Tag Archives: new years resolutions

What do you need to STOP for the New Year?

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Instead of Starting Resolutions – How about knowing what to stop?

@EverybodysLost.com ©BethTerry.com
Sometimes it isn’t what to start, but what to Stop that counts.

Ten days into the new year and people are rushing around starting their New Year’s Resolutions. Friends are eating healthier, the gyms are packed, people with their Fitbits™ are speedwalking past my office as I write this. Is it always about starting? Or is there genius in knowing what to stop?

It’s a heady time, those first weeks of any new year. Everyone is intent upon doing better and being better than last year.

It’s an arbitrary thing, isn’t it? Like I said last post, you can make any day of the year your “New Year.” People going through AA and NarcAnon do it all the time.

How about approaching the rest of the year with a little different focus?

Instead of listing dozens of things you’re resolved to do, focus on three to five things you’ll stop doing. Look with objective eyes at the obstacles in your life. Maybe stop getting in your own way. Maybe stop worrying what others think. You may find a diet is hard, but choosing to stop eating sugar for a month is easier. (I discovered when I stopped sugar and salt for a month I no longer craved them and it was easy to keep that habit going.)

My colleague Marshall Goldsmith did a retrospective several years ago on this idea. If you’re a leader or manager, it’s worth looking at what he has to say. Here’s a short YouTube™ video from him. The essence is quoted above.

Aristotle reminded us more than 2,300 years ago that habits are the most effective pathway to success:

“We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, it’s a habit.”

As you pursue your New Year of excellence and success, what habits will you develop? What can you stop? What can you start? Be gentle with yourself. Don’t make a list of 50 things. Small bites work. Challenge yourself a little at a time. You didn’t develop bad habits all at once. You won’t rid yourself of them all at once.

~~

Try this:

Pull out that list of things to do and see if you can change the wording ~

  1. I will lose 10 pounds by April 15. I will stop eating sugar for one month.
  2. I will get more exercise and walk more. I will stop sitting on the couch watching TV for 3 hours a night and start dancing more.
  3. I will spend 3 hours each morning making calls. I will stop relentlessly checking the news and my emails as a way to avoid making those calls.
  4. I will work with my team to increase productivity this year. I will stop micromanaging my team and trust them to do the work I hired them to do.
  5. I will get into the office one hour earlier this year to get my day started before the others arrive. I will stop making a Starbucks run every morning and wasting my time and money in lines for over-sugared bad coffee. (sorry, Starbucks fans! <grin>)

See how this works? Instead of some flowery resolution that means nothing, you are actively attacking the real problem. It’s not that your people are underproductive, it may be that you are overly involved in the details. It’s not that you need to lose weight, it’s that you might want to rethink your sugar intake.

These are mine… what are yours?  Let me know your New “New Year’s Resolutions!”

And have a wonderful, productive, happy, healthy, prosperous 2019!

Blessings,

 

 

PS – I have openings for three more speech coaching/mentoring clients! Call now! 602-743-9296!

 

©2019 Beth Terry Events • All Rights Reserved • May be shared with attribution

What do you need to STOP for the New Year?

Posted on by — 2 Comments ↓

Instead of Starting Resolutions – How about knowing what to stop?

@EverybodysLost.com ©BethTerry.com
Sometimes it isn’t what to start, but what to Stop that counts.

Ten days into the new year and people are rushing around starting their New Year’s Resolutions. Friends are eating healthier, the gyms are packed, people with their Fitbits™ are speedwalking past my office as I write this. Is it always about starting? Or is there genius in knowing what to stop?

It’s a heady time, those first weeks of any new year. Everyone is intent upon doing better and being better than last year.

It’s an arbitrary thing, isn’t it? Like I said last post, you can make any day of the year your “New Year.” People going through AA and NarcAnon do it all the time.

How about approaching the rest of the year with a little different focus?

Instead of listing dozens of things you’re resolved to do, focus on three to five things you’ll stop doing. Look with objective eyes at the obstacles in your life. Maybe stop getting in your own way. Maybe stop worrying what others think. You may find a diet is hard, but choosing to stop eating sugar for a month is easier. (I discovered when I stopped sugar and salt for a month I no longer craved them and it was easy to keep that habit going.)

