The secret to getting ahead is getting started…

Sounds obvious doesn’t it? “Just start!” people keep telling me. “It’s not that hard (...) it doesn't need to be perfect!”

It would seem that done IS better than perfect, especially this year and quite frankly I’ve lost patience with myself; so done is what it will be (peppered of course with self-perpetuating doubt and a desire for it to still be a magnificent work of art).

New year, new beginnings

I promised myself that 2020 would be the year I made my debut; the year I stepped up and became one of the influential industry role models that I idolised so much. Along with my foray into the world of freelancing, it was another admirable string that I was keen to add to my bow.

However, given the tumultuous year it’s turned out to be and despite all the ‘extra’ time I suddenly inherited, you might (not) be surprised to hear that, well, that dream of being an influential industry thought leader hasn’t quite taken off yet.

So here I am mid-December, gin and tonic in hand, still agonising over my first ever piece of content; desperately hoping to unleash my first article into the wild before the year is out...

"You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do" - Carl Gustav Jung

It’s not uncommon for people to spend more time talking about what they’ll do, rather than actually doing it. 

Procrastination is easy; taking action and producing actual results is the hard part.

Most of my network suggest that visualising goals can help to increase motivation and subsequently lead to achieving those objectives. However, in my experience, visualising them has led to a feeling of...completion and thus my drive to actually accomplish my goals has somewhat diminished. 

It’s true. I could talk for days about all the things I want to do but haven’t done. In fact, I’ve been talking about them all year.

The key to success (for me) is accountability; making a public statement of your intentions and holding yourself liable. You are much less likely to let others down than you are yourself. Period.

Thomas Oppong writes that the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) did a study on accountability and found that you have a 65% likelihood of completing a goal if you commit to someone. And if you have a specific accountability appointment with a person you’ve committed to, you will increase your chance of success by up to 95%.

Of course having a vision is essential but the less time wasted talking those grand ideas up is more time spent investing, planning and importantly executing them.

I would say it’s just about worked.

So here it is, my first piece of content. DONE. It might be short, it might not be particularly enlightening. But it is a goal completed nonetheless. 

Here’s to keeping myself accountable in 2021...