My friend Angie always has the best Facebook posts. I literally cannot wait to see what she will post next! Sometimes it is a hilarious picture, sometimes it’s a “this is real life” kind of quote that is funny to me because I actually live it. I kid you not when I say there are nights that I laugh out loud and can not stop, so Skeeter comes over to the phone to see what has me squealing. In an instant he’s belly laughing too. One night Angie was talking about her pedometer. She was determined to get that thing to 10,000 steps, so nearing the end of the day with a thousand steps to go, she walked around the house, walked in place, stood in place shaking her hips and finally she resorted to making her son wear it the rest of the night so “she” could get all of her 10K steps in! The way she described her ordeal was hilarious. Thinking about her post now, I find it interesting that Angie’s goal to walk 10K steps that day directly affected her focus and behaviour. She figured out a way to “get it done” because there was a payoff. The payoff was the finish line, and crossing it meant relief because (one way or another) she accomplished what she set out to do.
Is pedometer the P word? In case you are wondering, no, pedometer is not the P word I am here to discuss. However, pedometers do go hand in hand with PRODUCTIVITY, which IS the P word that will be the focus of my bog articles for the next month. It’s true, pedometers and productivity are two P words that are related to goal setting. Pedometers have come a long way in the last 20 years. They not only measure how many steps you take, but also the distance you cover, time spent, and even the number of calories you burn. Pedometers make people aware of the amount of daily physical activity they do, and the awareness motivates more activity. Studies have shown that pedometer users walk more than 2,000 additional steps each day that non users and their overall activity is 27% higher. Pedometers are a great ally for people that want to stay motivated.
Productivity is your ally in achieving your goals. Think about how you usually set goals. Do you typically achieve them? Are your goals achieved late, or not at all? What motivates you to accomplish any goal? In working with hundreds of people over the past 20 years, I have found that how people THINK they spend their time and how people ACTUALLY spend their time are often two very different things. People may think they are being productive, when in reality they are just busy. When you truly understand the difference between productivity and busyness, you will see productivity as your ally. Productivity is your pedometer as you set and achieve goals.
Productivity is one of the main factors in goal completion. We can create all the goals we want, but if our efforts are not truly productive, there is little to no chance we will ever achieve them. Goals should not live abstractly in our heads. MIT professor and author of Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours, Robert Pozen reminds us that if we don’t write down goals and prioritize them, we are not likely to achieve them. Productivity actually starts when you create a goal in your mind, write it down and let others know about it. Ultimately, writing a goal down is the first step towards achieving it.
I want to introduce you to a tool for taking ownership of and organizing the process goal setting. In ONE Way Life coaching, we refer to this tool as an O Loop. Take a look at the O Loop visual:
The O Loop is a powerful tool for setting and achieving goals because it is mental, visual and physical. It calls you to answer questions, is visual so your brain captures the image for later recall, and physical because you write everything into an O LOOP workout, print the image and post it somewhere you will see it often. Using the O Loop, you decide WHAT you want, WHY you want it, and HOW you will get it. Create your own O Loop for a simple goal you want to achieve. Write down each step—the what, why, and how— and accomplish it this week. Then reflect on how the O Loop kept you focused and driven to reach your goal.
If you want even more detailed information for how to effectively work through each step of the O Loop, contact me to set up a coaching call. I will guide you as you complete O Loops that will move you from where you are now to where you really want to be! Don’t forget to come back each week for coaching tips and strategies here in my Dream then DO! blog.