My colleague Marshall Goldsmith did a retrospective several years ago on this idea. If you’re a leader or manager, it’s worth looking at what he has to say. Here’s a short YouTube™ video from him. The essence is quoted above.

Aristotle reminded us more than 2,300 years ago that habits are the most effective pathway to success:

“We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, it’s a habit.”

As you pursue your New Year of excellence and success, what habits will you develop? What can you stop? What can you start? Be gentle with yourself. Don’t make a list of 50 things. Small bites work. Challenge yourself a little at a time. You didn’t develop bad habits all at once. You won’t rid yourself of them all at once.

~~

Try this:

Pull out that list of things to do and see if you can change the wording ~

  1. I will lose 10 pounds by April 15. I will stop eating sugar for one month.
  2. I will get more exercise and walk more. I will stop sitting on the couch watching TV for 3 hours a night and start dancing more.
  3. I will spend 3 hours each morning making calls. I will stop relentlessly checking the news and my emails as a way to avoid making those calls.
  4. I will work with my team to increase productivity this year. I will stop micromanaging my team and trust them to do the work I hired them to do.
  5. I will get into the office one hour earlier this year to get my day started before the others arrive. I will stop making a Starbucks run every morning and wasting my time and money in lines for over-sugared bad coffee. (sorry, Starbucks fans! <grin>)

See how this works? Instead of some flowery resolution that means nothing, you are actively attacking the real problem. It’s not that your people are underproductive, it may be that you are overly involved in the details. It’s not that you need to lose weight, it’s that you might want to rethink your sugar intake.

These are mine… what are yours?  Let me know your New “New Year’s Resolutions!”

And have a wonderful, productive, happy, healthy, prosperous 2019!

Blessings,

 

 

PS – I have openings for three more speech coaching/mentoring clients! Call now! 602-743-9296!

 

©2019 Beth Terry Events • All Rights Reserved • May be shared with attribution

What do you need to STOP for the New Year?

Posted on by — 2 Comments ↓

Instead of Starting Resolutions – How about knowing what to stop?

@EverybodysLost.com ©BethTerry.com
Sometimes it isn’t what to start, but what to Stop that counts.

Ten days into the new year and people are rushing around starting their New Year’s Resolutions. Friends are eating healthier, the gyms are packed, people with their Fitbits™ are speedwalking past my office as I write this. Is it always about starting? Or is there genius in knowing what to stop?

It’s a heady time, those first weeks of any new year. Everyone is intent upon doing better and being better than last year.

It’s an arbitrary thing, isn’t it? Like I said last post, you can make any day of the year your “New Year.” People going through AA and NarcAnon do it all the time.

How about approaching the rest of the year with a little different focus?

Instead of listing dozens of things you’re resolved to do, focus on three to five things you’ll stop doing. Look with objective eyes at the obstacles in your life. Maybe stop getting in your own way. Maybe stop worrying what others think. You may find a diet is hard, but choosing to stop eating sugar for a month is easier. (I discovered when I stopped sugar and salt for a month I no longer craved them and it was easy to keep that habit going.)

My colleague Marshall Goldsmith did a retrospective several years ago on this idea. If you’re a leader or manager, it’s worth looking at what he has to say. Here’s a short YouTube™ video from him. The essence is quoted above.

Aristotle reminded us more than 2,300 years ago that habits are the most effective pathway to success:

“We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, it’s a habit.”

As you pursue your New Year of excellence and success, what habits will you develop? What can you stop? What can you start? Be gentle with yourself. Don’t make a list of 50 things. Small bites work. Challenge yourself a little at a time. You didn’t develop bad habits all at once. You won’t rid yourself of them all at once.

~~

Try this:

Pull out that list of things to do and see if you can change the wording ~

  1. I will lose 10 pounds by April 15. I will stop eating sugar for one month.
  2. I will get more exercise and walk more. I will stop sitting on the couch watching TV for 3 hours a night and start dancing more.
  3. I will spend 3 hours each morning making calls. I will stop relentlessly checking the news and my emails as a way to avoid making those calls.
  4. I will work with my team to increase productivity this year. I will stop micromanaging my team and trust them to do the work I hired them to do.
  5. I will get into the office one hour earlier this year to get my day started before the others arrive. I will stop making a Starbucks run every morning and wasting my time and money in lines for over-sugared bad coffee. (sorry, Starbucks fans! <grin>)

See how this works? Instead of some flowery resolution that means nothing, you are actively attacking the real problem. It’s not that your people are underproductive, it may be that you are overly involved in the details. It’s not that you need to lose weight, it’s that you might want to rethink your sugar intake.

