Success in 12 Months: Are You Keeping Score?
Welcome back to our “Success in 12 Months” blog series! Here we are at Month 10, and I’m so excited that you got to this point because this month’s topic is literally a life-changing concept.
The concept is called keeping score, and if you haven’t done this before, this will open your eyes.
The cycle of success: Small wins lead to big wins.
A lot of people, when they start on a new project, a new idea, new vision for their life, they get emotionally attached to this big picture vision and they want it to happen today or tomorrow or they want it to happen in a short period of time and impatience inevitably will kick in.
Because you want this thing, you see yourself in a much bigger capacity than you currently are right now, but you’re not there yet.
And if you’re not careful, this can actually cause a lot of negative emotion or negative mindset in your life.
If we strive for these big wins and forget that, along the way, as we set goals and as we take actions to move towards this bigger vision, we’re actually growing and evolving and making strides as a person.
We’re doing things we have never done before, but they’re still small in comparison to this big thing that we’re shooting for.
If we forget these small victories along the way, if we forget to celebrate them as successes, that can turn into a very poisonous mental state, because we’re delaying our gratification.
We’re forgetting to congratulate ourselves and be proud of ourselves for all of the hard work we’re doing along the way.
This can kill your motivation. This can actually kill the dream and cause you to abandon it altogether.
So with this month, I really want to reconnect you with the fact that you’re doing this course in general, you’re going through this 12-month process, and it’s enough in itself for you to be happy and proud of yourself
The fact you’re going through month-by-month and making positive change in your life and taking your life to a new level with small changes–that is powerful.
Each and every day you have something to celebrate, because you’ve done something to improve your life.
This is awesome for your motivation, but if you don’t do this, if you forget this concept, it could be your downfall. So we want to turn that around.
Now, if you start tracking your small wins, I’m talking about the smallest wins in a day, this could be happening 15, 20, 30 times a day, you hold a door open for somebody, you remember to affectionately say goodbye to your spouse or welcome them when they come home from work instead of being too wrapped up in your work, that’s a small win you can take note of and document.
If you start tracking all these things in a single spot, it could be written or digital, you start seeing this giant “success” log of all these amazing things you’ve done.
You now have a single repository you can visit on an ongoing basis that actually boosts your motivation versus what you would likely naturally do, which is look at this long-term vision you haven’t hit and start feeling negative about yourself.
That’s what I want to encourage you to do this month, is to create a place you can visit on an ongoing basis, maybe even daily or multiple times a day, to remind yourself you are making progress, that you are having substantial wins each and every day and you should be congratulating yourself for it.
It’s a huge source of motivation, so I want you to do that with some specific action steps.
Your Weekly Action Step: Counting the Wins–Big and Small Alike
First, I want to suggest you record all of your big and small wins this week. It might start with, like I said earlier, a tiny action that you took, greeting your spouse with love instead of being too consumed in your work or with Facebook, that is a small win but it’s also bit in the grand scheme of things.
Because if you do that every single day for years and years and years, that fosters a more positive relationship.
So start tracking both your big wins and your small wins.
If you get a big deal in a sales job, great, note that. If you get out of bed early to do your workout, maybe that’s a small win in your book, track it, write it down.
One important thing to remember is that avoiding a mistake or bad habit is a win too. If it’s a bad habit you are trying to break and you recognize that you’re about to repeat that habit, but manage to avoid it, then that is a significant win.
If you are tempted to divert from your monthly goal, but stop yourself, then that is a win too. These wins should be relevant to one or more of your long-term goals.
Keep your record in your success journal.
We’ll take this further next week.
As I always say, share your thoughts and your progress, leave a comment below or e-mail me and let me know what’s been happening for you. I’m investing in you and want to support you in your success!
Your partner in both the big and small wins,
James