WE ARE MOVING

My blog has moved to a new location.  If you are a follower of this blog please check out our new home at harveyyoung.com.  You should be able to view the blog on your computer as well as mobile devices.  The new site is simple, clean and easy to view.  There are more changes coming but for now I will be posting some of our most viewed posts from this site.  I look forward to seeing you in our new location and hope you will subscribe to be a follower.

Would love to hear your comments and thoughts.  Look for frequent posts on this new location.

Do That Thing

Here we are at day three of the new year.  By now we are struggling to remember that it is 2014.  We are writing the date incorrectly and we are still amazed about the blur that was 2013.  We are also now three days into our new plans, goals and resolutions.  How are you doing?

I have been thinking this week about the things I plan to do.  I have set goals and have developed a list of the daily and weekly activities that will move me forward towards my goals.  Some of these seem a bit scary at this point.  Great setup.  Yet, what really matters now is that I do those things.  While most goals fail because of a lack of explicit direction about what you are actually going to do, they also fail because we fail to do the thing we said we were going to do.

This post is not about planning.   It is about doing.  Remember that we are encouraging you to take small and incremental steps to achieve big results.  I have written about this before.  If you want to make any improvement you must start.  I start small.  So small in fact that perhaps it might seem laughable.  However, a small start certainly beats not starting at all.  Perhaps you are thinking that the conditions are not yet right, or you need some special tool or equipment.  Maybe you are waiting for someone else to start with you.  Any or all of these may be true but they are also classic ways to procrastinate.  

Let’s revisit a couple of simple ideas.  Did you determine what small activities will move you towards your goals?  This is your what to do.  Did you determine how often you will do those things?  This is your how much to do.  Finally, did you put the calendar on the wall?  Does it have any “X’s” yet?  This is your scoreboard.  Let’s get moving now.  If you already have three “X” marks then good for you.  Keep it going.  If you don’t have any “X” marks today you are going to get your first.  If you are wondering how, my advice is simple -  Do That Thing.

Remember that at this point we are not focused on quantity or even quality.  At this point we are focused on activity and the resultant change in behavior that is required to get your results.  

As soon as you finish reading this, I want you to get up, and Do That Thing.  Tweet me your results @copioustime.  Leave a comment here.  Most importantly, just Do That Thing.

Five to Fifteen Minutes a Day

Yesterday I wrote about the process of making Daily Rituals.  I want to continue that focus today.

I have learned that making progress in any area requires you to keep score of your progress.  By keeping score I mean to keep score in a public and visible way.  I have seen first hand the impact of keeping score.  This applies not just to areas of athletics but we see it in the most simple ways.  Just look around you at the number of people you notice wearing some sort of personal measurement device.  This trend is now a multi-million dollar business, with Nike creating a Rose Gold Fuel Band as people are tracking everything from their daily steps to their sleeping patterns.  The old adage is true, “You can not improve something you can not measure.”

I want to encourage you to capture the power of score keeping and daily measurement.  Here is the plan.  Today I want you to spend just five to fifteen minutes in a quiet place.  Turn off your email and all other distractions.  While you are in this quiet place choose one thing in your life you would like to improve.  Do not worry about how significant the improvement will be.  This is an exercise in consistency.  Next, determine what small daily activity would move your goal forward.  As an example, if you chose read more the small action might be read for 15 minutes each day.

Now that you have chosen your area of improvement and identified your small activity, the next thing you need to do is to find a calendar.  Choose a calendar you can hang on the wall.  The calendar will become your physical scoreboard.  Post the calendar in a prominent place it must be visible to you at all times.  Next, get a red marker and keep it beside the calendar.  Now, if you are with me so far you have earned your first check mark since you did spend 15 minutes deciding what you are going to do.  On your calendar mark a large red “X” for today.  Tomorrow you must do the small thing you chose (read for 15 minutes in our example).  Immediately after you complete your task go to the calendar and mark that big red “X.”  Do this EVERY day for the next two months.  Every day means seven days each week.

So what is the point?  Once you get enough red marks you will not want to miss a day.  You will get your red mark because the activity is small.  In about two months you will have a new habit.  Don’t set a time for doing your activity.  Just do it every day. before the day ends.

Let me know if you are willing to join me on this.  I started yesterday and have earned my two marks.  Good Luck.    

Daily Rituals

We spend so much time talking about what we want to do but we often never really get started.  Yet, there are in fact many things we do perhaps almost automatically and unconsciously.  These are our habits and they all started small.  Habits such as our morning rituals that we do daily.  Every day.  Ever wonder how those habits began?  What makes those habits stick for us such that they are things we do without thought or prompting?

I believe that in order to move from what we talk about or even hope to do requires us to create new habits or rituals.  The process of creating these habits is most effectively accomplished when we start small.  Let’s take a simple habit like our daily cup of coffee.  Many years ago when I started drinking coffee it was centered around relaxation and a social activity.  I would “go for coffee” with people from work.  That activity was intended to be a break from the work, which is what I wanted.  The coffee was just an activity.  Coffee was located in an area of the office where people would gather and sit for a few minutes.  It was common to enjoy your coffee in the break room before returning to work.  That simple routine was relaxing, did not take a large amount of time, and created many memories of conversations with friends and colleagues.  Over the coming years going for coffee became something that was then done before arriving at work.  Then it was the idea of stopping at a familiar place to get that first morning cup.  The quality of that cup of coffee was really high and it became a central ritual to my morning.  As time passed the morning cup of coffee became something that I made at home seeking to replicate the quality of that cup that I purchased at my local coffee shop.  Ultimately making that morning cup of coffee became so automatic that it was a part of my daily routine.  It required little thought.

Looking back on that small ritual I realize that the creation of new rituals in many ways may be as simple as having a daily cup of coffee.  Start with thinking about what you want (a moment of relaxation).  Next determine some small movement towards what you want (go to the break room for a few minutes).  Then, determine what you will do in that small increment of time (have a cup of coffee).  Finally, just do that every day.  Moving from desire to routines and ultimately habits is just this simple.   

As we seek to make improvements in our lives we must move our desires to a point of action and daily routines.  Small and simple acts that move us from where we are to where we want to be.

What do you want?  What simple act can you take to move in that direction?