They say it takes 30 to 45 days to form a habit; 30 days of disciplined action dedicated towards an activity or in changing a behavior so you can achieve the new result you want.
In most cases, it’s not that you have a time management problem or a prioritization problem; it’s that you have a self-discipline problem. You might not be disciplined enough to stick to the thing that you need to do every single day to get the result you want. Maybe you haven’t committed to doing something that is lead generating every single day. Or you’re not consistent in terms of executing your social media marketing plan each week. You might make a plan to write a blog post every single week, but you always fall off the wagon.
Perhaps you commit to having a daily meeting with your business partner to discuss priorities. You do it for a couple of weeks, and then the meetings stop, or get pushed off and things start to fall through the cracks.
It all comes down to self-discipline.
This week, I have a challenge for you.
I want to challenge you to think of one thing in your business that you know you should be doing, and instead of beating yourself up over not doing it…I want to challenge you to start.
It’s pretty simple to start, but the real test is sticking with it long enough until it becomes a habit. We’ve all been there…where you miss the first commitment and then the second and then the next thing you know it’s fallen off your radar…that is…until it comes back around.
So, if you find that you’re not able to stick with it for 30 days, you need to do one of two things:
- Hire somebody to help you get it done.
I’m a big proponent of doing that. I hired somebody to help me write my book. I’m tired of talking about the fact that I’m writing a book and never getting it done. In the past, I’ve also hired a personal trainer to come to my home three times a week. I was tired of depending on myself to exercise when I knew I don’t have the self-discipline to do it on my own.
- Decide whether it’s worth doing.
Don’t hang onto goals and intentions that you are not serious about. If you’re not serious about putting in the effort and doing what it takes to make that goal happen, then you might as well let it go. Hanging onto a list of things that you SHOULD do but never actually do, means that it’s not important. If it’s not important, let it go.
If it’s important, it will get done.
Let’s use brushing our teeth as an example…You brush your teeth every single day. Most of you probably brush them twice a day. Once in the morning when you get out of bed and again before you go to bed at night. You do it every single day because you know that if you didn’t, you would have horrible breath and your teeth would start to decay. People probably wouldn’t want to be around you, and they might even begin to question your judgement!
Don't hang onto #goals and #intentions that you're not serious about. Click To TweetYou don’t think about the habit of brushing your teeth; you do it every single day because it’s important.
Therefore, if marketing in your business is important, you need to find a way to do it every single day.
If increasing your sales is important, you need to find a way to do it every single day.
If creating a body of work through content is important, you need to find a way to do it every single day.
If it’s important, you will get it done.
The most important decision you can make is the one around importance.
Not important – ditch it.
And if it is important, find a way.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments. What one important thing are you committed to doing, and what will you do if you can’t be self-disciplined enough to stick with it?
