What a difference a year makes (and a challenge)
This is less of a lesson and more of a cautionary tale, as well as a plan for the upcoming year - the first in this new decade.
I have heard it said that we overestimate what we can get done in a week or two, and we underestimate what we can get done in 1 year, or 5 or even 10 years! (Tony Robbins - paraphrased) For me personally, I find that whenever I commit to something, especially now in this fast paced age, it is for a few weeks, and then something else comes up – life gets in the way. This applies to big undertakings – weight loss, exercise, healthy eating – or even the small ones such as daily practices – meditation, drinking water etc. At a recent training, one of the presenters spoke about the results that you could get if you committed to something for an entire year. At the time I thought – a year seems so long, but in hindsight, I realized that the year is going to go by whether we do these things or not! And believe me - this is part of the cautionary tale! If there is one thing that I realised - no matter how long the days at work feel, and how you might think that they are dragging, time is not waiting on any of us. In the blink of an eye, the year is over, and the thing that we promised to start tomorrow lays dormant in the ottoman (or at least, that is where it lays in my house!). I have learned that the only way to achieve anything is to properly set a goal, figure out what is needed to achieve it, keep track of progress and have good support along the way.
On that note, I want to get together a group of people (right now I am thinking up to 20) to join me in committing to something for an entire year, and we are going to keep each other accountable for that time. I think being a part of a community is a critical part of commitment. I know that we all have support – spouse, family or friends – but what if we had a community of persons all dedicated to reaching a goal over a 1 year period and supporting and encouraging one another through this endeavour!
This is going to be my challenge. If anyone is interested please leave a comment below and send an email to 39andcountingblog@gmail.com . I will put it together. We need to pick our goals – weightloss, strength, exercise, or even a learning goal – learning a language or some other skill, reading books or other personal development – even replacing one habit with another. We need to make them SMART - I will be giving some guidance on how we set those goals, and how we keep track of our progress. I will start a small community and we can encourage one another. In addition, I will be providing resources for each person based on our goals, and we can track our progress over the year. Remember, what is measured increases exponentially! For this first round, I want to limit to twenty persons, so that I can also provide support and resources. I am hoping to pair or have small groups of persons who have similar goals, and if everyone agrees, we can even all have sessions once a month (or quarter) where we meet and have resource persons give us tips on how to work towards those goals! I will also blog monthly with tips and tricks for us to achieve those goals that we set for ourselves.
Please send an email to 39andcountingblog@gmail.com . I will be starting the challenge from the end of August and I look forward to use taking this journey together!
Until next time - Big love from a small island
Ps the above sunset was taken one "Old year's evening" a couple of years ago. I shall be embarking on a new year in a matter of days so it seemed appropriate!