Just FYI, you have 30 days left to accomplish your New Year’s Resolutions for 2011.
30 more days to lost that weight, write that book, have that conversation, take that risk.
30 days to get it done.
How does that feel? Piece of cake? You already did it? Back in June, or even March?
I didn’t think so.
Exercising self leadership means making new decisions about our lives. These new actions will feel awkward, clumsy, scary, risky, unsafe. Sometimes they may even seem counter-intuitive. While it’s not a good idea to let discomfort stop us from doing what we know we need to do, we also don’t want to do anything dangerous or rash.
For example, if sky-diving was one of your resolutions, I’m going to go ahead and tell you to forget about it. Give yourself a pass on that one for oh, the next 150 years.
30 days left means it is time to act. The realizations you had that led to whatever resolutions you made are not merely interesting food for thought. The time is now to show yourself that you do indeed have more options for yourself than you believe you do. Once you do something differently and the world doesn’t end- which it never does- you begin to see the price you’ve been paying to let others lead your life for you. Once you take an action that challenges what you have always accepted instead of supporting it, you realize how much freedom you gain and how much more is possible for you. The energy that you have spent trying to deal with everyone else’s choices can now be spent leading your own life.
It’s called Burning The Ships.
When striving towards a goal, you must focus on what you want to obtain and avoid the impulse to go back to what you know is comfortable.
I know, easier said than done, right? That’s why you “Burn The Ships.”
When Spanish Conquistador Hernando Cortez landed in Mexico, one of his first orders to his men was to burn the ships they arrived on.
Why?
Because he was so committed to his mission that he did not want to allow himself or his men the luxury of entertaining the idea of a possible option of return to Spain for even a moment.
Holy hardcore, Batman.
Okay, yes, eliminating an escape route would probably increase my commitment to the success of whatever is in front of me. But beware the all-or-nothing mindset- Cortez had his men burn ships, not food and supplies. Not letting yourself take the easy way out is totally different from being categorically foolish. Reaching your goals does require planning and forethought, and there is no magic formula that says the more impulsive you are or the more risks you take, the more successful you will be. In fact, the opposite is often true.
Quitting your job with no safety net might sound like a good way to force yourself to focus on making sure that the new company you’re starting at your kitchen table really takes off, but it might also be a fast way to losing your house and car (and kitchen table) if you don’t have resources to carry you through a transition of ambiguous length. Filling up your savings account balance or getting a “journey job” (a stepping stone or position you know you won’t have forever but will help pay the bills) can help bridge the gap.
Author Sun Tzu notes in his classic “The Art of War” that soldiers fight the hardest when they believe their very lives are at stake. This means that when you are fighting someone else, you want them to believe that they have an escape route, so they won’t fight as hard. They will be lulled into complacency by a false sense of security, rather than inspired by urgency and danger. Then you, having the advantage, can win.
What escape routes are you keeping open for yourself, that cause you to not fight as hard for what you want? What do you need to do in order to close those routes in the next 30 days? What would you do if you had 3 days, and no excuses? How about you go do that. Right now.
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