Anything you wait to do is doomed to fail.
"I'll start watching what I eat on Monday."
"After the new year, I'm going to spend more time with my kids."
If it's not important enough to start now, you're not gonna do it. You're just signaling your intent to get the payoff without any of the effort. You're spilling the beans before the soup is done.
The reason I know this is because I've done it time and time again. Even though I'm aware that early declaration of some fancy plan or idea is a surefire way to kill it, I continue to do it out of habit.
So I'm not going to tell you what I'm going to do this year.
But I am going to tell you how I will do it:
Showing up every day.
Whether it's 5 minutes or 5 hours, a little bit of time spent every day on anything is probably the most sustainable way to see growth as an adult with a family.
Often if you commit the smallest feasible amount of time to something, you spend more time anyways. You're kind of gaming yourself into starting a thing you procrastinate on, knowing that if you just start, you'll probably find a rhythm and the 5 minutes you committed to will turn into 10 minutes, 15 minutes, or even an hour.
And if you do this every day for the things you want to accomplish, you'll see real, measurable progress.
So, despite the hypocrisy of this post being made on January 1st, let's turn 2023 into a year of achievable action toward our goals.
"I'll start watching what I eat on Monday."
"After the new year, I'm going to spend more time with my kids."
If it's not important enough to start now, you're not gonna do it. You're just signaling your intent to get the payoff without any of the effort. You're spilling the beans before the soup is done.
The reason I know this is because I've done it time and time again. Even though I'm aware that early declaration of some fancy plan or idea is a surefire way to kill it, I continue to do it out of habit.
So I'm not going to tell you what I'm going to do this year.
But I am going to tell you how I will do it:
Showing up every day.
Whether it's 5 minutes or 5 hours, a little bit of time spent every day on anything is probably the most sustainable way to see growth as an adult with a family.
Often if you commit the smallest feasible amount of time to something, you spend more time anyways. You're kind of gaming yourself into starting a thing you procrastinate on, knowing that if you just start, you'll probably find a rhythm and the 5 minutes you committed to will turn into 10 minutes, 15 minutes, or even an hour.
And if you do this every day for the things you want to accomplish, you'll see real, measurable progress.
So, despite the hypocrisy of this post being made on January 1st, let's turn 2023 into a year of achievable action toward our goals.