2017 can be better
I said ‘can be’. Doesn’t mean it will be but the good news is you have more control than you think you do.
You need to define ‘better’ first so let’s start where I start and see if it helps. I found 5 area in my life that I need to focus on and I suspect these areas cover just about everything.
- Spiritual – most would say there is more than we can see, feel and touch. Call it God, karma or whatever is meaningful to you and decide to focus some energy there. Pray, meditate or just sit in silence.
- Family – These are the people closest to you. Most of us don’t get to pick our family and we find that sometimes we don’t like the ones we love but they are important to us.
- Business – I am unemployed. Have been since 2001 and am probably unemployable. Doesn’t mean I don’t work or make money but I don’t get a paycheck every few days. I own a business and it is a different mindset from having a job. If you have a job it still works to consider what’s important here. Think about growth and advancement. Where do you want to go? Maybe you want a business. If you want to talk about this, I can help. Call me.
- Financial – We all know the tension of money. There is never enough for everything you want and need. How we manage our resources affects our lives now and in the future. Are you saving enough? Spending wisely? Giving some away? All of those things play a part.
- Personal – This covers a lot of territory. I’ll break it down a bit to help with the focus.
- Physical – Are you eating right and getting some exercise? I’ve learned you can’t outrun a bad diet. It’s not just how much you consume but what you consume matters. Our bodies are more like a chemistry project and less like a bank account than you think.
- Emotional – I think learning, recreation and personal entertainment fall in this category.
So these are the areas we can focus on for making things better but how to focus? What do we do really to help ourselves have a better year?
I’ve been working on this stuff for a while. What works for me might not work for you but if you start it is easier to make adjustments. Go with me and we’ll see if we can help.
The first thing I do is use an idea I got from Keller Williams. It’s called a 1-3-5 and it’s just a simple one page form you can get here. The idea is to break things down from one big goal into 3 smaller goals and find 5 strategies that feed each of the 3.
I would recommend getting a copy of The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan for more details but here is an outline of mine.
- My big goal is how many closings I want to have in the next 12 months. The three goals that feed that are about connecting to my 1. referral sources, 2. personal growth and to 3. develop new income sources. Some of the strategies for connecting to my referral sources are phone calls, personal visits, blogging and social media. Personal growth includes mentoring, training and leading a small group and the final area of developing new income sources include focus on profit sharing, creating videos for my website and building a team in my business. The form I fill out reminds me of what’s important so I can correct the natural drift we call experience.
The next tool is called a 4-1-1. It’s also from KW and is used monthly and weekly. The idea is to take something from your 1-3-5 and drill down to a weekly activity list. Sit down on Monday and create a list of things to do for the week that directly contribute to your success in the areas you care about. You can share this with your boss or someone who will hold you accountable to what you said and it’s a great focus tool.
You know, as I write this I think of losing weight. We all know how to do that. Eat right and exercise. It’s not sexy and we know how to do it but we don’t. This planning thing is the same way. We know this is a good idea but we don’t do it so how can we beat that?
I have been doing something different the last two days. I went to bed at 10pm. I usually go to be closer to midnight and sometimes even later. I say things like “I’m a night owl” or “I’m not a morning person” and that is true… but. For the last two mornings I have gotten up between 5:30 and 6am, gotten more done and focused on my work sooner than if I stay up. All I had to do was go to bed earlier one day and it set me up to do it again. I was tired at 10pm last night.
It’s not willpower if you do it right. I didn’t MAKE myself go to bed last night, I wanted to because I had gotten up early yesterday and I was tired. Funny how that works. My goal is to do this for a month and see how it goes. My guess is I’ll write more blog posts, make more calls and get more done than if I stay up watching TV or trying to write when I’m really at the lowest energy level of my day.
The last thing I’ll share in all this is a new tool I was given. Donald Miller from StoryBrand.com did a podcast on his productivity tool. He uses it every day he works and it helps him focus on what’s important. I’m not going to cover it here but you can find the podcast and download the tool here.
This one got a lot longer than I planned and I guess that’s because I’m focused on this stuff right now and wanted to share. I hope you hung in with me for it and I expect you will have a great year if you do just a few things to set it up.
Focus on things you can do. Eat right and exercise and you’ll lose weight but don’t focus on the weight. It will happen if you do the right things. Go to bed early and you’ll get up early. That gives you more energy and focus on the important things.
It’s simple. It’s just not easy 🙂
Thanks for listening,
Jerry Robertson
678-231-1578 Cell
