Shaping Up: January 1

Consider the following:

"You don't need more opportunity. You need to learn to execute on the opportunities you already have." -Michael Hyatt

Does that make you angry? Because it made me angry when I first read it. This man doesn't know my life or my circumstances or how much money I make.  How dare he. 

Last January, I stumbled upon an ad for Hyatt's newly released Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals. And I thought, well, the title itself meets my requirements and I have nothing to lose but $20.

The book was released on January 2 and I had it in my hands shortly thereafter. I completed the assessment he recommends (mentioned in yesterday's post; you can take it here). Hyatt divides life into ten aspects: intellectual, emotional, spiritual, physical, marital, parental, social, vocational, avocational, and financial. Each of these topics is analyzed in the assessment. Obviously, not all areas apply to every person (I'm not a parent). I received my results and was immediately deflated. While I did have two area where I scored highly, I had two others where I scored very, very low. I was not surprised, but I was discouraged.

I admit, I wallowed. And I realized that wallowing was how I had lived my last decade instead of capitalizing on my opportunities. I finished Hyatt's book. I considered the opening quote. And I realized that it was time for me to begin taking ownership of my own opportunities.

So I signed up for a leadership class. I committed to reading 100 books in a year. I began bullet journaling and scheduling out every aspect of my day. I quickly learned that the more I wrote down and scheduled, not only did I get more done, but I also had more time to pursue the things I wanted to do! Basically, when I accepted Hyatt's premise that I needed to execute on my existing opportunities, an increasing amount of opportunity made itself available to me.

Setting and achieving goals isn't usually so scary now. I've gotten in the habit of looking at a large problem and breaking it into tiny, less-than-bite-sized pieces. Just this week, for example...my kitchen has been a disaster this whole holiday season. Every day, my goal has been "clean the kitchen." Besides running the dishwasher so we had clean plates and forks, I was making no progress. Yesterday, I had had enough. I set one goal for myself: clean the range. Today, my goal was to clean two pans that had been "soaking" for longer than I care to admit. I did a little more than I had bargained with myself each time, and tonight I will go to bed with a kitchen cleaner than it's been in a long time. This was accomplished by setting small, concrete goals rather than global, vague goals.

What's a project you haven't accomplished that is weighing on you? What is one small step can you take to make just a tiny bit of progress? I challenge to write down two small, concrete steps you can take towards accomplishing that goal: one step for tomorrow and one for Friday. They can simple, 5 minute tasks. But do them. Then comment and tell me so I can celebrate with you!

Currently Reading: Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions

Currently Watching: University of Texas OWN University of Georgia at the Sugar Bowl

Currently Eating: Sausage and Pepper Bake (Note for Paleo/Keto folks: Read your sausage labels carefully to make sure it doesn't have sugar or undesirable fillers!)

Current Favorite Amazon Product:

Look how fun this is: It's a 5-year journal for those of us bad at journaling. Just answer one question a day and see how your answers change over the years!