Little changes mean big gains

It is the beginning of a new year. You could make lots of New Year’s resolutions and update your strategic plan with many actions. However, instead of trying to do it all, concentrate on the few small things that will have the biggest impacts on your life.

Just like a small change in a plane’s trajectory at the beginning of a flight can have a huge impact where you land, small changes in your life can help you make unprecedented progress along your chosen career path.

Spend a few minutes to answer these questions:

• What is the one skill that if you mastered would have the biggest impact on your goals?

• What is the one activity that is getting in the way of your progress?

Once you’ve chosen your one skill, and one activity create a plan for yourself:

• How are you doing to increase in that skill area? What courses, readings, videos or coaching are you willing to implement?

• How will you do less of the activity that is impeding your progress? What actions will you exchange for this activity? What new habits will you adopt?

This year, I am going to get better at delivering distance webinars. I am investigating a conference in San Diego, a book and some on-line training to boost my abilities in that area. I am also a “recovering perfectionist” so I often wait until things are perfect – which means I do lots of waiting. To counter this, I’m creating a detailed plan for updating my skills and creating new workshops, sharing this plan with my coach and ensuring that these steps make it into my daily and weekly planning.

I’d love to hear what small steps you are going to make that will have a big impact on your life. Valerie.MacLeod@HainesCentre.com