Shaping 2010

It is your turn to make something.  There’s a lump of clay sitting in front of you.  Right now it is just a lump.  What it becomes is up to you?  That’s a bit overwhelming isn’t it?  I’m not much of a sculpture and even less of an artist.  I could fiddle with that lump of clay for hours or days and in the end it would probably still look like a lump.  I might want it to look like something but lack the ability to create what I see in my mind.  Most of us do, in fact, lack the ability to make what we vision in our heads become real.  The reality is that this is not caused by lack of skills or ability but instead by the lack of something concrete.

Now you take that lump of clay and you draw what you want it to look like.  You draw some features the final design will have.  Maybe you are going to shape it into a car.  Everyone knows what a car looks like right?  You just might be able to do that without a picture.  What if you wanted to make a GT-R?  I don’t see those everyday, a picture would really help.  If you drive an SUV it might be a lot harder to shape a sports car.  So your first step should be to have a picture of the GT-R.  You then pay special attention to the details of that sports car to differentiate it from your SUV or even a Porsche.

2010 is your lump of clay.  You have three lumps of clay actually.  There’s the business lump, the personal lump and the health lump.  Each one can become what you want it to all you have to do is shape it.  The first step, however, is to put your thoughts down on paper.  Thoughts in and of themselves are fleeting.  They will be gone before you know so it is important to right them down.  Write down what your lump will look like at the end of 2010, go into detail.

I mentioned a GT-R do you know what it even is.  It’s a specific kind of sports car and is in fact made by Nissan.  I didn’t say I wanted a car.  I didn’t say I wanted a sports car or that I wanted a coupe.  I said I wanted a GT-R.  So then I have a concrete goal for my lump of clay.  I know how to go farther into detail.  I might start by shaping the body of the GT-R.  Then add the details of the tires or the hood or the headlights.  These are all the minor details that need to come together to create GT-R.

What are the details of your business that need to come together in 2010?  What are the details of your personal life?  What are the details of your health?  Now pick one of each.  That is your focus for January.  That is your first step to shaping your lump of clay.  It takes 21 days to make a habit.  Here’s your opportunity to make a huge change in your life by developing a habit.  Maybe it’s to make coffee at home to save money.  Maybe you want to do 46 sit ups every day to trim some inches.  Or maybe you need to talk to 7 new people a day to help push sales.  Focus on that thing you need to do.  Do it today.  Do it right now.  Wake up and do it again.  Before you know it, it will be the end of January and you’ll have a new habit.

I’ll leave you with a quote from David (played by Woody Harrelson) in Indecent Proposal:

Louie Kahn said that even a brick wants to be something. A brick wants to be something. It aspires. Even a common, ordinary brick wants to be something more than it is. Wants to be better than what it is. And that is what we must be.

Tagged as: Behaviors, Business, goals, habits, health, personal