What I learned 90 days later.

A little over 90 days ago I set out to change some personal habits. My thinking was that rather than set traditional goals I should focus on the habits that would lead to better results. What I learned is that some habits have direct outcomes while others are slower to indicate progress. The other thing that I learned is that it's hard to change a lot of things at one time. My plan was pretty ambitious. I identified 12 areas where I wanted to make improvements. It was a rare day that I pulled off all 12. There were some days when it felt like all I did was work on my habits. There were other days when I got bogged down in my task list and felt like I made no progress all.

Perhaps the biggest take away was the power of accountability. The outpouring of encouragement when I announced my plan to the public was incredibly motivating, and helped me get off to a great start. But after a couple of weeks no one really seemed to notice or keep up with my progress. Almost no one that is. There were a few people who continued to dog me when I would not check in or update my tracking sheet. A couple of these friends decided to do something similar and together we encouraged and pushed one another. Accountability really is the secret sauce to achieving your goals.

So how did I do? The first thing I set out to do was wake up early every morning. I was much more successful during the week than I was on the weekends. However, I do feel that I made significant progress. Every morning I set my alarm between 4:45 AM and 5:15 AM. On days when I did not get up early I could feel a difference and I'm glad getting up early has become a habit for me. 

Exercising every day proved to be too much. About 4 weeks into my program I developed a stress fracture in my right foot. That meant I had to switch activities and starts swimming rather than running. The good part is that I found a sport I really love and for which I had little interest prior to starting this program. The bad part is that swimming is much more time-consuming than a quick three-mile run.

I also wanted to have a quiet time each morning. I did great in this area while I was able to do my workouts at home, but once I started having to go to the gym my quiet time was often cut short. I need to be more disciplined about this and make it a higher priority.

One of the areas that was most eye-opening to me had to do with improving my appearance and the way I dress every day. Before starting the program I perceived that I had let myself go and was dressing more casually than I should in work situations. I stuck with the program very consistently up until the last few weeks. What surprised me though was that dressing up every day just didn't feel like me. In business I have always tried to dress appropriately, but that could mean a suit and tie one day and jeans the next. I'm glad the experiments over because this is not something that I want to continue doing every day. I learned something about myself and got comfortable with an area where I think I was letting other people's perceptions have too much influence.

Getting to work first in the morning proved difficult on days when "dad duty" made it tough to beat other employees into the office. Still, I feel like I made a lot of improvement in this area and was more disciplined about starting my days as early as possible in the office.

The areas of inreach, outreach and prospecting were meant to create more discipline around building relationships with existing clients, referral partners, and prospective clients. I had limited success in this area because I did not do a good enough job defining what qualified for success in each category. I think a marketing plan would be a better way to go about improving my results in this area. 

Planning each day the night before is the biggest leading indicator of my success and productivity the following day. This really has become nonnegotiable with me and on the days when I do not plan I can predict a level of frustration and aimlessness that has become intolerable. I would encourage anyone to do this as a daily habit.

In the same way evaluating my performance at the end of the day proved to be an incredible productivity booster. Unfortunately I often failed to close out my day in reflection. This habit and was probably the most surprising difference maker in the whole program. I knew that planing my days would make them more productive, but I did not foresee the impact that reflecting on the day would have. The lessons we can learn from ourselves through reflection and meditation are powerful. 

Reading every day was not difficult for me since I always have 2 or 3 books that I'm interested in. Looking back I don't really think this was a habit that needed much improvement, and I wasn't pushing myself very hard by adding it to the list.

Dieting was something I had never really tried before. I added it to my list out of frustration with my weight and my general fitness level. Logging everything that I ate and counting calories proved very educational. I was in the dark on food nutrition and proper portion sizes. It's amazing how much you can learn when you just start paying attention to things that you do every day. I lost about 15 pounds over the course of the 3 months and I feel like most of it was due to eating habit changes rather than increased exercise levels. This is another area where I feel like I made a permanent habit change for the good.

The biggest take away in the whole exercise was the fact that planning in discrete blocks of time withdefinite end date is a powerful motivator. We can often do things temporarily that we would view as impossible if undertaken permanently. Having a fixed end date allowed me to push through areas that I wasn't very excited about just so I could see the result at the end. While not every change I hoped to make was successful the overall effect was that I got excited about goal setting again. For the next 90 days I'm looking forward to setting just a handful of goals with measurable results and progress indicators. I know that in 3 months I'll be able to look back and see the progress. It's addicting to realize how much control you have over your life and how quickly you can make a difference by looking yourself in the mirror one day at a time and saying “I can do better!”

Comments

[Susie]

I stumbled across your website by accident. I was looking for accounting blogs in my own quest for self-improvement. I am so glad that I came across your website. I starting reading it at the same time you began your journey of self improvement. Reading your goals motivated me to do the same. On the days that I struggled to get up early or exercise, I wondered "how is Joey doing in his quest?" I am glad that you have posted an update! Great job on your improvement.

[Joey Brannon]]

Thanks, Susie. Knowing you are holding me accountable helps a great deal. You've inspired me to publish this quarter's goals as well. Look for those in the next couple of days.

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