Go Now

This is a funny time of year. It's still a couple of weeks before the beginning of 2017, but with the holidays wedged in between, not much gets done besides the holidays. It is a time of indulgences, heavy traffic, odd relatives, rituals, and more indulgences. It's a time when the sting of loss can return, with the focus on abundance, home, and family accentuating the longing for those not with us.

In some ways, it can be a time of surrender, usually beginning with that second helping of pie at Thanksgiving. Not a bad thing in itself, most of us could use a good chilling out at least once a year. However, working as a coach and mentor, I've become acutely aware of some things that I see in others that remind me of my own path these next two weeks.

First, it can often be true that not much business will get done between now and 2 January. If you do find yourself slammed at year's end, I would make sure that there are some breaks for enjoying that for which we work. Gary Keller says "The purpose of business is to fund the perfect life." Let's not forget this, lest I will have to go into a reminder about all those end-of-life surveys about what's really important.

Second, if you are a New Year Resolver, consider this - only a small percentage of New Year's resolutions are ever seen past about three weeks. Unless you own a subscription-based gym, resolutions can lead to disappointment later. For most of us, there is a desire to begin anew somehow, with the rhythm of the seasons instilling a desire for new life as the year turns and Spring is on the horizon. Yet...three weeks in, these self-promises begin to erode. Sure, life happens, we get back to work and school, and we just get busy.

To break this cycle, we have to ask the right question... It isn't "Why do most of us quit our resolutions?" The right question is "What are the people who DON'T quit their resolutions doing?" I can tell you that as a coach of top performers, there is at least one key difference. My pinnacle players are already into their new year's resolutions. There is no waiting for some magical date on a calendar, some powerful launching point that will propel them into success, and no hall passes to let themselves go for a few weeks pending a new year. Sure, there will be pie and lots of it, but it has been paid for in advance with sweat and hard work. If you think this sounds hard, unreasonable, and definitely not chill, then just answer this one question: If you were to go to the gym at about mid-day on December 24th, do you think the people there are going to break their New Year's resolutions? How would your resolutions hold up if you were to join them?

The problem with date-oriented self-promises is that they are attached to a calendar, not to your heart. If your goals are compelling to you (and they better be), putting them off for a couple of weeks doesn't really make much sense. We need to show our "self" and the Universe that these are actually RESOLUTIONS, not suggestions, and that they matter enough to start immediately. Go NOW.