When we haven’t clearly identified what’s most important, everything seems important. This is why, in my view, people are so frustrated with their lack of success in managing their performance and productivity. Instead of taking the time to identify the real priorities of life in general, or the priorities of day in particular, everything takes on the same level of importance. When everything’s important – nothing’s important.
We live in an interesting time. Remember when the prognosticators in the 1980s were all predicting a paperless existence by the end of the 20th century? They were saying, because of the advancements in technology, specifically personal computing, we’d soon live in a paperless world and only work 32 hours a week. How’s that working out for you?
No, I’m afraid in spite of all the technical advancements, we’re not enjoying a world without paper nor a much shorter workweek. The mistake the crystal ballers made was overlooking the human element. While our Macs and PCs can do magical things, they don’t do a very good job of dealing with our personal or professional priorities. Unfortunately, that’s our job.
We’re the ones who have to decide what will move us in the direction we want to go. We have to choose life’s real priorities. Based on the plans we made for making 2012 better than 2011, we have to make sure our daily priorities align with our annual aspirations.
The key is to be very clear on what we want 2012 to look like. I recommend writing, yes, I said “writing,” a S.M.A.R.T. vision statement for 2012 – a statement that’s Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound. Without this kind of specificity, your vision is nothing more than a wish or a dream. And without specificity, your vision for a better life has no power.
With a clear and compelling vision for what you want to accomplish, you’re able to prioritize what your month, week and day will look like. If your vision includes making more money in the year ahead, you’ll need to specify exactly how much you want to make. From there the math becomes pretty simple – divide the annual number by 12 to get the monthly nut you’ll have to hit. Better yet, divide that number by 52 to get a weekly figure you’ll need to earn. Simple, right?
But herein lies the rub. It’s not the math that’s difficult. It’s the “daily discipline” that causes all the problems. It’s deciding what three or four things you’ll have to do each day to achieve a desired outcome. Whether you want a fatter pocketbook or a slimmer waistline, it’s all about making specific daily tasks or activities a priority. It’s about contacting a certain number of customers or prospects, or it’s about choosing to eat really good food – instead of feel-good food. It’s all about committing to priorities.
When everything’s a priority, then nothing’s a priority. Being successful at anything means having a clear target to shoot for, then making sure your daily actions move you in the direction you want to go. Remember, successful people and people who don’t succeed at much of anything have one thing in common; they both hate doing the same things. But the successful folks do them anyway.
Successful living is for the most part about doing things we don’t necessarily like to do – but doing them anyway.
Tags: daily discipline, performance, priorities, productivity, vision
