You start each day knowing you’re not going to get everything done.
Seems there’s always more you’d like to get done–and the list keeps growing. Right?
As you move toward the end of the year, it’s natural to reflect on your progress and wonder where the time went.
If you’re like many people, you’re doing your best to juggle work, family and friends, yet you often move along a path that isn’t quite right. Even if you recognize this aberration, you may refuse to change course. You may intentionally become distracted. You pile more on your plate.
Teams do the same. They talk about how busy they are, while ignoring signs of stress and dysfunction.
Trying to do more is not the answer. Instead, break your self-sabotaging patterns to deflect the unimportant. Interrupt your inertia and start feeling good about your accomplishments.
Harvard Business Review columnist Peter Bregman offers some starting points in 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done.
One important starting point is asking the question:
Where are you now?
In other words, are you doing the right things with the right people, in the right way to make the most of who you are?
I explore these issues frequently with individual executives, teams and businesses.
Whether you answer this question in a personal or business context, taking some time to think through these issues will help you move forward–or even leap forward more powerfully.
Two strategic questions are:
- How can you best use your strengths and talents to achieve the things that will make you happy, productive and successful?
- How can you know if you’re truly maximizing your potential?
Most people insufficiently use their talents because they fear stretch goals. They don’t want to leave their comfort zones. They continue doing what they’ve always done because it’s safe, instead of taking risks.
But self-discovery–especially of your strengths–is critical for any quantifiable success.
Many people are reconciled to the path they’re on. They rarely stop to take stock. Like the Energizer Bunny, they just keep going and going…and going.
Sound like you? Bregman suggests two tactics to break the negative momentum:
- Slow down.
- Start over.
Simple advice. Tough to do.
He says, “Reducing your forward momentum is the first step to freeing yourself from the beliefs, habits feelings and busyness that may be limiting you.”
In my experience, those people or teams who do this are better able to make needed turns or put themselves on a better path to achieve what they really want.
Start now.
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE 