Are You On Track With Your Resolution?

It's almost February.Most people with New Year's Resolutions quit sometime in February.That means it's crunch time.What's at the top of your priority list?Remember the last thing we talked about? Here's a reminder.

The likelihood you'll succeed with your resolution:

• When people say “I will do . . .” only 29% of people actually follow through.
• When people say “I will do . . . because . . .” that number jumps to 39%.
• And get this, when people say “I will do . . . because . . . on . . . day . . . at this time . . .” that number jumps up to 91%.

What's the trick?Specificity and social support.

2 Minute Action

Reply and let me know if you've had the same resolution every year and what you think is holding you back from making it happen.Or reply and let me know what your new resolution is and how you plan to do it.Just by saying it, you're increasing your chances, and it only takes 2 minutes.

The Most Important Thing You Can Do To Help Your Productivity

It's not a tool, or an app, or a mentor.It's not a journal, or a habit, or a thought.It's the one thing that can keep you in check when your brain lets things slide.It's the one thing that will have your back when you want to hit the snooze button.Truthfully, it's the one thing that will keep you accountable to your goals.It's a person.It's a specific kind of a person.It's an accountability buddy.The habits, the thoughts, and the tools will all come with daily effort - as long as you put in the effort.It turns out, it's a lot harder to let someone else down than to let you down.It's almost January, people. Get a gym buddy. Get a novel-writing buddy. 

Quick Methods for Staying Accountable:

The Idea TaxIf you have an idea, set up some consequences that go along with it. What happens if you take action? What happens if you don't? It's easier for your accountability buddy to follow through on your reinforcement, and for you to follow through on theirs. This prevents "cheating."2 Day ProjectPick 2 days on the calendar. On day one, it's all about your accountability buddy. Focus on their idea, and come up with as many action items as possible with them. Then, help them execute as many as possible for an entire day. On day two, it's all about you. You both work together on your project and move forward as fast as possible. This works because it's a lot easier to come up with action items for other peoples' ideas than it is for our own.Create Action Items with Why, When, & Where.When people say "I will do . . ." only 29% of people actually follow through.When people say "I will do . . . because . . ." that number jumps to 39%.And get this, when people say "I will do . . . because . . . on . . . day . . . at this time . . ." that number jumps up to 91%.Don't just say you'll do it. Tell your accountability buddy why, when, and where you're going to do it.

2 Minute Action:

Call someone whom you can trust to have your back. Tell them about one idea you want to execute and when you'd like to have it finished. Then ask them what goal they want to achieve at the same time. Set up mandatory checkpoints and put something on the line (like a cash penalty or a gift reward).If no one comes to mind, scroll through your phone contacts of Facebook friends and find someone.If you still can't find someone, go online. We live in an absurdly connected world. Google, for 2 seconds, and you'll find meetup groups, accountability groups or what have you. For example, here's a group of people who keep each other accountable for getting their novels written in 30 days.You're not reading this blog because you're the kind of person who makes excuses.You've got this.As always, reach out if you need anything. You can reply here, email me, tweet at me, or message me on Facebook.

Soft Skills

We're supposed to care about soft-skills.

You know, like emotional intelligence & "people skills."But that's just scratching the surface.

Here are some better examples:

• It's important to separate yourself from your work so you can accept the criticism that will help you become the best version of yourself.
• It's important to NOT beat yourself up when you make a mistake because it shuts down your motivational inertia.
• It's important to stand up for what you believe in, since rolling over leads to a lifetime of fear and depression.

We aren't doing a good job of measuring these things, nor do we actually value them (for some reason). If we did, we'd be teaching these things in school.Think about it. Instead of learning how to regulate our emotions, take criticism, or balance a checking account, we spent entire semesters learning all of these important things:

• The Pinta, The Niña, and the Santa Maria.
• Neptune is mostly made of gas.
• A Hypotenuse is the longest side of a triangle.

Here's the kicker:

You're now faced with a choice. You can change what you value and start focusing on what really matters for having a happy, healthy, productive life, or you can continue focusing on distractions.

2 Minute Action:

My favorite action: write a list.Lists are great data structures. They're simple, small, and easy to read. They also help store small, important bits of information. Even if you're not storing it forever, it's helpful to get all of these list items out of your brain and into a list you can acknowledge.What are some of the things that you're doing in your life or work that have you saying what you used to say in school: "When am I actually going to use this?"Pick 3. Identifying these things is just the start. What do you think you should do about them?