I recently tweeted about Heidi Grant Halvorson's February 25th, 2011 HBR post "Nine Things Successful People Do Differently." I think it is a great read for anyone who is trying to Win Today. However, it did make me think that how in the sea of this new era we live in where predictability is relegated with the good ole days and the "knowledge" economy is in, we can be convicted by thought or circumstance of a need to change or improve our present selves. It can go a little something like this...
1 - We may hear a sermon or a media show giving an abundance of compelling motivators and personal agreement to change.
2 - We leave the building or turn off the show with a ball of energy to discover the "new" us.
3 - If the passion makes it through the night, or even past the next meal, we may even go and buy a book or join or acquire a new membership. "And this time we mean it!"
4 - The abundance of reality that makes up the current you takes hold and we fall back into the comfort zone (which is actually our trained nervous system falling back into efficiency).
5 - Guilt and disappointment over our inability to make those life changing "habits" assimilate into the new envisioned you. And sadly, the guilt feeling makes it even harder to start a personal change effort the next time, because your mind is naturally failure adverse.
To our own disappointment, we have all gone through such a cycle at some point in our life. Most of us will never publicly admit responsibility for the lack of change. Usually when asked how our self-advertised change was coming along, we will relegate the responsibility to some outside reason for its failure. But once a new and improved sequence of habits or suggestions emerges at the bookstore or in the mainstream media it can once again capture our passion and we go right down the same path. Now let me stop here for a moment to insert my disclaimer for what I am about to suggest to make your next change attempt a manageable one. If what you are trying to change has anything to do with a medical condition or addiction, please seek the advice of your own primary physician. Let's move on.
The issue isn't how many habits does it take to become the enlightened and efficient you, but rather what is your current capacity for change? You see, we all have a current capacity, or ability to efficiently and effectively perform. If we set out to change a habit or acquire a new one, we first must take inventory of our current condition. I'm a big fan of any habit that can help us discover a more excellent personal and professional life! As a matter of fact, in an effort to increase my win today "W" column I will keep abreast of the latest personal and organizational management trends. Yet, as I learn more about proposed "habits" I find that I have to actually pass on attempting some, or modify them. You see, I don't have the capacity to actually make some of those habits a new norm for me in their outlined state.
For instance, at a previous position of mine I had to attend a seminar regarding day planner organization. Admittedly, organization is not a natural tendency of mine. It wasn't until I worked for this manager who sent me to the seminar (who by the way was the most organized man I've ever been around) that I actually began adopting the organizational skills that I deploy today (fear of losing your job can do wonders). Yet, as I left the seminar with my new passion, planner tools, and education, I was never able to deploy the techniques at half the level of what the seminar prescribed. The reason was that my capacity for such a discipline was juvenile relatively speaking to the prescription that the seminar suggested.
You see, in the athletic world there are 4 principles to change that must be understood before we ever attempt to reach a new physcial capacity. These straightforward athletic training based principles are fundamentals to the physical training world, but to my knowledge, have not been clearly interpreted for the application of the personal and professional management world.
The 4 principles are:
- The overload principle: Any load above and beyond your normal routine (capacity) will be stressful. It takes overload to make the adaptation process begin, but do not overload yourself too much. For example, if you never even walk as a normal routine of your day and want to start exercising, then walking 2 laps around a track will surely be above and beyond your normal routine. If this is you, do not do the new years resolution jinx and run a mile the day you decide to change. You will break yourself. For now, a mile is far beyond your capacity.
- The principle of progression: Capacity will change faster than you think, but will not change overnight. If walking 2 laps was originally above and beyond your normal routine than you will need to progress in some systematic form to 3 laps. In my experience, people can up the load in intervals of one week without over exhausting themselves as long as the progression of the load is realistic.
- The principle of specificity: If we are to change something, acquire a new habit, we must be specific. We can't just run into a weight room and lift sporadically each day.If we are to measure progress, we must focus on one discipline or in the case of athletic training, one exercise. Usually the personal management technique gurus do a great job of providing the specificity.
- The principle of rest: This is often times the largest hurdle for the new habit disciple that wants change NOW! Again, using athletics as an example, I cannot demand that my players perform the same lift at the same load sequentially. I must prescribe that there is at least a day off in between the load attempt if they are to grow their capacity. You see, the rest factor is when the muscle is actually building its capacity since the taxed muscle fibers will heal in such a way that they will be able to operate efficiently the next time that load is applied. Rest and progression go hand in hand.
In hindsight, here's how these 4 principles could have helped my day planner organization change effort. First, I should NOT have measured myself against my manager. His capacity to perform all of those finely tuned day planner duties with an unconscious competence was far beyond my newbie self. While all of those day planner techniques were sound and beneficial, to take them on all at once like I did provided more frustration and distraction to my day than efficiency. I should have prioritized the techniques in an order of relevance (overload/specificity). Next, the progression by which I was held accountable for was unrealistic. My manager required that we all communicate and plan with the methods prescribed by the seminar starting the next day. The accountability was certainly a motivator, however the expectation was unrealistic. Instead of applying the majority of my energy towards my organizational responsibilities and some towards my day planner learning, the exact opposite occurred. I began to measure my success for the day in term of my day planner efficiency instead of my actual employment responsibilities. As I mentioned above, in terms of specificity, I should have prioritized the day planner disciplines in regards to relevance to my job demands instead of attempting all the day planner duties at once (specificity). Lastly, myself and my manager should have reviewed the week's day planner performance to see exactly what I was performing effortlessly and what I was still grinding away at. Then, and only then, we could have come up with a outline of what I should attempt to tackle the next week (progression/rest). Remember, the idea behind any of the habits that the guru's prescribe is to make you more efficient and enlightened. That can only happen if and when it becomes a natural schema for us instead of a constant workout.
The wow factor of an entertainer's endorsement may be inspiring, but the motivation will quickly fizzle if you aren't aware of the key fundamentals to growth. In my own life, I will always begin a change with these principles in order to pull back the curtain regarding workout plans or personal behavioral change initiatives I'm attempting. Inevitably, I will fall off the path to change, but when I look back to the principles it helps me to re-focus and continue the journey. Once you figure out the fundamentals of these 4 principles you can give yourself good odds for change. At that point, it only becomes a matter of how many habits, principles, or suggestions that you have the capacity to change.
Win Today!
Victor
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