Go Big in 2021, Little by Little

On our last day of vacation in Baja California, my eyes popped open at 5:30 am. While this would have been fairly typical during a work week, as I was trying to be intentional about sleeping in during my trip, I was slightly annoyed. Resolving to make the best of a less than ideal situation, I decided to get up to see the sun rise. Before I knew it, my husband and I were headed down the trail on the 5-minute walk towards the beach, breathing in the pre-dawn cool of the morning. For just over an hour, we sat quietly in awe as we witnessed a spectacular light show unfold – dark, midnight blue turning to a deep violet, followed by a majestic purple, a powder blue, then a dancing orangey-red capped off by a soft yellow. (I felt proud of myself for remembering ‘ROYGBIV’ from my high school science class). And ultimately thankful that on our last day of vacation, I had a chance to absorb such natural beauty while sitting on a beach cliff listening to the soft backdrop of waves crashing down on the shore below.

I truly believe that nature gives us clues for how to best organize our lives for success. That profound moment left me wondering what insight I could glean from the experience. While I was well aware the sun was not ‘rising’ as much as the earth was spinning, our movement was imperceptible. But little by little, determined sunrays shot over the ocean horizon, providing warmth and light for us and billions of people that day. Simple and common I know, but awe-inspiring nonetheless.

I can’t say I’ve had overwhelming success with New Year’s resolutions. Like most people, I’ll likely have forgotten about them by the time I start thinking about mailing out my Valentine’s Day cards. However, I am a big believer in goals. But as a typical American, I’m impatient - I want to see results quickly. Yet at the same time, I want those results to be lasting. Can anyone relate? Inspired by the dramatic sunrise and what I saw as nature’s messages all around me, I decided to start the year getting clarity on my goals and giving myself grace to achieve them through small, steady, consistent progress. 

So, what are you trying to accomplish this year? Is it in the realm of effective people management or inspirational leadership? Maybe you want to lead a highly visible project, learn a new language this year, or even lose the Corona-19 (and no judgment; don’t let video fool you….many of us picked up a few ‘L-Bs’ over the last several months). Whatever your goals might be, consider achieving them through these 4 principles:

1.       Identify up to 3 goals to tackle. Neuroscience tells us that our brain remembers best in patterns of three. Don’t try to boil the ocean. Identify up to 3 professional and/or personal goals (no more than 4) that you want to achieve this year. Write them down and put them in a place where you’ll see them regularly.

As you identify your goals, think about why you are looking to achieve the goal. Maybe you want to get promoted this year. Awesome! Nothing great was ever accomplished in the world without ambition. But to what end? Is it so you can contribute with greater impact within your organization? (and let’s be clear – often opportunity comes in the form of work) Or increase your earnings so you can better combat food insecurity many are experiencing? Dig deeper and challenge yourself on your ‘why’ to identify a greater meaning behind your goals.

2.       Develop consistency through taking small actions every day. Striving to be a more effective manager this year? Fantastic – go you! How about listening to 5 minutes of a LinkedIn Learning course on effective people management every Friday? If you did this consistently, you would have 20 minutes of learning accumulated over 1 month, 2 hours in 6 months and 4 hours invested over a year on a particular subject of interest. If you really like the course, might that 5 minutes turn into 6, 8, or 10 minutes every Friday? From personal experience, I’d say ‘absolutely’.

 Based on your end goal, what incremental step can you regularly take towards achieving it? This step should be so small that you can do it easily without feeling overwhelmed. If you miss one day (or two), don’t beat yourself up. Just jump back into it the next day. The idea is to build the habit of taking small, consistent action towards your goal – whether daily, weekly or in some other pattern – and allow the time investment to grow organically. Be careful not to get overly ambitious as you get started. The best action to commit to is the one you know you will do consistently.

3.       Identify an accountability partner, someone you trust who can walk alongside you in your journey. This person can be a family member, a close personal friend, a work colleague or someone you’ve enlisted as a part of your personal ‘board of directors’. Whoever it is, make sure this is someone trustworthy who is truly invested in your success. Encourage this person to lead you back when you’ve fallen off the wagon and gotten side-tracked (might as well prepare for it – life happens). And once you’ve made significant progress toward your goal, consider assuming a similar role for someone else to help them achieve theirs.

4.       Measure your progress and celebrate milestones. While the desires of my 14-year old son have changed over the years, one goal has remained constant: to be tall. With the men in my family generally 6’2”+, he figured he had a good chance. He stands now at 6’0” after growing mostly imperceptibly over the years, although last summer I felt I was literally watching him grow before my eyes, seemingly taller in the evenings than he was in the beginning of the day. While the 6’0” achievement passed largely unceremoniously, my son celebrated most when he hit 5’7”….my height. You would have thought he won the lottery. (I do often remind him as his mother that no matter how big he gets, well…..Moms, you know the rest.) And then, with renewed confidence, it seems as if he’s been on the double-black diamond growth path ever since (or ‘moving with high velocity’ for the non-winter sports crew). Take note of how far you have come in one, two or three months. Take joy and celebrate achieving milestones along the way. Recognizing your progress will help bolster your confidence, fueling your momentum. 

As we walked back up the trail from the beach, being from the San Francisco Bay Area, my mind shifted to the California Redwood, the tallest and most majestic of trees reaching up to 300 feet in height with sturdy roots that run 50-feet deep, fortifying themselves by entangling their roots with one another, with bark so impenetrable it can withstand insect invasions and even fires. Capable of living thousands of years, Redwoods growing 3-5 feet per year are still ‘toddlers’ after 40 years. In contrast, I am reminded of that which grows quickly in nature – weeds. Although in no time they can sprout up to impressive heights and seem imposing at first, choking out the life of other plants around them, their shallow roots leave them vulnerable to being pulled up easily and dying quickly. 

In 2021, let’s set meaningful goals as we lean into the new year. To help us, let our roots run deep with trusted family, friends and colleagues, fortifying ourselves through the strength of others. And let’s make massive, audacious, ginormous progress towards our goals... little by little.

Monica Pool Knox leads global Human Resources for Mixed Reality, AI Platform and Cloud Security/Identity businesses at Microsoft. She also serves as a Board Director for Swedish Health Systems. A 25+ year industry veteran, Monica regularly provides industry thought leadership in the areas of Talent Strategy, People Leadership, Culture, the intersection of talent management and digital technologies and the Future of Talent. She can be reached on Twitter @monicapk or on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/monicapoolknox.