I wrote this post back in October of 2006. It’s amazing the impact getting off autopilot. The off season becomes a time for regrouping and re-energizing, and sometimes even starting new things (I started my Coaching Path in the off season of 2007)
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I am an avid Squash player, I play 4 times a week, Monday-Thursday. I consider myself an OK player, but yesterday it seemed as if it was my first time on the court. Reflecting on the situation (while I was playing) I came to the conclusion that my overall attitude was affecting my ability to play.
I am entering my slow season for my label business ( www.label-land.com ) , and when business is down so is my mood. Then I got wondering if I am like this every November? Further reflection showed that for the past 4 years November to January tend to be months where I spend my time in a more down and negative state.
This realization got me thinking. Though my season was slowing down, it is still far from dead, so why was I already feeling down. Also when I though about what I was doing to improve business at this time, the answer was a resounding “nothing”. I was not working to improve business at all.
Why was I acting this way?
Then it hit me! I was on auto pilot.
The first few years of starting a business can be financially challenging and the times that will always be slow are even more pronounced in the beginning. The problem is that sometimes we can lock in the habit of getting in to a certain mood even before the time arrives. Subconsciously I told myself that for the past three years this has been a down and depressing time, so I might as well get a jump on things and start feeling lousy now.
Awareness proceeds change.
Now that I know the cause I needed a solution.
-you ready
Become Activated.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the routines of life. I’m sure most of us have found our self in that last month before the end of the year, wondering what happened to all our resolutions, why we are still in the same situation we were 11 months ago.
The process of self activation, is taking defined steps to bring about change. The steps should be small so you don’t get overwhelmed by the process.
Example time.
Say you want to loose weight. You decide that a good approach would be to start cutting down on your sugar intake. To cut it out completely would be very difficult, but say that we just started with your coffee. Usually you put two heaping spoons of sugar. For you next cup put one heaping spoon and one level spoon. After a week level both spoons. Another week one and a half spoons, and in the next week one spoon.
Now that might not seem like such a big deal but lets look at the big picture. Say you drink three cups of coffee a day, you were originally consuming 50 calories of sugar/cup (12 grams of sugar) and you cut it down to 15 calories/cup (4 grams of sugar). Over the course of a year you will decrease your calorie intake by 38,325 calories, which could help you knock off about 13 pounds (3000 calories to a pound).
By activating your self with little steps you will soon find that you have accomplished great things.
So what do you do to get started. Here is the tough part. Take out a pen and paper – most people get stuck at this step. You might have to take out a pencil for one week and add paper the next week and write on the paper in the third week ( Just kidding ) – and write down what you want to accomplish and what small steps you are going to take, and the time frame that you will take for each task.
After a month review your goals and you will be empowered by what you have accomplished.
Turn off the auto pilot. Become Activated. Unleash your ultimate potential.
