If I asked you, what are 1-2 goals you have for this year? What action steps (activities) do you know you need to take in order achieve those goals? – what would you say?
Sometimes, knowing what the next step is in achieving our goals is the problem. But often, consistently doing what we know we need to do is the real issue.
Stephen Covey, In his incredible book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, talks about two activities that can change your life and work:
What one thing could you do (you aren’t doing now) that if you did on a regular basis, would make a tremendous positive different in your personal life? What one thing in your business or professional life would bring similar results?
After I read this and thought about it for a little bit, I knew what my answers were:
Personal: Exercise 5x a week for at least 45 minutes.
Career: Take a sabbath rest (do no work for a full 24 hours) after working diligently for 6 days a week.
For me, when I exercise regularly I have more energy, feel better, focus better, and sleep better (rest), and because of this I can be more intentional, effective, fruitful, and loving in my relationships, work, and life.
I’ve also found that resting for a full 24 hours one day a week is vital for me to refresh, reconnect, and enjoy/appreciate my work and life more. When I take a sabbath – resting for a full 24 hours without doing any work – I ooze with gratitude, refuel on energy, and approach the upcoming week with enthusiasm.
Now, I make sure that exercising 5x a week and taking a weekly sabbath are a part of my week. They are top priority, because I know doing these two activities greatly effect my life, work, relationships and goals.
Your Turn
Ask yourself: What 2 activities – one personal and one career-related -would dramatically affect your life and work if you did them consistently?
Write them down, and commit to doing them for a whole month. Make them a top priority. Strive to do these two activities for a whole month, and watch these activities become new habits for life.
Our personal decisions affect our professional life, and our professional decisions affect our personal life. When you do the personal activity, it will improve your work; and when you do the career-related activity, it will improve your personal life.
Be real with yourself about your goals, and be specific about the activities (action steps) you need to do in order to accomplish them.
Discipline is training for success. The hardest part is starting, but once you get going, you’ll begin to see progress. And progress will motivate you to keep going.
“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.” – Proverbs 12:1
Question: What one personal and one career-related activity do you need to start consistently doing?
This is a great post, I been sleeping late because I surf the net so much… I want to commit to sleeping at 2130hrs and see if anything changes.