Unexpected Benefits

When I decided to participate in Chris Brogan’s three-word challenge last December, I had no idea of the impact it would have on my life. I chose my three words, CONNECT, TRAIN, ENJOY, as areas of my life that I felt needed some improvement, but underestimated the power of focus that I’ve rarely experienced with other kinds of goal-setting.

The idea of choosing three words is that while resolutions are usually forgotten by the end of January, your three words become the lens through which you view your activities and focus throughout the whole year. For me, it has been like a touchstone that keeps me grounded as I plan and schedule and make decisions.

For instance, I have been very intentional about connecting with people with similar interests and activities, and in addition to new connections through my work and church, I am now part of several online communities which provide great support and encouragement in not just leadership and writing, but in spiritual matters as well.

With a focus on training to improve my writing skills, I am participating in Chris Brogan’s Blog Topics Master Class, which has stretched and challenged me for several months, and helped me expand my skills and comfort zone. Plus, the benefits of this learning will continue as classmates and I pursue some ongoing projects.

Learning to enjoy has been my biggest challenge of the three words. I’m not sure what I envisioned when I chose the word – certainly not long vacations or pricey excursions.

What I have discovered is that I’m more aware of what brings me joy and I seek opportunities to experience it. My time spent writing and running each morning, curling up with a good book with one of my cats in my lap, or a conversation with family or a friend. These are joyful times within the grind of the every day, and I’m much more in tune so I can take advantage of those moments.

As I consider my three words for 2013, I have been much more cognizant of the power of this kind of focus. In looking back at my success for 2012, I am amazed at the power of three little words. It is very important to choose the right ones.

What will your three words be for 2013?

 

How do you handle those challenging days?

Every have one of those days (or weeks) when you just cannot stay focused to accomplish anything? And it’s a day (or week) when you NEED to get a lot done? How do you handle that?

I have to rely on discipline. Through the last few months, I’m learning the value of putting habits in place and sticking with them. Sure, you cut yourself a little slack every once in a while, but there is great value in creating solid habits to move you toward your goals, even when you can’t seem to focus on them.

For me, that means getting up early and setting aside time to write and run, every day. Even weekends. Even the days when I really want to stay in bed. Even the days when it’s cold outside, and I just want to curl up and hide.

But the benefit of that discipline is that later in the day, I can be satisfied with the knowledge that yes, I exercised both my mind and my body. I did get my blog written (or at least drafted) and I did run my miles.

And in the long run, having accomplished both of those things makes me happier and more effective in other areas of my life. (And less crabby as a general rule.)

The beauty of discipline is that when those habits are in place, there’s less consideration of IF I will do this. Autopilot kicks in and I just find myself DOING it. It’s time to write, so I sit down and write. Time to go run, and I just head out. No thinking about it, just do it. And once I go ahead and get started, I find that it is usually the best part of my day.

The rewards are great. The rest of my day tends to be more effective because I’ve gotten started on the right track.

What disciplines do you have in place and how are you rewarded by them?

 

How I planned my week like a hummingbird

Last week was especially busy, with meetings related to different areas of interest and responsibility, and hardly a moment to focus on anything. As I sat on the porch last night, first night without an outside commitment, I watched a hummingbird’s single minded attention to the feeder, and wondered if I need to adopt his attitude.

While it was satisfying to make progress on several fronts last week, ranging from work projects to responsibilities at church to homework for Blog Topics Master Class, I felt scattered and nervous. I didn’t sleep well, and I didn’t feel like I had accomplished much, even though in reality, I did. Small progress on several projects is somehow less satisfying than large progress on one project. Because I haven’t “finished” anything, I still feel like I am completely overwhelmed.

I kept thinking about that little hummingbird. The whole time I was on the porch, he kept coming back for nectar, sitting on the feeder and drinking and drinking. If I had that kind of focus, imagine the amount of progress I could make. And the difference it would make at my nonprofit and at my church.

I realized there are several principles I need to keep in mind to be more effective:

• Focus on one project at a time, and make sure I am moving that forward.
• Remember that multi-tasking is not an effective way to work. Working on several things means that none of them will be done well.
• Minimize distractions. I need to clear my desk of everything but the materials for that particular project, turn off email and social media alerts and do what is necessary to signal to others that I’m busy (close the door, plug into music, etc.).
• Keep coming back. When I get interrupted, the temptation is to move on to something else, but I need to come right back to that one project.
• Schedule more effectively. Try not to have meetings about several different projects on the same day so my attention isn’t split.

Even being chased away by another hummingbird didn’t stop that little guy from coming back again and again. Determination and focus got the job done and got his tummy filled.

How do you narrow your focus to accomplish more?

 

Do you coast to the win?

Photo courtesy of Elvert Barnes (Creative Commons)

My beloved Alabama Crimson Tide took to the college football field this weekend in the season opener against Michigan and came away with a very big win. Roll Tide!

But the thing that I noticed toward the end of the game, when we were up by something like nearly 30 points, was that Coach Nick Saban did not let up. He was just as focused and intense with his guys as at the start of the game.  He could have let his team just run out the time and coast through the last 5-10 minutes of game time, but that’s not what winners do.

So my question is “do you coast?”

In your business projects, do you start out with intensity and then wind down slowly, having lost interest?

Do you celebrate too early, before you’ve actually finished the project or closed the sale? We’ve all laughed at the players who start their victory dance before the end zone and then get tackled from behind before actually making the touchdown. We’ve seen the race car driver who is in the lead at the finish but runs out of fuel in the final stretch, only to watch everyone zoom past him.

I’m guilty of coasting through the end of a couple of projects. Sometimes I have trouble finishing one because I’m pulled in a different direction and it gets put on a back burner. Yet it still needs to be finished – and I still need to aim for a wildly successful outcome. If it was important enough to start, then I need to finish strong.

One thing that I think will help keep me focused was introduced by Bill Hybels at the Global Leadership Summit last month. He recommends practicing 4×4 initiatives (he suggested 6×6 but I’m scaling it down a bit for manageability).

Pick 4 areas of your work or personal life that you will move forward in the next 4 weeks. Write them down on an index card so you can refer to it often. Communicate it to someone else to make yourself accountable. Schedule time each week to spend on each of these areas. As Hybels describes it, use “energy bursts” to make progress on your initiatives.

By the end of the 4 weeks, you should have completed, or at least moved ahead on each of those areas. So then what?

You guessed it, pick 4 more initiatives for the next 4 weeks.

Imagine what you could accomplish by staying intense and focused on your initiatives in this way throughout the year. It is much easier to stay focused and not coast for blocks of 4 weeks at a time. Your productivity will soar!

How do you finish strong? What would your 4×4 initiatives be?