By the second week of January, according to studies,most people have broken some or all of their New Year's resolutions.Why is that? And what has it got to do with those of us growing businesses? My thought is that most resolutions are just lists of activities: Eat this, do that, and certainly don't do that! General stuff without a vision, mission, or grand purpose.
So instead of feeling bad about abandoned resolutions, now is a terrific time to consider two alternatives: Defining Your Operating System, and Giving Your Year a Slogan.
Defining your operating system Just as a computer has an operating system for directing how everything performs under any and all circumstances, so too can a life benefit from a set of directions.Mine reads:Act with Integrity; Be of Good Cheer; Do Good; Walk Far.
Each piece reflects my intent to live on purpose.
It is a memorized mantra repeated throughout each day.And it is more powerful than I imagined.
When composed,my walking ability was limited to one flat mile.
Twelve months later I could hike 15 miles, and at 24 months a walk meant traversing 23 miles in a single day atop the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
The funny thing is that "Walk Far"was intended as a metaphor for me to "always be wide ranging" in thought and spirit.And,well,walk a bit.
The power of an operating statement comes in honing big ideas so they become small phrases saturated with deep meaning for you.
My 11 little words took weeks of thinking and rethinking, scribbling and rescribbling.
It was well worth it.
For example, "Be of Good Cheer" was the shortest statement I could come up with to reflect my yearning to act on the idea that no matter what happens in life I should still be the kind of person who can access joy daily.
(Just figuring out to add the idea "daily" was a breakthrough.
Then knowing I was committed to saying the statement daily, I could then clip it off.)
After months of chanting to myself "Be of Good Cheer" it was put to the test as my mom was diagnosed with cancer and then told it was not treatable.
(Thanks to the medical center at UC-Davis, the last part turned out to be untrue and she is now in remission.) Was I stressed during her treatments? Certainly.However, I also carried on with joy thanks to my solidly memorized and repeated daily "Be of good cheer."
Creating your personal operating system doesn't mean listing out all the things you might tell others you believe.
It is a pithy statement just for you, to resonate with your needs, your life, your desires.
For example, if you are already an unfailingly cheerful person, then making it a part of your operating statement is unnecessary.And where I decided on short, punchy phrases, you should choose the length that feels right to you.And the length that you can revisit daily.
Giving your year a slogan A slogan has the power to keep you moving forward.
It's a rallying cry, a motto, a theme.
It transcends any particular action and is powerful because it is about attitude.
Adopting a motto came to me inadvertently midway through 2001, the worst year of my life.
Each day piled on more challenges, as I felt hopeless to imagine a positive outcome.
The best I could come up with was this: "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger." At first I said it in disgust, yet soon it was my rallying cry.Repeating it daily kept me going.
The dawn of a new year found me divorced, broke and exhausted, but I indeed survived.
So, what would my new year be like? In jest my slogan became "Under Renovations."An old house with good underlying structure turned out to be the perfect metaphor for seeing my life with possibilities.With patience I refurbished, rejuvenated and restored my health so that with the approach of yet another new year I was eager to thrive.
The effectiveness of both those slogans for each year I successfully traveled much further than I imagined possible showed me that great success comes in stages.
That I didn't have to have grandiose dreams to have grand things happen.An effective motto supports your daily advancement toward thriving.
In defining your slogan look at where you are now and find a phrase that is at the heart of you seeing yourself moving forward.
Launching 2003, I hit upon my favorite slogan.
My focus was to find some phrase that balanced between my desire to do big things while knowing I had limited resources.Not wanting to hope for too much, not wanting to hold myself back,my slogan became "My Best Year Yet." I shared it with family, friends and clients.
We said it out loud and often.
The great thing about "My Best Year Yet" as a slogan is that any improvement over the prior year could be celebrated.
In fact all good things, big and small, are worth celebrating.
Find a great parking spot? Say, "Of course I did.After all this is part of my best year yet!"What if something less than ideal occurs? A best-yearyet philosophy reacts: "No problem.After all this is my best year yet." So toss out those resolutions.
Instead, define your values with an operating system, and lift your spirits with a slogan.
Then raise your glass of wine (or water) and boldly toast to Your Best Year Yet! Anne Lazarus is a Reno-based business coach and speaker.
Reach her at springboardink@ aol.com or 852-4973.
