What would you most like to achieve, that seems hard/impossible?
Stop working Fridays? Have a better work-life balance? Get a pay rise? Start working for yourself? Improve Relationship X? Win Customer Y? Something else?
Even with tricky things like this, we can often achieve more than we thought we could – if we use the right techniques.
And the technique below helped me stop working Fridays. And, at the same time, grow my business by a third. So I love it! Here we go…
Step #1 – Think “yes if” not “no because”
- Start by being positive. Think “yes if”. Example: “Can I stop working Fridays? Yes if I do A, B, C. Good – I now know how to start”
- If you think “no because”, it becomes self-fulfilling – “Can I stop working Fridays? No because of X, Y, Z. It’s impossible. So I’m not even trying”
Step #2 – Find 3+ options
- When faced with tricky challenges, our brains can often find two solutions, but not three. Which is a huge problem if the two aren’t very good!
- So force yourself to think of a third option
- That’s clearly an improvement – you now have three options, not two. But even better: now your brain’s unlocked, it often keeps going! So you’ll think of a fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh…
- …When I did this, I actually came up with 27 ways I could stop working Fridays. Twenty-seven!
- It was then just a question of choosing the best one(s) and acting on them. Talking of which…
Step #3 – Identify clear actions, using the question words
- Once you’ve got 3+ (27?) options, choose the best ones…
- …and then turn them into actions using question words. Like:
- What is the very first action to take, to move this along?
- When is the earliest I can do this first step?
- Who do I need to speak with, to pick their brains about it?
- How can I build my skills and confidence to do this?
- Etc
And, once you know your actions and dates …
Step #4 – Start. Immediately.
- Don’t procrastinate. Just get on with it
- For example, last year, one of my coaching customers wanted to stop working Fridays. We agreed a critical action for him would be to block-out future Fridays in his calendar – 9am-5pm “not in the office”. That way, work wouldn’t get in the diary, because something else was already in there
- I told him to change his diary ‘right now’
- He replied “but my next two Fridays are booked up”
- So I said “Fine. Ignore them. But – right now – block-out all day in three Fridays’ time. And then repeat that for every Friday for the rest of your life”
- He tried to argue. I stopped him arguing. He changed the diary…
- …and then I regularly checked-in with him, to make sure he didn’t allow people (or himself) to sneak things back in the diary
- He hasn’t worked a Friday since. But unless we’d taken that first action, I think he’d still be working them
All of which means…
Action Point
- Find your #1 goal – the thing you’d love to achieve – even if it seems hard/impossible
- Do these four steps – as in, really do them. For big decisions, this isn’t a ten-minute thing. Invest time. Generate lots of ideas. Ask for help. Continually test and refine. If need be, find a mentor/guide. Be careful with risk (you might need advice before taking certain actions). Keep on it…
- … and, of course, you can use these four steps for smaller things too. And they might be a ten minute thing!