One Year From Today

As I write this, we are heading into the holiday season, and then, before you know it, the new year is here. If I have heard one person say it, I have heard a dozen say, “I can’t believe it’s 2020 already!” It seems like just yesterday we were looking with trepidation at the year 2000 and a new millennium. Well, 20 years have passed in that blink of an eye.

What Will You Have to Show for It?

As we begin a new decade, what would you need to do to make real progress in your life one year from today? Do you want to get in better shape? Lose a few pounds? Get a new job? Get a promotion at your old job? Maybe start your own business? All of those are great goals and all of them are in reach if you take the right steps now to begin the journey.

When I ask people on coaching calls if they think 2020 will be better or worse than 2019, 100% of them say, “BETTER!” When I ask them how they are going to get to “better,” the answers are not convincing. In many cases, it seems like hope is the main strategy.

Irreducible Minimums

One of the biggest problems I see with people (including me) who want to achieve big goals is that they (we) set big plans to get to those goals. Someone says they want to lose 15 pounds and they set a plan of getting a gym membership, going to the gym for 1.5 hours every day, eating salad at every meal and drinking a gallon of water a day. You will surely lose weight if you can execute the plan; unfortunately, life and reality get in the way and we stop. And since we didn’t meet the goal, we feel bad, which makes us do more of the things that got us here in the first place. Here’s another idea, the minimum.

An irreducible minimum is the minimum you can do in an area you are trying to improve in your life that cannot be reduced. I wanted to write a book. ,” means I needed to write every day. Sounds easy, it’s not. So, I set an irreducible minimum to write 50-words every day. Most of the emails you write are more than 50 words. The average book is 60,000 words. This blog post is 685 words. 50 words is nothing…unless you do it every day. And that’s the magic of an irreducible minimum. Something small, done every day, compounds over time.

Can I Do More?

Do I ever write more than 50-words a day? Yes, but I never wrote less than 50. If the light was right, the house was quiet, and the coffee was warm, I might write 500 words or 1500 words. But if I only wrote 50, I did not fret about it or feel bad. I hit my goal. I put away my writing materials and went on with my day. Want to read more? Try reading two-pages a day. How often? EVERY DAY. Want to get in better shape? How about walking to the end of your driveway? How often? EVERY DAY. Now, can you get in shape walking to the end of your driveway every day? Probably not. But, since you have your shoes on, and the weather is good, and you are already in the driveway, what if you walked around the block, twice. Irreducible minimums are about starting, and once you start, keeping going is a lot easier.

Small Done is Better Than Big Forgotten

2020 is almost here. A new decade fresh and ready for you to make your mark. The time is passing and passing faster than you think. How about picking one or two (definitely no more than 3) irreducible minimums that you can begin executing daily, so when you get to one year from today, you will have something to show for it. Something small done daily will take you a lot further than something big planned, but not done.