MY TWO CENTS:
In our last edition of MTC, I offered our readers a challenge to consider regarding the goals they’re pursuing this year. How are you doing with identifying the “ONE THING” that you’re pursuing this year? Have you found someone to come alongside you on this year’s journey yet? Click here if you’d like to review our last edition before reading on to what we have for you this month.
Now that we’ve identified the thing that is our highest priority, we need to be purposeful in our pursuit. Many times that requires us to do something different. Sometimes, it requires us to stop doing something that has held us back from achieving. Either way…the idea of building habits struck me as a topic we should consider.
What I like about the idea of building positive habits is that it’s completely independent of the size of your goal. Regardless of whether you are trying to make the senior PGA golf tour, or beginning your journey to health, or investing in your relationship with your spouse and kids, or trying to reach a specific financial goal, you’ll likely need to adjust your habits. Ask any high achieving athlete or prolific leader, and they will tell you that their habits and commitment to excellence in their pursuit allowed them to realize the impact they desire.
I was recently reading a book entitled The Servant: A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership by James C. Hunter. In chapter 6 of that book, he shares the four stages of a habit. The simplicity of this idea struck me and I thought it would be good to pass along. Here’s a quick summary of what he shared:
Stage 1: Unconscious and unskilled – you haven’t even considered the behavior or habit
Stage 2: Conscious and unskilled – you’re now aware of the new behavior but not yet skilled
Stage 3: Conscious and skilled – where you’re becoming more and more skilled…and comfortable
Stage 4: Unconscious and skilled – you don’t even have to think about it anymore…it’s natural now
This has been a good lesson for me this month. I’m looking forward to discovering the areas of my life in which building positive habits will allow me to be more impactful. I can already think of a few without much self-examination.
How about you? Is there an area or two that developing some positive habits could allow you to be more effective in your “ONE THING” pursuit this year? And, since this thing we call life is a journey and not a destination, how much fun do you think you’ll be able to have as you embark on this road less traveled? I don’t know about you…but I’m getting excited about what lies ahead!!
Make it a great week!
Scott Cousino, CFP®
President