100 Days
Today on the calendar marks about 100 days until the end of the year 2018. That means 265 days have passed. This makes for a great time to take inventory of what you’ve completed this year but more importantly what you really want to accomplish before the year is through.
It’s easy to get caught up in just getting through the final part of the year. Think about it. The last 45 days everyone is dealing with the holidays. Why do you think at the turn of the New Year, New Year’s resolutions are so prevalent? People want to get back on track or they want a fresh start. My goal – be flying into the New Year and simply continue the momentum.
Each year, for the past three years, I have participated in a program called the 100 Day Challenge. This program emphasizes finishing the year strong. It involves deciding on five major things you want to accomplish before the year is over, in other words, five important goals and getting them done!
Here’s an overview of how it works.
Brainstorm and determine your five major goals to accomplish before the end of the year. Once those are selected and written down, determine WHY you want to achieve each goal. Write down three whys and prioritize them. With goal setting in general, a lot of people miss this. They have the goal but they don’t have the emotional impact of the WHY. It’s absolutely critical. Ranger Coaches always tell the pitchers, “If you have a big enough WHY, the how becomes self-evident.”
Roger Clemens’ mother was a single mom and cleaned office buildings in the evenings to feed her family. Roger tells of how he could see her on her knees scrubbing floors and that he didn’t want her to have to do that for the rest of her life. I’d say that’s a pretty powerful why. My whys are not quite that dramatic but they are very important to me. You must determine yours.
The next step is to list five action steps that you are going to take to complete the goal AND the target date for the completion of each action step. Let me add that the actions must be SPECIFIC.
For example, a pitcher may have a goal of throwing 85mph. A non-specific action step is “Improve my mechanical efficiencies”. This sounds good and is helpful but lacks depth.
A specific action step would be “Improve my arm action (forearm fly-out) to 70° in six weeks by November 1st.” Inside of this action step there also could be additional action steps (i.e. use the connection ball 5 days/week. Analyze on video 1/wk).
So once again, the critical components of the action steps:
1) Be specific
2) Assign a deadline – The deadline/target dates are a must. Don’t miss this. For me personally, being my own boss, these set dates are a must. We all work better with deadlines. Think about it, if schools didn’t have a deadline on the start of the day, who knows when kids would show up.
It’s really that simple, select your Top 5 Goals, Identify and Prioritize 3 reasons you want to achieve the goal, list 5 Specific Actions and Target Dates to achieve the goals.
If you know deep inside your being that you’ve got some great things left to accomplish this year or you’re not satisfied with where you’re at right now or you just needed a little wake-up call that 2018 is quickly coming to an end then get a move on it.
If you’re interested in the program I referenced, you can find all the details atwww.100DayChallenge.com. I highly recommend it. There’s a nominal fee for the program but the value is worth so much more. Like I said, I’ve done it for three years now and get excited each year when the time arrives.
Here’s to Finishing Strong.
Go Rangers!
Becoming what you want only happens if you know what you want to become,
Coach Dan