If I told you I could spend a week with you and at the end, prophecy your future, would you believe me?
Most people think that's a bit bold, maybe even unrealistic. Yet Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt can prove me right. (not that I need to be right) In their book The Power of Focus, they lay out strategies and techniques that help shape the course set before us in life. Simply put, they help us understand how our daily habits shape our future. Strategy 1, in their book, is called Your Habits Will Determine Your Future.
One of my short term goals is to have the material for a book. With that in mind, last October I started writing a blog, creating a pattern for putting thoughts on "paper", determining my tone, and discovering my subject matter. My goal was to have enough written within three months that I could simply review my posts and arrange them in a way that an overall message becomes clear.
It hasn't happened. Are you with me on this? You probably understand that to accomplish goals, sacrifice happens. Well, I haven't been sacrificing - only having fun. One of my favorite blog writers posts every day. And in one post she mentioned the toll it took on her to get to the laptap and follow through. At the time I thought, Why?
Now I understand. Just doing things when we're in the mood leaves nothing to be discovered. We can't tell how good we are at something until we're put to the test. And although I enjoy blogging, I haven't put myself to the test. Check out the most recent date (Dec. 24) and you'll find it's been over two weeks. Don't give me any breaks on this - my plan was to write 3 times a week. 3 times weekly in 3 months time would give me 36 posts.
How many do I have? 33. And 2 weeks have gone by. So that's 9 posts I'm behind. Had you followed me around for a week lately, knowing my desire to write a book, you'd notice my habits don't support it. Procrastination is the mother of all bad habits. That and avoidance. And lacking discipline.
There. You now know my goal for the next 3 months and can keep me accountable. Once we have accountability we have added motivation to follow through, even when it's a sacrifice. We know on the other end of our goal it will so be worth it.
I'm now on track. Keep me there. It will determine my future.
