Next time you craft your 365 list for the morning, consider the impact that each of the tasks you write down are going to have on your ultimate objective(s). That is if you have actually written your objectives down. If you have not then stop right now and write down what you want to achieve. As you do so, attempt to quantify your objective. Let me give a simple example, rather then writing down something like “I want to make more money,” you would right down something to the effect “in 365 days from now I want to have earned 1 million dollars.” Ok, maybe 1M seems a little light to you. You may want to increase or decrease the number – but the important point is that the objective is measurable and you know exactly what you are aiming for.
Making more money is easy to quantify – the harder things to quantify are objectives like – “I want to be a better husband and father.” Trying to quantify that might be very difficult. However, could be interesting. You might consider your loved ones’ opinion of you as your measure. Ask them now and in 365 days from now ask them again. Make a big deal about the discussion. Sit them down and ask – “Be honest with me, how am I doing as a (fill in the blank).” Make serious notes about what they say and then you can set your measurable goal. For example, if I asked my daughter – “Daughter, how am I doing as a Dad?” She would probably say something to the effect of – you would be a much better Dad if you spent more time with your daughter. Now I can really set a good measure. “In 365 Days from now I am going to ask my daughter if I have improved as a Dad, because I set out with purpose to spend more time with her.” That measure is simple, she will either say yes or no.
Still measures are very difficult to come up with, but worth it. Once you have established a measure that will track a behavior of yours then you know exactly what to work on and improve each day. Back to money – it is probably not good enough to say “I will earn 1M dollars after 365 days.” It is probably better to insert the word “by” in the sentence. Read it like this – “I will earn 1M dollars after 365 days by …..” What you put after the word “by” will make all the difference in the world. You have to believe it. You have to really believe that accomplishing the behavior following the word “by” that you will achieve the objective.
Now you will have a measure to drive your daily life. When you sit down to evaluate you 365 list, you can evaluate the measures and ask yourself if each task is actually going to increase or improve your measure. For example, if my objectives were to make more money and be a better dad – I would now have very concrete measures in place. I could evaluate the 365 list and ask myself – are those tasks going to improve the measure? Even better question, are any of my tasks helping to improve the measure? If I am not doing something everyday to get me closer to my objectives then something is wrong with my plan.
I am just using examples as they came to me, but what you write down will come true if you have a realistic measure that you can believe in and you spend time everyday evaluating if what you are planning to do will improve that measure.
I really hope you are not practicing the 365 commitment without a concrete plan of what you want to achieve. I am planning to spend some time this morning and do that myself. Although I have a loose idea, and have put some thoughts down – I need to really think about what type of actions and behaviors are going to get me there and how I will measure that every day.
Guy Reams (87)
365 Member
