Stay Focused on Your Goals

Yesterday I heard a sad statistic: by the end of January more than half of us will have dropped our New Year resolutions.  Sigh.

I get it.  Change is hard.

So how do you support yourself in holding to your goals?  Especially, when your goals are in the creative realm–perhaps more discretionary than goals such as ‘manage my  money’ or ‘lose weight so I don’t get diabetes’.

First, I recommend accepting the fact that change is difficult and you may take a few runs at it.  So what?  Each repeated effort does increase learning and the likelihood of change over time.

Second, accept that working with your creativity requires structure.  Here are some ways to create structure for yourself:

Make an external commitment. Writing in your journal or telling a friend is good.  But what if you book a commission or commit to a presentation?  I’ve promised a weekly newsletter and you can bet I won’t be backing off that.  When you promise something to others it’s somehow more compelling than an internal promise.

Get a coach. Of course, I would love for you to hire me as your Kaizen-Muse coach (specialized coaching for the creatively rebellious–see Building Blocks).  But you can also find a peer coach.  I have a dear friend who is my peer coach. She and I have worked together and she knows how to keep me focused.  Best of all, she does it with gentleness and imagination (love you Arden!).  For starters, meet every other week and alternate roles.

Track yourself. They used to say at Intel that everything can be measured.  I used to say, “Whatever.”  But over time, I came to appreciate the value of noticing progress.  Today, take a little census of your status quo.  Measure your body, your mood, your bank account.  Because, the Intel engineers were right: what gets measured gets done.  Then review your progress with your coach

Finally, if you haven’t made any resolutions (you Rebel) you may enjoy this charming workbook.  I downloaded it over the weekend and it’s much more fun than a spreadsheet.

So pursue your creative goals.

Pursue your mundane goals with creativity.

Go Tiger!  You can do it!  I’m rooting for you!