These are mine… what are yours?  Let me know your New “New Year’s Resolutions!”

And have a wonderful, productive, happy, healthy, prosperous 2019!

Blessings,

 

 

PS – I have openings for three more speech coaching/mentoring clients! Call now! 602-743-9296!

 

©2019 Beth Terry Events • All Rights Reserved • May be shared with attribution

Seven Practical~Tactical Goal Secrets

Posted on by — 4 Comments ↓

Achieve Your Goals Strategically This Year!

Goals © 2018 Beth Terry
Goals can be achieved incrementally

Coach gave me life-changing advice when I competed in Olympic Weightlifting. His keyword? Incremental. One Step at a Time, One Improvement at a Time.

Coach Tommy Kono advised us to take it easy if we’d been away from the gym for a week and especially the day after a meet. He’d say,

  • “Start small
  • “Increase weight in small incremental steps
  • “Don’t overdo it
  • “Don’t pay any attention to what everyone else is doing
  • “Compete with yesterday’s achievements, not the burly guy on the next bench.”

His magic words “Next Time” focused us on improvement a little at a time. Next Time I’ll add five pounds; Next Time I’ll do five more reps; Next Time I’ll drink more water with dinner.

This is who we see at the gym in January (is this you?) ~  slightly overweight, gritted teeth, sweating profusely, unsure … But they are there. With grim determination, they work out on every machine available, even if only for a few moments. They get hurt or wear themselves out. A few gymrats make fun of them and they never return.

My Olympic Weightlifting colleagues and I would make an effort to cheer these people on. We gave them advice based on what we learned from Tommy. Our coach Tommy Kono, was one of the 100 Golden Olympians, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s inspiration, Olympic judge and Olympic gold medalist.

Seven Steps to Get You There

Following Tommy’s lead, here are seven practical-tactical secrets for achieving your New Year’s Resolutions,  Goals, Weight-loss Dreams, or whatever you’re working on:

  1. Be Realistic. If you try to lose 30 pounds in a month it’ll be from a hospital bed! Instead, break that into incremental, do-able, execute-able steps and weight loss goals. Two pounds a month, or half pound a week.
  2. Be Kind. You ARE where you are. Oh WELL! You didn’t get here overnight. Love yourself enough to take that first step. Then the next one. And the next. You can do this.
  3. Ditch the Blame. It doesn’t matter if your best friend smokes and that’s why you do. Or your sweetie is a chef (mine is!) and the food is just too delicious to turn down. Look in the mirror. Those are your hands putting that cigarette (food, whatever) up to your lips. Blame is useless and a distraction.
  4. Take Responsibility. This is YOUR life. This is YOUR body. This is YOUR career. Take those daily steps to ensure it will be amazing. Act as if your life depends on it, because it does.
  5. Write it Down. Age-old wisdom tells us the act of writing out goals and plans cements them into our psyches. We can read them daily. We can post them on the fridge or bathroom mirror. Making goals measurable helps.
  6. Get a Goal Buddy. Find someone who needs help with accountability. Work on your goals together. If they’re far away, use Zoom, Skype, FaceTime or some other app to check in daily. Otherwise, get them to go to the gym with you.
  7. Don’t Stop. Just because you miss a day or a week, don’t use that an as excuse to stop. Keep going. Pick it up again. Start small and increase incrementally.

You got this. You can do this. One day at a time.

SHARE – what are YOUR Goals for 2018?

Blessings in 2018!

© 2015 Beth Terry EverybodysLost.com

@Beth Terry, CSP, 2018. All Rights Reserved.

 

Seven Practical~Tactical Goal Secrets

Posted on by — 2 Comments ↓

Achieve Your Goals Strategically This Year!

Goals © 2018 Beth Terry
Goals can be achieved incrementally

Coach gave me life-changing advice when I competed in Olympic Weightlifting. His keyword? Incremental. One Step at a Time, One Improvement at a Time.

