The hardest thing for me to deal with from myself or anyone else is an undelivered promise. I always feel very uncomfortable when someone else lets me down, but it is the promises that I make to myself that I don’t keep, which hurt the most. I am sure that I am not alone when I say that I have made promises or commitments to myself that I failed to keep during 2011. At the start of this festive season for example, I made a commitment to myself, to not overindulge like I have in the past, over this silly season. That idea lasted only until Christmas Eve, when the wheels fell off and I am afraid to say has continued unabated until today.
The extra kilogram I am now carrying around my waistline and the disappointment I feel for letting myself down once again, bears testament to the level of discomfort I now feel, as a result of my not keeping my commitment. This seems like a very small lapse of judgement and when viewed within the big picture, is not really that big a deal. Well I believe that the way you do anything is the way you do anything. So even small lapses like this can set a trend in your mind and become the precedent you use when making and keeping any commitments you make with yourself and others in 2012.
Right it is now time to leave 2011 behind and to make and keep all your commitments in 2012 and beyond. Promises can be uncomfortable, simply because you have to keep them, but as they are a measure of who you are and what you value, they must be kept. Whenever you make a commitment to yourself or anyone else, it is crucial that you keep all of them. On occasion promises may need to be renegotiated, but ostensibly all promises are cast in stone and must be honoured.
To turn 2012 into your best year ever it is time to make a few big promises or commitments to yourself, depicting your expectations for next year. Stop hiding behind your fear of accepting accountability, by coming out from underneath your cloak of diminished expectation and put some realistic positive pressure on yourself to really perform next year. You will never become a super achiever and separate yourself from the average, if you continue to live in the half light of soft engagement and you don’t place any realistic, meaningful pressure on yourself, by having huge, but realistic expectations.
Meeting all the commitments you make with yourself next year, must be supported by new success habits. Direct one of your commitments next year towards developing between 3 and five habits each 90 days, which will support your efforts and commitments.
Action Idea: Choose an area of your life you want to improve over the next 90 days. Read 3 books, listen to 5 Audio Books and attend one seminar, all of which are focused on the specific subject you have chosen. Read only the three books you have chosen, as many times as possible during the 90 days, listen to only the five audio books on your commute every day and attend the seminar.
Draw three important ideas from each book, audio book and the seminar. You will now have 25 new ideas that you can apply in your life. Summarise these 25 ideas until you have come up with a super 5, which will become your CODE OF PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT, or commitment you will make to form 5 new behaviours or success habits, over the following 90 days. Use your willpower to carry out these five activities every day. After 90 days you will have 5 new super behaviours or “Super Success Habits” to support your future success.
Turn 2012 into your year for greatness, by choosing to stop thinking small. It is time to accept that greatness comes from accepting that you cannot have complete control of anything. The greatest destroyer of dreams, every year, is living under the illusion that you will not encounter any challenges and that you will be in total control of everything in your environment. Nothing could be further from the truth, even developing better habits and success routines, will not ensure that breakdown or challenge do not occur, it most certainly will.
The secret to succeed on a big scale in 2012 is to have huge expectations, make huge, realistic commitments to yourself and yet know that there will be challenge and even though you will not meet all your commitments in the expected time frames. You will remain focused and driven to meet every commitment you make. Achieving greatness requires you to stretch yourself, to feel some discomfort and go ahead on do it anyway.
Andrew is an expert and master teacher that speaks and teaches self-leadership, expanded awareness, effectiveness, efficiency and productivity. He guides individuals and business professionals, to identify, prioritise and carry out the right activities, consistently, so that they can maximise their personal effectiveness and deliver their best; on time, every time. All the tools and techniques Andrew teaches; have been tested in the laboratory of his own life and the many successful businesses he has owned and led, over the past 20 years. These strategies have seen Andrew achieve financial independence and reach a point of harmonious balance in all areas of his life. His purpose is to help as many people as possible, achieve similar or better results and to show them how they can realise their full potential, both personal and professionally and to help them live a meaningful life, where they are fulfilled in all areas. http://www.andrewhorton.co.za