The year is nearly half over. How are you doing? Now is a good time to take stock of your priorities, progress, and neglected initiatives. Have beginning-of-the-year “priorities” lost their sheen? If so, why? What assumptions drove them to the top of the list and are those assumptions still valid? If those “priorities” aren’t really important, take them off the list explicitly to eliminate guilt, confusion, and misdirected investments of time and money. Are there important objectives that have been neglected? If so, why? If under-supported, why are they getting insufficient attention and resources? With what are they competing for resources? Who owns them? Are those owners committed to them? How are those owners being held accountable? Has the list of priorities grown? If there are too many priorities there are no priorities. You can’t only add to the list unless real progress is shortening the list just as fast. If the list has grown, cut it now. Turn attention to the top priority or two across the board and ensure some real progress. Don’t allow additions to the list without completing or removing something.
Most New Year’s Resolutions are bad! Which is, at least in part, why most are not successful. Consider the following common resolutions: Spend More Time with Friends and Family Improve Your Fitness Lose Weight Quit Smoking Quit Drinking Enjoy Life More Get out of Debt Learn Something New Help Others Get Organized What a sorry set of vague and distant wishes! No wonder people fail to follow through!!!
The urge to tackle low hanging fruit is strong. People like to see quick results and quick results usually fuel subsequent results. But often people see low hanging fruit in all the wrong places. These may include tidying up loose ends, finishing projects already started, jumping on an exciting new idea, tackling the easy stuff first, and generally getting the house in order.