SUCCESS IN 2017: STEP FIVE

We're now in the fifth and final week of what I hope has been a really helpful toolkit to enable you to see great success in 2017. We've looked at our thoughts and rituals, our roles and goals, and now we're landing on the ultimate challenge. Once you've done the other things, doing this final step will act like the final spinning cog of an elaborate mechanism, unlocking potential you perhaps didn't even know was there.

Get excited!

A lot's been said over the past couple of decades about the power of a positive mindset. It's easy to get cynical about that sort of thing, but looking back at what we've achieved over the past few weeks, surely we can know that success is possible.

And that should get us excited in the morning.

And if we're excited in the morning, we'll respond more positively to what life throws at us.

So...get excited every morning! Spend a couple of minutes every morning, thanking God for everything he's going to do for you and through you to others today.

Don't allow circumstances to define your positive outlook. Allow your positive outlook to influence your circumstances.

Get scared!

You might be afraid of spiders, you might be afraid of talking to someone really senior in your office, you might be afraid of what people will think if you bring in a packed lunch, or you might be afraid of how awkward the conversation would be if you invited a homeless person out for lunch.

It's easy to be afraid of things - life is full of unknowns, and negative results are a possibility...but let me tell you one thing for free:

Fear solves nothing.

Being afraid has a negative effect on you personally, and doesn't change the situation at all. So here's a good thing to do. Every day, do one thing that scares you. Once you've done it, no worries - no need to do anything scary until tomorrow. But don't let a day go by without scaring yourself on purpose.

Just see what happens!

Get focussed!

I don't know about you, but my life seems to get full to the brim of...stuff. Meetings, emails, tube delays, meals...and how much of it actually makes a difference in life?

You often hear of the 80/20 rule in business, where 80% of your effort leads to 20% of your results, and vice versa. What would happen if you worked out what your 20% was, and focussed as much attention as possible on that?

Go on, write a list. What are the top ten things that make a difference in your life? Now, prioritise those over everything else, no matter the sacrifice - it may annoy people at first, and you might experience some setbacks, but 80% beats 20% every day.

Thank you so much

I hope you've really enjoyed this little series with me, and I hope it's made a genuine difference to you.

I said in the opening post that I'm convinced that contentedness is a great state of mind to have. I truly believe that, and I believe you can be contented but still push for change, because my contentedness comes from a place outside of my life - and his name is Jesus.

SUCCESS IN 2017: STEP FOUR

We've looked at three steps to prepare for success in 2017 so far:

1. Evaluate your biggest life areas
2. Prioritise, and evaluate your thoughts and rituals
3. Prepare your mind: give yourself permission to be yourself, including accepting your past, and acknowledge what you can and can't change

Today, we're going to look at a really important fourth step, which I'll call ownership.

Own your roles

You hold many roles in life - looking at the different arenas I play in, I'm a husband, a dad, a technical specialist, a boss, an employee, a musician...some of those are more important to me than others. Which of your roles are most important to you?

Now, here's the challenge. Each of those roles belongs to you - you own them. That means that they're yours to do what you'd like with, and if you're not actively owning them, the chances are that things have started to go wrong.

It's easy to come up with excuses for not doing well in a particular role:

I'm sorry honey, I know I'm late home again, but I've got no choice but to stay in the office.

Sometimes (quite often, actually!) an excuse like that is a symptom of a lack of ownership. You're very rarely in a situation where you genuinely have no choice. You could choose to leave the office on time, and perhaps it would cost you a promotion, but which role is more important to you?

Let me tell you from experience: once you've decided up-front what your most important roles are, the tough calls become less tough, and you start to own them a whole lot more.

Own your goals

Now we get onto the exciting bits. Do you really want to see success this year? Set some big goals. Where do you want to be by 31 December 2017? How about by 2020?

Now, let's reverse engineer those, laying them over the rituals we talked about two weeks ago. What new rituals could you put in place that would point you in the direction of those goals? What would you have to do every day, every week and every month to achieve them?

And here's the secret:

Put them in your calendar.

