January is the largest membership growth month for gyms. Nationwide, people have made resolutions to lose weight and/or get in shape and in January they take their first steps. The New Year Resolution.
To achieve their goal of weight loss or getting in shape, people start up in great earnest making the time available to workout or shop differently. By February, 80% of them are gone from the gyms having allowed their comfort zone to overtake their stated goals.
Why is that? Discipline. Weight loss requires burning more calories or consuming less calories or both over an extended period of time. It requires a change in mind set so that the habits of the past are broken and the habits of the future are embedded. That takes real psychological effort, which statistically anyway, at least 80% of the new gym members are just not ready to confront – themselves.
One week into a new plan like the 2015 plan is the first big test for a business owner committed to changing the direction of their business. If you have a plan, it defines the shiny object distractions, clarifies where you will invest your time and your money and holds you accountable for results in timeframes to challenge the voracity of the plan or achieve the results.
Most people fall back into whatever their old practices were, still thinking the tangential opportunity is worth the time to pursue it, thinking that 20 likes equals revenue, etc.
One of the hardest things to do in your new plan is to stick to it and let it play out some. Challenge yourself to hold fast no matter what for 90 days. Trust the thoughtful method you used to create the plan. The sooner you fall back into old habits and perspectives, the more quickly your results this year will look just like your results last year. If you want different results, do things differently. Being disciplined is the only way to lose weight or get in shape and it’s the only way to grow your business.
Now that I’ve talked to business owners, I realize just how important my perspectives on defining the other person’s point of view in advance actually is.
ReadOver the the past year, I largely wrote about change and disruption. I even had a blog about change in March, Pre-Pandemic. Change and disruption are inextricably linked which generally creates resistance to change because it creates disruption. Most people do not seek disruption. It is less predictable than status quo.This past year has been … Continue reading Change, Disruption and 2020 in Review
ReadWe talk so much about disruptive technologies and how positive they are. We rebuild after disaster disruptions, often for the better. What if we treated COVID-19 as a disruptive technology or disaster?
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I read recently that the short term gain (delicious brownie) beats the long term gain (losing 10 lbs.) because the brownie is more tangible. It is right in front of you, looking scrumptious and smelling incredible while there is nothing tangible in those lost 10 lbs. to compete. So the trick is for long-term to compete on an even playing field by providing a tangible example to support your long term goals. Like an old photo of your thinner self on your desk. Or a quote to remind you of the benefit of your discipline. The same can be true of your business goals. Whatever your envisioned success looks like, put a tangible example of that on your desk, your wall or on the floor of your office as a constant reminder of what the discipline Tom describes will earn you.
Excellent analogy. i find listening to Brian Tracy and other motivational speakers helps stay the course to change.
I’ve found that sometimes to succeed in the long term, you have to make realistic goals for yourself. If you aren’t in shape, working out all at once isn’t going to help, it’s just going to make you sore. If you want to see your business do well, you want to make plans that you’re actually going to follow through with. I like to keep a backlog of work so that I can see when I start to slow down or lose motivation and hopefully this helps me to keep a steady pace.
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