Coach Tommy Kono advised us to take it easy if we’d been away from the gym for a week and especially the day after a meet. He’d say,

  • “Start small
  • “Increase weight in small incremental steps
  • “Don’t overdo it
  • “Don’t pay any attention to what everyone else is doing
  • “Compete with yesterday’s achievements, not the burly guy on the next bench.”

His magic words “Next Time” focused us on improvement a little at a time. Next Time I’ll add five pounds; Next Time I’ll do five more reps; Next Time I’ll drink more water with dinner.

This is who we see at the gym in January (is this you?) ~  slightly overweight, gritted teeth, sweating profusely, unsure … But they are there. With grim determination, they work out on every machine available, even if only for a few moments. They get hurt or wear themselves out. A few gymrats make fun of them and they never return.

My Olympic Weightlifting colleagues and I would make an effort to cheer these people on. We gave them advice based on what we learned from Tommy. Our coach Tommy Kono, was one of the 100 Golden Olympians, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s inspiration, Olympic judge and Olympic gold medalist.

Seven Steps to Get You There

Following Tommy’s lead, here are seven practical-tactical secrets for achieving your New Year’s Resolutions,  Goals, Weight-loss Dreams, or whatever you’re working on:

  1. Be Realistic. If you try to lose 30 pounds in a month it’ll be from a hospital bed! Instead, break that into incremental, do-able, execute-able steps and weight loss goals. Two pounds a month, or half pound a week.
  2. Be Kind. You ARE where you are. Oh WELL! You didn’t get here overnight. Love yourself enough to take that first step. Then the next one. And the next. You can do this.
  3. Ditch the Blame. It doesn’t matter if your best friend smokes and that’s why you do. Or your sweetie is a chef (mine is!) and the food is just too delicious to turn down. Look in the mirror. Those are your hands putting that cigarette (food, whatever) up to your lips. Blame is useless and a distraction.
  4. Take Responsibility. This is YOUR life. This is YOUR body. This is YOUR career. Take those daily steps to ensure it will be amazing. Act as if your life depends on it, because it does.
  5. Write it Down. Age-old wisdom tells us the act of writing out goals and plans cements them into our psyches. We can read them daily. We can post them on the fridge or bathroom mirror. Making goals measurable helps.
  6. Get a Goal Buddy. Find someone who needs help with accountability. Work on your goals together. If they’re far away, use Zoom, Skype, FaceTime or some other app to check in daily. Otherwise, get them to go to the gym with you.
  7. Don’t Stop. Just because you miss a day or a week, don’t use that an as excuse to stop. Keep going. Pick it up again. Start small and increase incrementally.

You got this. You can do this. One day at a time.

SHARE – what are YOUR Goals for 2018?

Blessings in 2018!

© 2015 Beth Terry EverybodysLost.com

@Beth Terry, CSP, 2018. All Rights Reserved.

 

New Years Day – an Eternal Truth

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On New Years Day we are reminded we CAN begin again

New Years Day Sunrise Clouds photo ©BethTerry.com
New Years Day: That magical day when we begin again.

New Years Day is a funny thing. In reality, it’s just another day. You went to sleep last night (or in the wee early hours of this morning) and you woke up again. You will gather with family today, or un-decorate the house. Some of you are at work. Some are spending the day getting over a hangover. But it’s still just another 24-hour period of time that you have the freedom to do what you choose to do.

So, what makes it so different in our minds? We humans need demarcations: birthdays, anniversaries, year endings and beginnings. It helps us keep track of time. As I posted in another blog, one of my brand new stepkids once asked me on Christmas morning, “How many Christmases have you had?” (Yeah, smart kid. She was guessing my age!) I told her, and she thoughtfully asked, “Well, how many do you get?”  Even at the ripe young age of five she was marking time.

So – it’s New Years Day. How will you mark this day? How will you begin again to be who you were called to be? What will you let go of from 2015?

Don’t just indulge yourself today in recovering from last night. Give yourself a gift today, the gift of reinventing your future.

Begin again. Write new goals that fit your dreams. Toss out what didn’t work. Reconnect with people you love. Renew friendships with people who have fallen away. Consider forgiving those who harmed you.  Make a list of things that bother you, cross them off,  take the list out to the hibachi and set them on fire. You deserve a fighting chance! Give it to yourself!

And have a delightful, wondrous, beautiful 2016!

Cheers,

Beth Terry

© 2016 Beth Terry • All Rights Reserved