“Excellence is a continuous process and not an accident.” A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
This quote signifies the theme of our next post although you can interchange excellence with any aspiration you have, such as living a healthier life.
Look at any successful person – whatever your vision of success looks like – and you’ll likely find a well-oiled machine underpinning their achievements. This machine will exist in the shape of consistent, positive and constructive behaviours that are applied with discipline on an ongoing basis; or as we like to call it “the power of process”. It’s a rare occasion where a person stumbles into the life they want. Instead the safer and far more effective play is to design and work iteratively towards the life you want and not leave it to hope or chance. In other words it’s time to stop living by accident.
The good news about the journey to designing and living the life you want is that you’ve already started. That is assuming you took the time out to identify the things in your life you’d like to focus on and ideally have an idea on the steps you need to take, how long you need to do them for and when you need to check your progress.
If you haven’t we suggest you find 30 minutes tomorrow – because a concrete deadline helps create urgency – and refer back to our post “I’ve said Hello, now what?”
Setting goals, taking action and checking progress needs to become a repeatable process and eventually a routine in order to make living a healthier life easier. Think of this as a virtuous cycle that will help regardless of what you want to achieve and where you want to go. The more consistent you are, the better you become at this and the longer you do it, the more you’ll achieve. Similarly to beginning or getting back into exercise, the first steps are the most difficult and obviously the most important. The key is to start small, focus on the little wins, build momentum and eventually you will have created a habit.
You’ve already taken the first steps and the reward for continuing is clear – achieving your goals in the areas of your life you’d like to focus on. Equally you’ve already started sharpening your goal-setting skills and now it’s a simple case of building the process that will help make this a habit which forms part of your routine.
So how does this work in action?
On a regular basis – whatever timing works best for you – you should complete a goal-setting reflection activity answering the following questions:
- What are my current goals & are they still relevant? If not, what are they now?
- Am I on track to achieve these goals? If not, what is the next step I need to take and by when?
- When I achieve each goal how will I celebrate?
This can be done at any time, in any location and in a way that is most comfortable for you. Our suggestion would be somewhere that is quiet and comfortable and at a consistent time each week or fortnight.
Personally we find 30 minutes on a weekday afternoon after work is the best time. It allows us to regularly check-in and make adjustments along the way, gives a sense of continual progress which motivates us to keep going and the regularity has helped this become a part of our normal routine. Wednesday also rocks because the early week work craziness has typically eased and it gives us a boost of motivation prior to the weekend which is a great time to action our next steps.
With that said we absolutely get that others would find the freshness of morning a great time to reflect and that quiet Sunday afternoons could also be really effective. Don’t be afraid to try a few different options to find what works best for you and when you do ensure it’s locked in your schedule; like you would a hair appointment or dinner with friends.
The final question which focuses on celebrating your success is a critical yet often ignored part of the process. Achieving your goals will likely take a level of dedication, willpower and at times perseverance so it’s really important you celebrate the milestones along the way. Find a reward that means something to you – and doesn’t derail the progress towards your goal – and ensure you take the time to reward yourself as you achieve key steps and milestones along the way.
Adopting a goal-setting reflective practice as part of your life is an absolute game-changer. In our experience it’s the number 1 driver that has resulted in us achieving goals relating to personal growth, happiness, meaning, fulfilment and balance. We can’t speak highly enough of its value in helping us to stop living like an accident.
Action for the week:
- Find 30 mins in your schedule to reflect on the goal-setting activity you completed by answering the focusing questions above
- Ensure you plan any required next steps and have a reward in mind to celebrate achieving your goal
- Schedule this reflective activity at the same time each week or fortnight
If you’re like most of us these days and time is an ever precious commodity as you juggle more balls than you keep up, you might be wondering how it’s possible to squeeze even just an extra 30 mins into your schedule each week. That’s a challenge we’ll help you overcome with our next post.
We’d love to hear how you’ve gone with your reflective activity, what works best for you process wise and any other comments or questions you have. Please reach out to us at any of our social media channels.