Ditch Your New Years Resolution: Pay Attention to THIS

Total vulnerability here… on the way to my End of Year Reflection/New Year Dream and Scheme Personal Retreat…. I got a speeding ticket. Yep I so did. And I was so speeding. Hey, don’t judge – I don’t know when or if I’ve gotten a speeding ticket before. (My hubs assures me I have. But IF I did it was a lonnnggg time ago.)

As the very polite state trooper handed the dreaded piece of paper to me, he asked what had happened. I went on to tell him that it was a beautiful day, traffic was practically non-existent, the volume was turned up, and I just….

“Didn’t pay attention?” he interjected. And I had to agree. I wasn’t paying attention to my speedometer.

Our cars have lots of?gauges and dials?that tell us how things are running. But the thing is, we have to keep an eye on those dials or we’ll get into trouble. Duh.

Later, as I was reflecting on the past year and dreaming about the coming year, I was thinking about that moment and how it applies to my intentions for the year ahead.

Notice I didn’t say New Year’s Resolutions. I gave those up a lonnnggg time ago (about the time of my last speeding ticket LOL).

Maybe it’s just semantics or I’m just playing mind games with myself, (entirely possible), but I prefer to set intentions or goals.

When it comes to goal setting, the thing I’ve come to realize is that you can’t always control outcomes. Now, if you don’t reach your goal, I’m not advocating that you blame external circumstances or see yourself as a victim of … the pandemic, the economy, the hurricane, wildfires, your cat, (although I’m not opposed to blaming cats in general), or any other circumstance that gets in your way. Nope. Not. At. All.

You can’t always control outcomes. BUT you CAN control yourself. Your behaviors. Your actions. Your mindset.

So I think it’s waaaay more effective to focus on who you’d have to BE to achieve those numbers. What actions would you have to take consistently to accomplish that target?

If you’re taking the right actions and forming the right habits, you’ll increase your chances of actually achieving the outcome you want.

In other words, focus on setting?process goals?rather than?outcome goals.?Set goals that involve establishing a habit.

Those actions or behaviors – systems or processes – become your dials. Sort of like my speedometer. That I didn’t pay attention to.

And now YOU need to pay attention to YOUR dials.

Here’s an example:

Say you have a sales quota. That number is your ideal for the year/quarter/month, etc. You can’t control whether clients buy from you or not. But if you set the intention that you’ll schedule x number of calls, meetings, or consultations per week, then you’ll increase your chances of hitting your sales numbers.

At the end of each week (or day if you want to totally be a hard ass about it), you can review your number of calls and quickly see whether you hit your numbers.

Speaking of hard ass, don’t do it. I prefer to set those targets as an average rather than a definite amount in a day. Because stuff happens and there will be days when you exceed your target and some where you’ll just miss it. Set an average for the week and it should all kind of even out.

Sometimes we have those big projects that are important, but not necessarily urgent. My client is a bank CEO, and as such, she needed to create high-level strategies for her organization. It was pretty daunting, and the day-to-dayness of her job tended to get more of her time and attention. So, with the target of creating those strategies and proposing them to the board by a certain date, she set the intention to schedule?strategic planning ?sessions with herself each week (yep, in her calendar).

With traditional goal setting for the year, you really don’t know if you’ve been successful until the end of the year, and by then it’s too late to course-correct. This way you’re monitoring your “dials” as you go along.

Then schedule yourself time (on your calendar) to review your practices/habits/dials, as well as results each quarter (or month). Tweak as needed.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

You can use this process in every area of your life – whether it’s relationships or writing a book, or fitness (Can you say the “poundemic”?).

This is not rocket surgery, and anybody can do it. Even me.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go eat crow…..uh, pay this ticket, that is.

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I’ll be your guide on the side to help you THRIVE through these unchartered territories rather than just survive. Schedule a complimentary discovery call here:?https://calendly.com/jennifer-ledet

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Jennifer Ledet, CSP, is a leadership consultant and professional speaker (with a hint of Cajun flavor) who equips leaders from the boardroom to the mailroom to improve employee engagement, teamwork, and communication.?In her customized programs, leadership retreats, keynote presentations, and breakout sessions, she cuts through the BS and talks through the tough stuff to solve your people problems.

Photo by?S O C I A L . C U T ?on?Unsplash