There are exactly 31 days left of 2019 and then we’re not just starting a new year, but also a new decade. It’s that period when people evaluate the year that’s ending and make plans, come up with resolutions and set goals for the year ahead.
We’ve all done this time and again, and statistics show that only a small percentage of people do actually stick to their resolutions. One common reason, or excuse rather, people invoke for not having achieved their goals, is a lack of time. Did you, like me, thought you didn’t have enough time to invest in that project, going to the gym, start a business, learn a language etc?
Here’s one idea… what if the problem is not not having enough time, but making the most of the time that we have. I’ll say it again… what if the problem is not not having enough time, but making the most of the time that we have. I know this is a cliche, and I’ll say it anyway… JLo, Ellen DeGeneres, Tim Ferriss, you and I, all have 24 hours each day, to do whatever we please with them.
You don’t believe me? How many hours (yeah, not minutes, hours…) have you spent scrolling on Instagram and / or Facebook this week? How much TV did you watch? Do you know how much of your time you waste, on average, in a single day? There are ways to track and see where your time goes and this will be the subject of another post. In the meantime…
2013 was the year when I felt the need to re-group, to re-think things and to become more disciplined. I started taking advice from folks like Tm Ferriss, Robin Sharma, Tony Robbins, I put pen to paper and worked my way thorough re-organising everything – inside, in my head and outside, in my environment. Things started to change, for the better.
In 2014 I attended my NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner Certifications and became an NLP Master Coach. What I learned in these courses provided me with the understanding of why what I was doing (my re-organisation of sorts) works and enabled me to add other elements to the mix which were equally as important and allowed me to take my daily organisational practice to the next level.
Thus, I’ve been organising myself on paper since, at times on blank sheets, using one sheet a day, and sometimes I used a planner + sheets of paper, because I could never find a planner that quite worked for me on its own. Last year I decided to go a step further and create that planner – I call it the results enabling tool – that works for me; this is how Make It Happen was born. It was a big, A4, 1kg heavy and bulky stack of papers with purple covers* that invited me, and some of you, to organise our days, weeks and months in a more focused and disciplined way.
How is Make It Happen different?
It was big and bulky because it asks a lot of questions, some of them on a daily basis. But here’s the thing… each of those questions, including the position it has in the planner and the way it is worded, has a very specific purpose. Let me give you three examples (yes, these popped up during coaching sessions) that will enable you to understand what I mean:
1. The string of questions that has everyone puzzled or why setting goals for the coming year alone is not enough
If you want to go from London to Paris, you will set you GPS to take you from London to Paris. Of course you could set your GPS from London to Dover (via Canterbury or Brighton), from Dover to Amiens (via Calais or Dunkirk) and from Amiens to Paris (via Brusels, Reims or even Nantes), but because you want to take the shortest route to your destination, you set it to take you to Paris and allow it to find the shortest route to take you there.
Setting goals for the coming year is like setting your GPS to take you from London to Dover and allowing the rest of the trip to chance, when in fact you want to go to Paris. That’s why, before doing any goal setting, Make It Happen encourages you to think about the bigger picture, as in where do you want to be in the next 30 years, or even beyond 30 years. Once you know where you want to be long term, and you formulate that vision into a SMART goal, it takes you through this string of questions which have you discover the shortest route, the stepping stones, between that far-away vision and your start line, aka the place where you are now.
This is how you connect the dots between where you are now and where you want to be – thinking backwards. This is also the only way to find the shortest route, the minimum number of steps, the shortest time and the minimum effort it can possibly take you to reach that vision (faster). And only after doing this exercise you can truly set goals for the year, for each month, and ensure these are aligned with the bigger vision.
2. The question that makes you re-focus on what’s truly important or how to stay on track
When choosing what to spend our time on on any given day, we have an infinite number of possibilities. Sure, there are a number of “obligations” (show up at work), there are the “non-negotiables” (take the kiddos to school), there are the “important” things (attend the meeting) and the “urgent” things (empty the inbox). But which one of these have you make a step towards where you want to be in 30 years time?
This is why my question isn’t asking you about what’s important or urgent (btw, important or urgent for whom?) or what must you do every single day. My question asks you what is the one thing, which when done, has the biggest impact (for yourself). My question re-calibrates your attention away from all the noise and the tasks and the busyness, towards where you want to be and your answer is the action you can take today, to make a step forward in that direction. I’m also asking for one thing and one thing alone, which makes it manageable, achievable, doable, on any given day.
3. The one thing that will keep you motivated all year long
We find it difficult to be motivated to work on something every single day, whether that is to work on a personal project, to meditate or indeed, to fill in our Make It Happen tool; and that’s because we are tired, because we don’t see the results immediately (expecting instant gratification), because there’s always tomorrow or next week, etc.
That’s why I created a tracking system. When you take action, when you do something every single day – one step towards that business (aka register the domain for your business), go for a run, read 30 pages of a book, spend 10 mins learning French – and when you tick that you’ve done this today, tomorrow, the day after… you create a chain, a streak.
The beauty of a streak is that it will keep you going, that the pain of interrupting that chain will always be bigger (and constantly increasing) than the pain of spending 10 minutes taking that small action. What you might not realise is that you won’t just end up with a monumental streak, you’ll actually create a new habit, a good habit, one that supports you to achieve your goals.
And another thing you’ll discover along the way is that, even with small steps, you’ll be building at that project you never found time for because those small, incremental steps you’ve been taking on your 10, 35, 50 days streak, add up and take you to the result you were after in the first place. And yes, one of your streaks could be about filling in your Make It Happen tool. And if you wish, you could tare up the tracking sheet and stick it onto the fridge, so that it reminds you to take that little action every single time you walk into the kitchen.
That’s why Make It Happen is more than a planner, it’s a results enabling tool. And these are only three reasons why Make It Happen is different.
Of course, you could choose to keep going as you’ve been going until now, and have the same results that you’ve been having so far – and this might be enough.
Or you could decide to support yourself 100%, to achieve your goals, this year, this decade, for the rest of your life.
If this is the case, click below and get your Make It Happen tool* at a very special price. This price is no longer available, and you can still get your planner via PayPal below.
Want it Digital?
Make It Happen is now available as an editable PDF you can fill in on your tablet or computer, or to print it yourself. Order it in digital format and enjoy the same benefits!
*Seth Godin says that if you are too proud of you first iteration of a product, you waited too long until you launched. Make It Happen was indeed a big, A4, 1kg heavy and bulky stack of papers with purple covers. It was an MVP or a prototype if you will, that I initially created for my own use and quite accidentally (and fortunately) became a product people request and buy. Based on the feedback I received and my own use of it throughout 2019, I decided to make a few changes to the 2020 edition:
- It is split into 4 identical, undated quarters, available to buy separately or as a set with some added benefits
- It has shrunk to an A5 size, thus making it lighter and easier to carry
- It is printed professionally (It’s easy to top the quality of that first edition)
- It has some updated copy and layouts
- It has a digital edition, for those who prefer editable PDFs
- It’s again available in English and Romanian
Not sure if this is for you? Let’s talk!
DELIVERY INFORMATION
Make It Happen, the results enabling tool – PRINTED
The tools will reach you in early January 2020, depending where you are in the world.
Make It Happen, the results enabling tool – DIGITAL / PRINT IT YOURSELF
The digital tool will arrive in your inbox on 26 December.
