The good news is that the game is still on. There is still that chance, the last lap to victory still holds good. Why not brush the dust off those aspirations that you had, those ideas you wanted to put into action, the kilos you wanted to shed off, the hobby you wanted to take up, the strength you wanted to regain physically and emotionally, and more? Why not end this year with the resonating echoes of the word “done!”? That would be the best goodbye to the year that you had welcomed with the vision of a new world for yourself.

Here’s a plan to change things around

Go ahead and use the next six weeks to re-align your life to keep distractions at bay. Set a DND on your Whatsapp and other meaningless messengers and get cracking on the goals you had charted out for yourself. Attention creates realities. Distraction only leads to confusion. It’s not too late yet. Ask any sales team and they’ll tell you that the maximum deals are closed in the last two days of the month. Do you recall the difference the last minute study made to your grades? It’s the last minute pressure that sets off the “magic button” to performance.

Ask any sales team and they’ll tell you that the maximum deals are closed in the last two days of the month

This is the time to believe in the philosophy of “Ask and you shall receive”. Don’t hold back, go all out and ask: ask for business, ask for help, ask for ideas. Share your purpose and also share your urgency. People like to help, but don’t impose and disturb. Ask with grace, and with gratitude, whether that help is granted or not. Some people will join hands with you and support you, while others’ hands would be tied for reasons beyond their control. Be graceful and be grateful to both. What have you got to lose, when you have not won the race yet?

Make some time for yourself

The one thing most people postulate at the beginning of the year is to make time for themselves. In the busy world, the growing numbers and the towering expectations from others, whether at work or at home, we tend to forget ourselves and become a work machine. Make time for yourself, starting now. Considering the pressures are high at the last lap of your race, if you can make some time now, you will be able to sustain it out of habit in the year to come. If you can’t do it now, you certainly will fail at it the next year too. Things are not going to get easier. You have to adjust things according to your desires. Invest some of your time in yourself; read a book, take up yoga, join the gym, take daily walks, or just be.

Use the festive time to create and forge connections

It would be a great way to end the year with warmth and support. If there was one thing you can build on now, which will give you guaranteed rewards in the future, it would be good relations with people. Invest in relationships. Work is an opportunity to make a new friend, to build a mutually beneficial relationship. Even if the opportunity for business eludes you at the moment, build that relationship for a future possibility. If relationship building is the foundation of business success in today’s changing economy, build that now. You both stand to gain.

If there was one thing you can build on now, which will give you guaranteed rewards in the future, it would be good relations with people

2017 will be about synergies, gear up for it. Create your think tank, your professional and personal pool of intelligence. Use the festive season to make connections and collaborations. When the cheer is in the air, it’s easier to get people’s support. Invite and involve people in your purpose and your goals. When you share your dreams and aspirations with people, you inspire them to take charge of their own too. When people are inspired, and if they find you at the source of that inspiration, they will maintain the connect and continue the support.

2016 will end and 2017 will arrive, that’s a certainty. Whether you will have accomplished what you had set out to achieve is the doubt you want to dissuade from becoming your destiny.

Hope for a better future is always there. It is there now, as it will present itself on the 1^st of January yet again. What you can do tomorrow, you can certainly do today. Instead of putting all your stakes in hope, invest some time in action now and make it come true.

The goals and resolutions you made in the beginning of the year were your goals, your resolutions. No one asked you to make them; your heart urged you in that direction. Success and achievement is therefore not an option, it’s a must—for your sake! They call it the last lap to victory for a reason, because there is victory at the end of the race; finish it, get there and may 2016 be the year of fulfilment and glory, just as you had envisioned it.

A version of this was first published in the November 2015 issue of Complete Wellbeing.

The post There’s still time to fulfill your New Year’s resolutions appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Published by: Crown Business

ISBN: 978-0804141239

Pages: 272

Price: INR 1219

Face it: At some point in your life, you have set goals for changing certain behaviours in yourself, and failed to follow through to achieve the results you envisioned. Perhaps you wanted to be a better neighbour, or not raise your voices at your children—whatever it is, you are able to easily identify what you want to change about your behaviour, but somehow, are unable to effect the change. In Triggers, leadership coach Marshall Goldsmith takes a look at why most people find it difficult to change their behaviours as he offers practical suggestions to overcome the obstacles.

The book is laid out in four parts. In part one, “Why Don’t We Become the Person We Want to Be?”, the author explains that it is easy to find excuses and blame circumstances for our inability to change our behaviour. Our reactions are impulsive, not thoughtful. For those of you who have identified the behaviour you want to change, and are motivated, the author encourages you to find the triggers, both internal and external, that are holding you back.

In part two, “Try”, the author introduces the acronym AIWATT: Am I Willing, At This Time to make the investment required to make a positive difference on this topic? Every time you are faced with a choice to either engage or to “let it go”, the author encourages you to ask yourself the AIWATT question as a first principle to become the person you want to be. The answer to that question at the given time, under the given circumstances, will determine how you react to that situation, thereby helping you create the behavioural change you aspire.

In part three, “More Structure, Please”, you learn that structure not only increases your chances of success, it makes you more efficient at it. Not all structures are the same, so you must arrive at what works for you in the given situation. When you make a shopping list, you impose a structure by clearly stating what you need to buy and what you don’t. You schedule your appointments on your calendars and set reminders to impose structure on your daily life. Yet, when it comes to interpersonal interactions, or your own reactions, you prefer to wing it and go with your instincts, hindering your attempts at changing your behaviours in a thoughtful and structured way.

The author also points out that your environment constantly conspires against you and depletes you. Perhaps a big part of your day is pacifying irate customers, or perhaps you sit in a too-long meeting without accomplishing much, or you battle with technology all day to get even simple jobs done. All of this drains you, depletes you, leaving you prone to less prudent actions that you might regret.

The book suggests that there is an infinitesimal ‘space’ between a trigger and your reflexive response. If you can learn to recognise this space and increase it to allow for awareness and choice, you can learn to redirect your impulse to arrive at an appropriate response. When you transform your thoughtless impulsive response to a thoughtful chosen response, you begin to achieve the change you want.

In the last part, “No Regrets”, the author asks you to imagine what a drudgery it would be to go through life never changing the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the social and political views you hold. You know that change is the only constant thing in life. Yet, when it comes to changing how you treat people or how you interact with others, you wear the badge of changelessness with pride. You tell yourself: “This is who I am.”

When you cling to a negative behaviour that affects you and the ones you love, you are choosing to be miserable and make others miserable too. The book concludes by asking you to think about one change that you won’t regret later on. Be it the scolding response to your misbehaving child, or the sarcastic remark you are quick to blurt out—if you can change one thing and continue doing it forever without regretting it, now is the time to do it.

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