More Daily Habits To Make You Stay Resolute on Resolutions
During January we are writing as many articles as we can about new year’s resolutions, building habits, and staying resolute and focused on objectives and key results. Here’s another post on habits and how to stay resolute on resolutions that are inspired by reflections from Conor Oneill who is a sought-after keynote speaker on Leadership. He is Senior Lecturer of Leadership Communications at IESE Business School and is the President of Vistage in Spain.
Conor relies on 158 reflections or series of phrases to stay focused on what is important and to become “The Best Version of Yourself” which I encourage everyone to read and if possible memorize as much as he can because they are all informative, compelling, and inspirational to everyone’s day-to-day life. He lists the 158 reflections into seven categories from which we selected a few phrases to reflect on:
1- Dealing with People
“Never miss a moment to encourage someone.” This is essential to helping others build habits. Good leadership is about acknowledging others’ efforts and celebrating their achievements.
“Communication is measured by what is understood, not how well it is articulated.” Music composer John Powell is quoted for “Communication works for those who work at it”. Effective communication in business, in our relations, and in everyday lives comprises both verbal and non-verbal communication. Sometimes verbal communication is sufficient to convey the message and many times non-verbal actions are responsible for conveying the right message.
“There is no such thing as a ‘self-made man’. Be grateful.” Staying humble is the only way to increase your opportunities to learn.
“Surround yourself with people strong enough to change your mind”. Never underestimate the power of review and critic and how it can shape you into a better leader.
2- Take Disciplined Action
“In the Olympics, nobody wins both marathon and 100m sprints. Focus.” This applies to business strategy in the sense you cannot be everything to everyone. You have to act according to your resources and your core competencies as well as the processes you can employ to satisfy the needs you uncovered and are trying to cover.
“Knowing what to do and not doing it is the same as not knowing what to do.” There’s a lot that can be learned from the book “The knowing-doing gap: How smart companies turn knowledge into action” by Sutton and Pfeffer. Sutton and Pfeffer emphasized that the gap between knowing and doing can be reduced if we know by doing.
“The most dangerous place is in your safety zone.” You need to get out of your safety zone if you want to grow.
3- Accept Reality as it is
“If a problem has no solution, it is not a problem. It is a fact.” A lot can be accomplished by just accepting facts and rejecting fads.
4- Make Progress towards Results
“If you desire a specific effect in your life you must put in motion the cause of that effect.”
“Success is a process, not a product. Work on your process and the product will come.”
“A dream will remain a dream, until it is converted in disciplined, daily action”
Processes consist of a series of actions that need to be followed in order to achieve and reach your endpoint. Those series of actions can transform your resource into growth and profit. Without them, a dream would remain a dream.
5- Stay Healthy
“You can’t be great if you don’t feel great.”
“Daily exercise is an insurance policy against future illness. Best leaders are fittest leaders.”
Daily exercise helps you grow into a healthy and disciplined leader. It increases your endurance, and your will to persevere.
6- Living with Purpose
“Integrity is much more than intention to be honest. It is having a system in place to deliver on your promises.”
“Remember where you are climbing to and don’t just stick to the ladder.”
Purpose reflects on constantly thinking about “why” and the main reason we do such or such a thing. It puts into perspective the values that drive people to behave in certain ways according to a higher call they have inside.
7- Personal Growth
“Ask: “what did we learn today?” everyday.” Developing daily habits brings you closer to achieving greater goals and we don’t have to be obsessed with the importance of taking enormous actions in order to achieve those goals.