Choices and consistency: the most important things that will drive your success in 2022
What does 2022 hold for you?
A New Year has arrived! We welcome 2022 with open arms and grand hopes. What will 2022 usher in? Surely it has to be better than last year…
A new year of possibilities and opportunities is an exhilarating notion. To think we have a clean slate to mark this year in ways that our future selves would look back on and say: that was a great year!
So let’s be fortune tellers and predict the future. Try to imagine yourself in ways that bring you great satisfaction. What does that look like: Would you have a new job? Would you go back to school? Would you learn a new skill? Would you get masterful at a skill you are already decent at? Would you focus on your health? Would you decide to get in the best physical shape of your life? Now if I told you you could accomplish any of these things provided you ate 3 magic beans every day for the next year, would you eat the beans? What if I told you that your dreams would only come true provided you ate the magic beans, never missing a single day, and did two small tiny little things directed at your goal. Would you commit if you knew for sure that your dream would come true? Of course you would! It would be the best payoff of your life!
Here’s the good news: you don’t need to eat magic beans to accomplish your goals, but staying consistent in your small changes that are directed towards your goal WILL yield results. Change is all about the choices we make and the consistency we apply to those choices. We all want over-night change. It just doesn’t work that way. It takes time. It takes focus. It takes dedication. How many of you will just say forget it-I’m exhausted just thinking about it!
But it doesn’t have to be overwhelming or exhausting or stressful. It just has to be consistent!!! I often tell my clients who are looking to work on their physical selves: do 5 sit-ups and 5 push-ups every single day. When I ask them: “do you think you can do that?” I am almost always met with: “of course I can do that! I can do at least 20, maybe 30. Probably 50 if I really apply myself.” My answer is always the same: I don’t want you to. I only want you to do 5. But…(there’s always a but right!) I want you to do 5 EACH and EVERY single day-never missing a day! Consistency. That’s the key. Here’s the difference: If you set your goal on doing 50 maybe you can do it. But will you do it again the next day? And again and again? Every single day? Maybe not. Goals give us a direction. It’s important to have goals. But it’s how we go about getting there that’s the difference. People say it all the time: “trust the process!” I could not agree more.
It’s not easy to change behaviors. We have been stuck on doing things a certain way for a very long time. Being open and honest with ourselves to allow space and opportunity for change is big time tough stuff. But it’s metamorphic! Breaking away from old bad habits that don’t serve us well and creating new habits that help us be our best, takes work-like rewiring the circuitry of a machine. But it can be done!!!
There is hope of a better tomorrow, of a better future and of a better you. What better thing to invest in than you! Don’t waste money on magic beans! You don’t need that! Let’s make 2022 an exceptional year of growth and change-you’re worth it.