success habits

Better than a Resolution

richflorenceLeave a comment

Over time I’ve grown skeptical of people’s New Years Resolutions. Don’t get me wrong. The New Year is a great time to hit reset. There is no better time to hit the refresh button than at at the start of the new year, especially after a year like 2020!

But most tout their New Years Resolution as if major change will happen compared to the previous year simply by stating it. It is a nice start, but unfortunately it isn’t enough. It is why we only see the head lines and hash tags in January. By mid February, most have already forgotten what their New Years Resolution was and the gyms begin to clear out to their normal spacious capacity allowing easy access to the treadmill and weight machines of your choosing.

Resolutions can work, but only when we make the small changes in our daily routine to make them work. That may seem obvious but it seems to be the steps that most skip. It feels better to state our resolution giving us a temporary feeling of hope that things are going to change even if we know deep down that our future habits will probably produce pretty similar results to our habits from the previous year.

For this reason, I like to approach the New Year with establishing something better than a resolution. It can be small but can be more powerful than any stated resolution. A new habit.

The new year is a perfect time to start a new habit. We may be tempted to start many, but if we aren’t careful our ambition may lead to all our habit seeds burning out with none taking root.

What if we only planted one? What if we committed to one new habit this year? Even if it is tiny. What if we planted that seed and then paid close attention to it and watered it each and every day? What could that little habit turn in to by this time next year?

Resolutions are good. Habits are better.

Happy New Year!

How Much Longer?

richflorenceLeave a comment

We can’t go on a road trip with kids without hearing the classic question, “how much longer?” If the trip is any where near an hour or more we will hear it and probably over and over.

We asked the question as kids too because all kids want to get to the destination faster. Waiting is hard. The interesting thing is we grow up, but we still have these same feelings and emotions of wanting to “arrive” sooner. We may not outload in our whiny voice ask the question like we did as kids, but it doesn’t mean we aren’t thinking it.

Only now it isn’t about asking how much longer until we get to the hotel. As adults the questions we ask are more like:

“How much longer until I lose this weight?”

“How much longer until I’m out of debt?”

“How much longer until I can get my new car?”

“How much longer until my business is profitable?”

We all ask these types of questions of ourselves. We can even start asking them in the annoying, whiny voice like when we were kids. That is not a good sign.

All worthwhile things take time. Patience is so important in life. It may be boring. It may not sound like the million dollar solution, but it just might be. Patience is a sign of maturity. Unfortunately, many of us never seem to grow up. We are stuck asking those whiny questions like a 5 year old. We may dress it up to sound more sophisticated but it is the same basic question.

Why does it matter? Because impatience ultimately leads us to make a stupid decision. It leads us to get the car payment we shouldn’t get. It leads us to make the investment gamble we should have never made. It leads us to try the craziest fad diet ultimately causing our weight to yo-yo even more.

The irony in it all is that our impatience ultimately adds times or sometimes keeps us from ever getting there!

With a little more patience, we tend to make wiser decisions that are better for us in the long run.

How patient are you?