That difference is lifestyle.
Understanding the concept can be a deal-breaker when it comes to maintaining your achievements.
Coup – pronounced KOO, meaning sudden takeover or great success.
You know you want one. Heck, I want one. Do you want to make next year the most amazing sudden achievement of personal and professional synergy you’ve ever experienced? Do you want to finally do the thing you say every January you’ll do? If there was one thing you could give yourself for Christmas, would it be a coup?
Dude! Let’s do it! Dudette, high fives all around. I’m so in. Are you?
Whoops. What’s that? You were just excited there for a minute, I know you were. But the reality is coming in like a conquering hoard, isn’t it? You’ve been here before. One minute you’re all in and the next minute… you remember… you’ve tried this before.
Not. Cool. Not. Coup.
Not to worry, that’s normal. To find out why, read my blog on Past Based Thinking
Ok, come on back to me. What if I told you there is a way forward, even if this isn’t your first try for a promotion, your first attempt at writing that book or your first rodeo? What if I told you that you can plan and execute a takeover of your own life?
I’m telling you… there IS a way forward.
I’ve learned the hard way that not planning on the difference between achievement and lifestyle can lead to backsliding on your dreams.
We experience this at work all the time. Remember when the entire company created onboarding documents? When was the last time you updated them? What about that great plan for staying on top of your technical skills? Do you even remember your plural site password? That – is what I’m talking about. The difference between getting your boss to buy you that amazing tech training subscription and actually taking the classes on the regular is the difference between achievement and life-style.
If you know me and work with me, you know that I lost weight a couple of years back. And you know that I’ve put a lot of it back on. What a shame, huh? But not surprising right?
What I was missing was future focus. Basically, when I lost weight – I gained an identity problem. I wrote about this – Nirvana Park. What I’ve learned is that for permanent change, you need to understand how you’re going to get something, and then how you’re going to keep something.
Achievement is getting something, lifestyle is how you keep it.
To prepare for creating a mind-blowing, life-altering new year’s resolution worthy of the ab-fab human you are, start by exploring your goals in relation to both how to get something and how to keep it. You can do the steps below thinking only about work, only about your personal life or combine the two.
- First answer the question: What is the result I want by the end of 2020?
- Next answer the question: What are the things that are important in my life?
- Make a list of all the activities, priorities, results, etc you want your life to include.
- Add a column for “GET” and note for each item what you would have to do to get this attribute, result, etc. If you already have it, just put a dash.
- Now, add a column for “KEEP” and note what you have to do to keep or maintain this result.
- At this point, it may seem you can’t possibly have it all. You’re right on track.
- Now, take each item, or group of items, and write a sentence that looks like one of these ” Being _____________ means spending more time__________ and less time _____________.” or “Having ____________ means (doing/being/saying/taking) less of ____________________ and more _____________”
Do you have a much clearer idea of where this new achievement or goal is about to take you? Keep going, do this for each item in your list. Do you feel a bit more positive? I hope so. The last step is to really look at your answers.
What does this lifestyle require you to give up? What does this lifestyle require you to add? Can you seriously say this is the way you want to live?
Here’s what I learned by dropping 45 lbs and gaining 30 back – getting thin has a beginning and an end. Staying thin – does not. Before you set out to achieve something, ask yourself if this is a one-time thing – like buying a hot car – or a lifetime thing – like getting healthy. If it’s a lifetime thing, then you need to plan out both how to get what you want and how to keep what you want.
Achievement & Lifestyle.
So are you in? Do you want to plan a coup?
Click here to Download your Free Worksheet
This year, between The Great Gift Exchange and Auld Lang Syne, let’s plan your coup.
And me? I’m with you all the way.
See you next week for part 2 of the Five Steps to Changing Your Life