happens. I wrote over 20,000 words in the past couple of weeks!
Once I was aware of my behavior I became more conscious of my time and I had renewed focus on my goal.
Consistent Habits Add Up.
The idea of The Compound Effect is simple. It encompasses consistency. Healthy habits add up over time (as do unhealthy habits).
The idea of consistency works with your health goals too. Want to eat better? First identify your behavior. Write down what you eat each day.
Then make a change. Swap the soda for water. Swap the coffee for tea. Swap the piece of cake with some fruit. Add in fruits and veggies to every meal.
Go to bed 30 minutes earlier, get 30 minutes of movement into your day, take the stairs instead of the elevator or park your car far in the lot so you have to walk more.
Instead of mindlessly scrolling through social media for 10 minutes, put down your device and do some meditation or conscious breathing.
You get the idea.
While it may not make a huge difference at first, these small changes add up over time.
Stick With It. It Takes Time.
The most challenging aspect of the Compound Effect is that we have to keep working for a while, consistently and efficiently, before we can begin to see the payoff.
– Darren Hardy, The Compound Effect
There’s no shortcut. Especially when it comes to healing your body (or writing a book!) It takes patience and discipline. You may not see a payoff right away.
You may have made changes with your diet recently and are still experiencing pain, infertility, cysts, or whatever it is.
You may want to give up. What’s the point?
I get it.
But… that’s the thing about The Compound Effect: it adds up over time. It could take three years on a natural healing path before you start to feel a real difference.
Your body is regenerating itself all the time. You can literally change what you’re made of, but it takes time. It takes patience.
Find Your Why.
It’s hard. Changing your diet, exercise routine, etc. and not seeing payoffs right away. It makes that piece of cheese cake or spot on the couch look more inviting, right?
So, how do we stick to these changes in our world that’s driven by instant gratification?
You have to find your WHY.
Darren goes over this more in his book The Compound Effect. Why did you set that goal? Go deeper. Why?
I think most goals can go back to feelings. Feelings are energy.
How do you want to feel? How will your goal help you get there?
If you are looking to make changes with your health, then it could be because you want to feel better. You want less pain, more energy, more focus. You want to be able to enjoy this life without the physical and emotional burdens, right?
Connecting back to how you want to feel connects your body and mind and makes success more obtainable. Remember WHY.
On the Positive Side?
Take this as a reminder as you set your goals for 2017 that it’s all about your behavior and consistency. Your actions speak louder than words.
Do you really want to achieve your goals? What steps can you take each day?
Your behavior is based on choices that you make every day. Once you become aware of your habits that are keeping your from achieving your goals, once you identify your why how you want to feel, then you can make a choice to make a change.
Your choices add up.
Once you start to build new habits you start to build momentum and soon, you’ll be on your way to achieving whatever you want in 2017.
If you are ready for change but need guidance or help staying motivated and on track to making 2017 amazing, then I’d love to be your coach!
Let’s chat. Schedule time with me here.
Here’s to 2017!
Much LOVE,
Aubree.
