It’s a week into the New Year. Did you set a resolution or a goal? The talk of many blogs and conversations now delve into how we do or don’t follow through with our goals or resolutions and what to do about it. Some findings show that many people give up before they even get started.
I tend to look at the New Year as a clean slate – a time to change something that wasn’t going so well and an opportunity to do more of what works in my life. Webster’s New World dictionary’s first definition of resolution is “1. a) a resolving of something or breaking it up into separate parts.” This is interesting to note, as we tend to set big, audacious goals at the beginning of year. Yet, our success depends on breaking these goals into smaller, doable parts. In other words, what is that one step that you can do without fail, that will start you on your path to success?
In terms of speaking goals, perhaps your goal to is to speak at more events. What is the one step that will lead you to more speaking? Is it spending 15 minutes each day to research target audiences? Making one phone call each day to connect with a potential client?
Is your goal to improve your delivery? What do you think would happen if you spent 10 minutes each day engaging in deep breathing exercises? Or perhaps saying tongue twisters out loud to warm up your vocal chords and facial muscles?
What would happen at your meetings if you sent out an agenda a day before the meeting, or opened the meeting with a story or an “around the room” exercise at the beginning of the meeting?
What I’m suggesting here is the creation of a new habit, not a one-off or one-time activity. The science of habit creation tells us that it is easier to create a new habit then to break an old one.
So what if we started the New Year with something small, easy to do, and an activity that we could be consistent with for the next several weeks? It starts with that one small step…
What is your one small step?