“Success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.”

—Thomas Alva Edison

This has been my most challenging entry and brings to mind this story.

A woman once came to Gandhi and asked him to tell her son to give up eating sugar. Gandhi asked her to bring the boy back in a week. Exactly one week later the woman returned, and Gandhi said to the boy, “Don’t eat sugar.” The woman thanked Gandhi and, as she turned to go, asked why he hadn’t said those words a week ago. Gandhi replied, “Because a week ago, I had not given up eating sugar.”

After following my own advice I looked deeply at why it is all too human to get stuck. In the great free e-book What Matters Now, Ramit Sethi says, “we ‘know’ we need to do all kinds of things, but we often need the right defaults—a small nudge—to actually change our behavior.” (p.70)

The following go hand in hand to make things happen:

1. Taking action is key to greater satisfaction at the end of 2010.
2. Getting things done is not the same as making things happen.
3. Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.

1. Remember, context is everything.
2. Develop work plans.
3. Establish the right defaults.
4. Start your day with inspiration.
5. Be accountable.

Context is everything

David Allen’s book Getting Things Done emphasizes the importance of defining long-term and one-year goals to guide your activities. Naturally, we like to cross things off lists, but the key to making optimal task choices week after week is to make them in the context of goals.

Gina Trapani says, “You can reply to email, pay bills, cross out to-do’s… or you can organize a community, take a risk, create possibility. Don’t worry too much about getting things done. Make things happen.” (What Matters Now, p. 68)

Develop Work Plans

Too often the product of strategic planning sessions sits uselessly on a shelf due to a lack of a detailed annual work plan. Use the concept of backwards planning: identify objectives, strategies and monthly signposts essential by specific dates to achieve your goals.

Establish the right defaults

“We love to believe willpower determines our actions. Willpower is important, but there’s more to behavioral change than just trying harder” says Ramit Sethi.

What are the regular support structures and reminders we have to put in place to make sure we make sustained progress towards our goals? David Allen suggests reviewing annual goals weekly and defining specific goals for the week ahead. This supports intuitive choices of action rather than rigid planning structures. Some things, such as regular exercise or taking an RUI course, must be calendared to ensure they get done, even if your goal is greater health or knowledge.

Start your day with inspiration

You get more of what you focus on. As Stephen Covey points out “between stimulus and response there is a choice.” If we start the day focusing on positive outcomes, gratitude and excitement we will have more of that. If we focus problems and obstacles we will have more of that. What is the best way to start your day off with some inspiration?

Be accountable

Each week, check progress toward your goals to decide what you need to modify to stay on course. And, don’t mistake management for micromanagement. Rather than holding subordinates accountable to results, managers too often micromanage the process. This unfortunate approach is totally disempowering.

The same principle applies to managing and holding yourself accountable.

If you don’t have a boss or team with whom you establish your goals and review your progress, identify an accountability partner with whom you can provide mutual support.

I’d like to hear your thoughts about this.