Achieving Success With The Cumulative Effect
My business partner in the whole “MCG Sports Memorabilia” thing, the great Bruce Hultgren, produces a stella e-zine entitled ‘Daily Life Tips’… and the other day he wrote about setting and achieving your goals, in a way I’ve never really heard articulated so well before.
He spoke about ‘The Cumulative Affect’ and it blew my mind…
As Bruce wrote…
If I wanted to change my body shape (which I do) in the next 12 months - then I will have to do something over and over for a time in order to see results - agreed?
Well - we always talk about goal setting for many things - but this for me hit a home run - it is something I can actually measure on a daily basis and check it off - knowing - that if I do it every single day for a year - the results will be there - whether I keep checking or not!
So then I did a little exercise - let’s say I set a massive goal of doing 100,000 sit ups in the next 12 months - surely this will get a fantastic result - broken down - 6 sets of 50 per day. (Or 300 in total when my body adjusts and allows me to achieve this.)
I know I know - you are probably pulling out the calculators to see if I did my math right and also are probably thinking - not me - too hard - that would hurt or quite simply - that is not that important to me enough to set that goal - this is FANTASTIC! Because I have got you at least thinking about it!
So your life tip for today is….
“Set some MASSIVE Cumulative Affect projects that are important to YOU!”
Here are a couple of mine which I will share with you so you can get thinking….
I am reading for 15 minutes a day so I can complete 20 books this year.
I am setting an exercise program for myself which relies on repetition rather than long stretches of time which includes…. 100,000 sit ups, (and all the following done with a stretchy band - exercises for my shoulders, legs, back, chest, arms and lower back.
I am writing Daily Life Tips each day so I can influence peoples lives in some way.
I am going to walk 4368 minutes in the next year. (84 minutes a week - 4 sessions of 21 minutes - doubles as thinking and head clearing time!!!)
I am going to set yearly work goals for activities, I am going to set time off work goals, I am setting coaching goals and the list goes on.
I am currently setting some annual, monthly and weekly goals for the coming 12 months - from this day forwards because I have had a chance to think so much for the past week away from my usual surroundings.
THWAK - Ok - that’s the sound of the ball getting hit back into your court.
In order for ANY of this to get started - you MUST write it down! MUST MUST MUST
Then of course - revisit it regularly to stay in focus and on target.
See, one of the biggest things that stops any of us achieving a goal is that we look at it was one big result… not a series of cumulative actions. Which is all it actually is.
It’s this focus on actions rather then goals (which is also the principle of David Allen’s Getting Things Done, which I will write about in a future post), that allow us to get started and see progress, which stimulates motivation and instills habits.
Instead of looking at a project or goal as a result, try looking at it as a series of small cumulative actions… and if you do those ‘simple’ actions over and over again, the result will take care of itself.
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September 3rd, 2008 at 2:48 am
I like this Pete. Goals really seem rather abstract and misty to me but I can and do plan my day and follow my plan.
What I really like is “focus on actions rather than goals”
Alex
October 17th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
[…] - but more importantly - to let it sink in - check it out here. Yes - I am pretty chuffed!!!! http://preneurmarketing.com/business-building/achieving-success-with-the-cumulative-effect/ Seems like things are building momentum huh? Have a brilliant day Bruce […]