April 3 = Call Your Ass Out day
2006 is already 25% over.
Around mid-February, people start to forget their New Year’s resolutions, or they start rationalizing them away: “Well, I’ll go to the gym next week but I’m so busy this week” blah blah blah.
I’m going to issue 2 challenges today: First, don’t forget. Redouble your efforts on whatever resolutions you made. It’s funny how so often, it’s not the Great Idea that makes champions, but the continued discipline to do the little things. Just do it now.
The second challenge is a little bit harder. You know how you can go through a whole day just answering emails and not really moving ahead? I think you can extend that to more than just a day. (I know I’ve gone weeks without really getting anything done.) So my second challenge is to ask yourself this: What have you done this year to really move ahead?
- Have you been working on a project that you’ll look back in 10 years and say, “Wow, I’m glad I started that?”
- Have you started meeting with people and asking their advice?
- Have you felt some pain (rejection, time at the library doing research, etc) because you were learning, rather than staying in your comfort zone?
- Have you written a proposal and sent it out to…whoever?
- Have you sent even one email about your long-term goals?
The getting-started phase is weird because people read the signals differently. Some people think that starting to sit down and plan something is step #1, which is fine. Others think that getting their first customer is step #1. Whatever the case is, I always use the 10-year mark: Will I look back in 10 years and be satisfied with what I did in the early part of 2006?
I hope so–because it’s already 25% over.
