How’s 2018 looking so far and what’s your strategy to make it powerful?

 

It’s 2018…  It’s nearly the end of July…  And it’s Tuesday.  Already!  The years, months and days seem to rush past, and when we occasionally pause for thought, we don’t always feel positive about how it’s all going.  There’s an underlying, subtle pressure that makes us feel we’re not doing enough, not achieving enough, not being enough – and yet, at the same time, we seldom seize the time we have like we could.

 

Sometimes we plan.  Sometimes we don’t.  Life ALWAYS has other ideas, and there are umpteen reasons why we didn’t get it done today/this month/this year.  In Zimbabwe, we’re good at waiting.  There are 101+ reasons why it won’t work and you can’t succeed.  We’ve been waiting for goodness-knows-what to arrive for decades and waiting is something we’ve woven into our psyche.  For example, we have Presidential Elections in 6 days time.  The phrase “waiting till after elections” has become something we use tongue-in-cheek and out of context when we don’t want to commit to something.  As in “How’s your Mother-in-law doing?  Have you spoken to her lately?”…  “Hmmmm, I’m waiting till after elections.”

 

Bill Gates said “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in 10 years.”  In other words, we can set ourselves up for failure by trying to achieve too much in the short term and allowing excuses to creep in that justify that failure; and yet if we don’t plan and take the bull by the horns, we’ll never know how powerful we can be in the longterm.

 

So how do we remedy this?  At the end of the day, we all answer to ourselves in our own headspace, mostly just before we fall asleep at night.  So how do we make ourselves proud? 

Here are a few solutions I can suggest:

 

1) Eat that Frog
If you’ve just transferred Monday’s list over to Tuesday in your diary, try Brian Tracy’s advice and eat that frog!  Brian asks you to imagine that one of the things on you daily To-Do list is to eat a live frog.  Would you leave it till last and allow it to haunt you all day, or would you get it over and done with so you could get on to more pleasant things?  With this in mind, scan your list for that frog.  The most challenging task of your day, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on, but also the one that might have the greatest positive impact on your life – and get it done!  You’ll feel SO much better!

 

2) Re-Assess
With your frog out the way, grab a cup of tea/coffee and pause for a second.  A wise business coach told me that we seldom think enough anymore.  Really think.  Not day-dream.  Not procrastinate.  Not think about the conversation we should have had that would have sounded so much more intelligent.  She said “Spend the most time thinking your business idea through thoroughly.  Walk yourself all the way from where the customer first hears about you to the part where you withdraw the money from your bank account.  Over and over till you’re sure you haven’t missed anything.  Then plan.  Then execute.”  Thank you, Thembe Khumalo.  Sometimes we need someone to put it in perspective for us.  I needed someone to give me permission to “just” think.  We all want to be significant; to make a difference.  So we DO, when we should be thinking.  Allow yourself that time to think actively and deeply.  Assign it the value it deserves.  See what emerges.

 

3) Re-Plan
We have 160 days, 23 weeks, 5 months, 3840 hours, 230400 minutes, 13824000 seconds left of this year.  Or we did when I wrote this.  What will you do with it?  Grab a pen and paper and draw it out:

• What are the 5 big things you need to achieve this year to make it worthwhile?
• What are the smaller steps involved that you’ll need to take to make each one happen?
• What tasks can you break those steps down into and which order do they go in?
• Which can you do today?
• Schedule the rest and find someone to hold you accountable.

If you’d like to make the most of the rest of this year, move powerfully into 2019 and you’d like some help creating that clarity, book a FREE 45 min Strategy Session with us, and we’ll help you draw it out.  Email us on christen@makingteamswork.co

 

4) End the Year Strong
Attend our Q4 Assessment Workshop on the 1st of October (in Harare, or online).  Allocate yourself that time to spend a few hours assessing how it’s gone so far and deciding how to get the most out of what remains.  Make it powerfully effective.  Watch out for more details or email us now to book your space.

 

5) Acknowledge Your Power
I guarantee you were powerful this year.  Seldom do we acknowledge ourselves in retrospect before we push on.  If you need a second cup of tea/coffee, grab it now.  Divide a new page into three and head them “Professional”, “Personal” and “Financial”.  Answer the following in each:

• What’s the toughest thing I’ve made it through this year so far?
• What’s the hardest or most important thing I’ve learnt?
• Where was I in this area 10 years ago – and what have I achieved since?
• What am I prepared to do in the remainder of this year to get me towards where I want to be?

We underestimate ourselves.  This year I’ve given my stepfather CPR, grown my online business through things I didn’t understand the names of a year ago, been reduced to quiet tears of gratitude for the difference in my professional, personal and financial life compared to this day 10 years ago, and am ready to take on the remainder of the year like a lioness!

 

Go do it!!

(You can check the current timer here… to find out how much remains!)

by Christen Killick

July 24th, 2018