Five Choices for the Best Year Ever
Being the best you costs you nothing and is worth everything. You are five choices away from having the best year ever.
Timeliness
In the military we were taught that being on time was being late. Choose to arrive early. Give yourself moments to visit with others by arriving before the event begins. Relationships that will build your career and advance your value to the organization are built in friendly, meaningless conversations before meetings are called to order. Conversely, rushing in late is a career-killer. When you are late, you send the message that those in attendance were not worth the effort to be on time. When you walk in late, everyone is the room is thinking about you being late. Little things like being late can deny you future opportunities. In your personal relationships, being late or causing someone you care about to be late creates negative feelings that hurt the relationship. Don’t leave it to chance. Plan to be early and then make it happen. Timeliness is a choice. You can choose to set your alarms, to carefully plan your calendar to give yourself time to be early. You can choose to schedule time to prepare for meetings and events, demonstrating your value in arriving early and prepared.
Attitude
How would others describe your attitude? Would those you work with, live with, and interact with say that you are generally positive or generally negative? An old cliché says that your attitude determines your altitude. If you come into situations with a positive outlook, you are more likely to work harder and achieve greater results. The opposite is also true. If you start out with a negative outlook, you don’t see what is possible and consequently don’t work as hard. This self-fulfilling prophecy is yours to control. You choose the attitude you bring with you. Even on bad days, you can choose to walk into a room with a smile and a willingness to believe that anything is possible. How high you go (your altitude) really is determined by your attitude. In this new year, try to be the one that others want to be around because you bring them up, not down. Leave the whining, the complaining, and the grousing about to those who aren’t going to be as successful as you because you are choosing a winning attitude that shows in your body language and in what you say. Choose to believe in yourself and in those around you.
Energy
Having the energy to accomplish your goals requires a realization of how important energy is and the understanding that you control how much energy you have. It goes without saying that if you know what needs to be done, but do not have the energy to see it through, you are not going to succeed. When you have energy to spare, you tend to work harder and faster than when you are just puttering around on fumes. You can have the energy you need if you choose to. Rest, nutrition, and exercise are the sources of boundless energy. Nutrition is a choice. We choose what we eat. When we make less-healthy choices, our bodies pay the price as they run less efficiently, robbed of the nutrients they need. Rest and exercise are often sacrificed because time seems to be lacking. Again, this is a choice. We choose to prioritize rest. We choose when we go to bed. We choose to stick to the schedule we have prepared to accomplish needed tasks so that we do not have to burn the midnight oil the night before a deadline. We also choose whether or not we will exercise. We can choose to park further away in a parking lot and get in extra steps. We can choose to schedule time for a run, a bike ride, a swim, or gardening. Our energy is ours to choose what we spend it on and how much we build up through rest, nutrition, and exercise. Choose to be the person who brings energy to the group and not the one who drains it away.
Effort
Just like the previous choices, you choose how much effort you give. I have had many conversations with my children about work ethic. I am convinced that hard work overcomes talent. Those that choose to make the effort to work hard are those who achieve success. We know the stories of people who showed early promise that never panned out. We know of young people with tremendous athletic gifts that fizzled as time went by. Talent alone does not guarantee success. Effort is required. “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard." Relationships also take work. When we are unwilling to put effort into relationships, they fade. Choose to give the effort required to go beyond what is expected. Choose to put effort into those relationships that matter most to you.
Listen
When you have conversations, you choose what you are doing in the moments that others are speaking. You might choose to tune them out, to drift off into other thoughts, and wind up demonstrating to those around you that you do not care what they are saying. You might choose to listen only to respond. When you spend the time that others are talking only to compose what you will say in response, you often miss out on deep understanding. I would encourage you to really listen. In meetings, take notes of what you hear. If someone is speaking and you start writing down what they are saying, you make them feel valued. They are more likely to carefully listen to you if you have done the same. Perhaps the greatest relationship builder is a willingness to authentically listen. Choose to listen carefully. Choose to be in the conversation by being as active while listening as you are while speaking.
The best year ever is ahead if you choose for it to be. The choice is yours. Choose to be intentional in your timeliness, your attitude, your energy, your effort, and in your listening.
Comments
Post a Comment