Let's be silly for a moment. Perhaps you're single, but would like to be married. If you went on a date every night for the next six months, do you think you'd be closer, or further away from getting married? Of course you'd be closer! Of those dates, some of them may have been awful, you may miss a couple, and some you may have ended up going out with people you'd never normally choose to go out with, but who knows?

Give it a go. Set some big goals, with hard deadlines, and create some rituals today.

You can do it.

ONE THING TO TURN BUSYNESS INTO BREAKTHROUGH

2016 is an Olympics year.

I’m looking forward to watching the Rio games, being reminded of the joy of London 2012. And the whole of the UK will be thinking exactly the same thing:

If only this were the Winter Olympics.

In the winter, that well-loved sport of curling appears on the TV, and Britain proves to the world why it’s Great.

No other nation on earth can say, “Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry,” at that speed, with that level of sincerity.

And I think I know why.

The West generally, the UK in particular, and very specifically London, has become a world leader in hurrying.

Recent years have seen the introduction of the takeaway espresso cup. Under what circumstances are you in so much of a hurry that you don’t have time to drink an espresso before you’ve left the coffee shop?

The other day I saw a guy who was so intent on replying to an email on his BlackBerry as soon as possible, that he actually stopped drying his hands in the bathroom to do so.

When did life get so busy that we became unable to live it?

I have a suggestion: stick time in the calendar for reflection – to stop, think, and make sure all the stuff that’s filling your time is actually helping.

Here are the rules:

• Start realistic – give yourself one hour every six months. You’ll instantly realise it isn’t enough, but this is very achievable. ISN’T IT.
• Move it, don’t delete it – if something else comes up at the same time, don’t just delete it from your calendar, move it instead. And always move it sooner!
• Think about where your life is heading – where you’ll be in 1-6 months and 1-6 years.
• Think about what you’ve learned since the last reflection time – taking the time out to do this will teach you what you should have learned already!

And one final tip, if I may.

Redeemer recently finished a set of meetups – I met up with a group every Monday morning at 7am for nine weeks.

Another set of meetups will be starting soon – make sure you sign up when the window opens, so that you get the regular time to reflect with others on what’s important in life.

LIVE IN EALING? WATCH OUT FOR THE U AND U!

Ealing must be one of the best places to live in the world.

It’s got everything! Huge parks, diverse and delicious food, and an incredible local community.

But living in Ealing brings two huge challenges.

1 Watch out for the Urgent

It doesn’t take much time living in London before your perception of time changes, does it?

An 8-minute delay on the Heathrow Connect almost breaks the internet, as the whole of Ealing Broadway leaps onto the TfL website to work out if the Central line would be quicker.

Deep down we all know 8 minutes isn’t a big deal, but it is fun to live life at full throttle. The problem is, a fast-paced life comes with a massive challenge.

Lots of stuff turns out to be urgent when you’re living fast.

Without even realising it, we end up on other people’s agendas. Think about it:

• When was the last time you started a Facebook/WhatsApp message, or do you only ever find yourself replying to others?
• When was the last time you decided, entirely off your own back, to go and apply for a job you wanted, or did you feel you had to leave, or got a call from a recruiter?
• How are you doing on those New Year’s resolutions you set less than a month ago?

Urgent things distract us from what’s important in life.

2 Watch out for the Unimportant

Probably worse than what’s urgent though, is what’s unimportant.

Let me unburden myself of the things that have filled my time so far today:

• Checked Facebook
• Watched a viral video of someone singing on the tube
• Played a game on my phone
• Read opinion pieces on the Academy Awards and the Premier League
• Caught up on one and a half episodes of Jessica Jones on Netflix
• Checked Facebook
• Read the Wikipedia pages for every main character in Jessica Jones
• Tried to get a photo of my coffee cup so the background was blurry
• Checked Facebook

I also have important things in my life; holding down a job so I can afford to live in Ealing, doing my household chores, spending time with my wife, having fun with my kids…

Surprisingly enough, the important things would benefit from us saying ‘no,’ to a couple more of those unimportant bullet points.

Let’s actually do it

Reading this could very easily turn into a waste of time, so let’s commit today to not get distracted by what’s urgent or what’s unimportant!

Tweet to your friends to tell them you’re planning on doing what’s important in 2016 by clicking here!