Five Ideas To Win The Year

 #LeadandLift | Episode 79 | Chabidaye Jaglal Ramnath

Have you ever wondered where the last few months went? Consider how not too long ago, we were starting the year and now we're past the halfway mark. If you don’t consider yourself to have won the year yet, then read on to discover five ideas that you can use. Whether you are working on a side hustle, starting your own business, or trying to hit some big goals that you’ve set this year, you can still make incredible progress if you follow these five ideas. Think about the acronym I.D.E.A.S.

Intention

If today were the last day of the year, what would you want your accomplishments to be? We’re at a critical part of the year where you can reassess your goals and pivot if required. You know a lot more now than you did when the year started. 

Set your intention. It will give you the clarity to achieve your goals. Imagine focusing on doing one priority task each day. At the end of the year, you’ll see that all your efforts will compound into one big win for you. 

Being clear on your intentions, allows you to focus on important things. Apply this today by setting your intention. That intention could be to learn something new or to work on something that will grow your business. Schedule that time in your calendar, even if it’s just one hour per day and focus on that goal.

Decision

When you don’t decide, you decide to do nothing. Meanwhile, life goes on and time passes. Not being able to make a choice holds you back and ultimately wastes your time.

"Not making decisions actually wastes your time and slows you down" - Chabidaye Jaglal Ramnath

To help with that, try out these three tips:

1. Write out the choices. Don’t keep it in your head, don’t ignore the decision. Write down on a piece of paper or on your phone what are your choices for the moment. Yes or no? Buy or not? Move or stop? 
2. Ask yourself for each choice how it will benefit you. Will making that choice get you closer to your goals? If yes, then why do you hesitate? 
3. Ask yourself, who you can enrol to support your decision. Involve somebody in the decision that you’ve made. For example, if you’ve decided to go to the gym three times a week, that will be difficult to do on your own since it’s not a habit yet. Go with somebody who’s already doing it, or be accountable to somebody about your decision and let them help you, remind you, and encourage you to keep going. 

Now if you want to do something, but you hesitate because you believe that you don’t have the money for it, then perhaps a change in perspective will help you actually attain that thing that you want. Instead of asking, “Do I have money for this?”, ask yourself, “How can I get the money to get this?” The latter question is better because it is proactive, the intention behind it is to solve a problem and therefore, it makes it possible to move forward.

Energy

Energy is one of the habits that most successful people in the world work at consistently. In fact, it is the number one productivity secret. You are most productive, effective, and happy, whenever you are most energized. The work doesn’t only get done faster, it gets done with a higher quality. 

Just try to remember the last time that you were tired but had to do a task. Do you notice how long it took you to finish the task? How difficult it was? Or even, how hard it is to think clearly in the moment? When you are tired, it will take double the time to complete a task, and double the effort as well. 

Being able to manage your energy and generate more energy boosts your productivity, and enables you to do more work in less time.

How do you get more energy? Try getting more sleep. Give yourself eight hours and see for yourself how huge the difference could be. 

Another tip is to change your perspective on time management. The truth is that you can’t manage time, because we all get an equal 24 hours - you can’t add nor decrease the amount of time that you are given. However, you can manage your energy and by managing it well, you’ll be able to get more done in the same 24 hours and not feel drained. 

Having better control of your energy will literally boost your productivity and give you increased momentum to propel you forward faster.

Action Plan 

As I’ve discussed, I am a project manager, and over the years, I’ve put more than 10,000 hours into practicing planning and have learned how I could quickly break large goals into small manageable tasks. 

However, I have discovered how this can be a problem for me if I keep it in my head and not write it down. A lot of things could get lost, or fall through the cracks, or not get any follow up. 

This is why I practice sitting and processing the goal so that I don’t miss things. I do this by writing down all the tasks required for me to achieve a particular goal, then I create a sequence for those tasks so that I know how they’re going to flow. 

When you create a plan, you will encounter issues and obstacles; those are guaranteed to show up on your way to achieving your goal. If you write your plan down on paper, it becomes easier to assess your options and make new decisions so that you can pivot or revise if required. 

“Because you already have a plan, it's out of your head and it's on paper, it becomes really easy to assess your options and make new decisions so that you can pivot if required. You can keep moving forward to that goal because you know where that goal is” - Chabidaye Jaglal Ramnath

When you write down your plan, you can keep moving forward because you know where the goal is. When the plan is already set, you would only need to focus on the here and the now, or wherever you are in your plan. 

Another advantage of having an action plan is that it tracks your progress. You can see what’s ahead of you, how much work is there for you to get to the end. It helps you see where the tasks are and where you are in relation to the completion of those tasks. 

If you're working on a big goal and you don't have a plan written down, stop and go create a plan today.

Sprint 

The difference between a sprint and a marathon is that sprints are much faster. In the project management world, a marathon is like a waterfall project. Everything flows from the top-down, it takes months or years before you get to a launch date. 

By the time the project has been completed, the market may have shifted or the customers may have already gone somewhere else because it takes too long. 

By that time, the market may have shifted, your customers may have gone somewhere else, it takes too long.

Now a sprint, on the other hand, is where you build small pieces, and launch it one thing at a time. 

Personally, I set sprints for no more than two or three weeks. In one month, I’m able to do one week of planning, two weeks of doing the work, and in the last week, I can rest, recover, and celebrate. 

It’s better to move forward in your launch every two weeks than to have one big launch at the end of the year. It won’t be perfect, but it will be perfected. Also, it will be useful even in its imperfect state because it already exists and is already working for you. 

I'm sharing sprints with you because it works. It works in large Fortune 500 companies and it can definitely work for you in your small business or in your corporate role. Apply this philosophy in your planning, because this perspective shift might just be all that you need to win the year. 

Gift For YOU!

Do you feel you’re being as productive, influential and successful as you want to? 

Are you struggling to stay focused, to get ahead, or to better influence your team or customers? 

Have you reached a plateau in your progress and struggled to breakthrough to the next level of joy, power and achievement? I can help!

Sign up now for a gift of 60 minutes of High Performance Coaching where we cover the six principles of high performance you can use to better master your body, mind and ability to be more productive and persuasive.

Yes!  I want the High Performance Coaching

 Links mentioned in this episode:

• Chabidaye Facebook
• Chabidaye Instagram
• Chabidaye LinkedIn
• Chabidaye Website