This was posted on the white board at the YMCA where I work out.  In that setting it was meant to remind us about changing up our workouts.  Many people do the same workout every time they workout.  I am sure they like the notion of being comfortable with “their” workout.   They have it memorized, they don’t need a cheat sheet to remind them what to do next.  But the body is an amazing thing.  It is easily adaptable.  After a while your body “learns” your favorite workout that you do over and over again and the benefit from that particular workout begins to decrease.  No wonder that a lot of people complain that they are working out but not seeing any gain or benefit, their body weight doesn’t change, or they cannot lift any more weights, or their time in the 5k is not improving.

The same thing happens outside of the gym in other aspects of your life.  Do you wake up at the same time every day, do you have the same morning routine at home, the same morning routine at work?  Have your work habits become so habitual that you seem to be sleepwalking through them?  If so, look at the results you are getting?  Are sales up?  Is customer satisfaction up?  Are your projects getting done on time?

My email tag line is “You have to be different to make a difference!”  Of course, those of you who know me well probably think that sometimes I am trying to be “different” too hard!  But the fact is, if you don’t change things up, if you don’t create new habits, if you don’t drop some bad habits, if you don’t meet some new people, if you don’t create new processes, YOU WILL KEEP GETTING THE SAME RESULTS!  And that, as Mr. Einstein so eloquently pointed out, leads to Insanity!

So, during this early period in 2008, instead of the typical New Years resolutions, think about just two things:

1)  Doing things differently, not necessarily starting something new or adding a new habit.  Change your schedule.  For example, if you always do email first thing in the morning, don’t check email until 11 am.  Use the first 2-3 hours of your morning to complete projects or make sales calls or have voice to voice conversations with your team.

2)  Stop doing one thing that is negative or getting in the way.  Everyone has lots of things they do that they wish they could stop.  Pick just one and work on that one bad habit or annoying behavior and focus on that until you get rid of it.  Don’t let the rest of the list clutter your mind, just focus on one thing!

Try these two ideas, you should get more productive and effective, and you just might not go INSANE!!!!!!!!!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 7th, 2008 at 12:53 pm and is filed under Habits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.