I find myself at this time of year, like most people, considering what I might wish to achieve in 2015 – the usual considerations of becoming fitter, losing weight, etc along with writing a Xmas hit record which pays my pension in future years, all feature as New Year resolutions.

However, I realised that these often far reaching resolutions or goals, were left strewn at the roadside of life as I made my way through the year (and let’s be fair, some were chucked out the window by the third week of January).

I wondered if there was a better way to help me stay the course and started to consider what things would I need to do each and every day to make it more likely I would achieve those goals.

For example, a friend of ours Tony Philips of The Coaching Approach, decided he would run a mile a day; he started in 2010, and as they say hasn’t looked back (and he’s very far from home now too…old joke I know).

The idea of starting a new habit, a daily one, appealed to me; I could make the habit bite-size, do-able, and ‘stackable’. The last point there is reference to a growing concept of ‘habit stacking’; a method of placing one habit ‘on top of’ another one which is already well established i.e. Brushing your teeth.

Would it possible for me to write ‘a page a day’ for example, rather than just have ‘write a book’ as my goal? Suddenly big projects have 10-15 minute slots allocated in a day; I feel something which might appear overwhelming take on a different form and I feel motivated.

The proof is going to be most certainly in the doing, but certainly the idea of New Year habits rather than resolutions, resonates for me – the connection to what we do in our work also naturally leads me to consider how setting objectives might be married with agreeing habits with ourselves, with individuals, and with teams.

John

www.bowlandsolutions.com