This time of year there is no shortage of messages about how your 2020 is going to be even better. And why shouldn’t it?! You deserve to have a new year that is even better for you and your business.
The plans most people make for any new year – for them and for their companies – often focus solely on the concept of “more”.
You can hear them: In 2020, we need to focus on more sales. We need more customer retention. I need more meetings with people. We need more team events and more focus on culture. Like the personal list of more workouts, more healthy meals and more reading … the MORE epidemic is easy to be infected by.
More works. Yes, focusing on more will get you just that. The challenge becomes the level to which you want to improve and change. Rarely can we create the time to do twice as much of anything to create a massive change. We can do incrementally more but this undermines our results and undermines our desire and motivation for big change.
What are you going to do Differently in 2020?
It is through different, that we create the opportunity for massive change, significant change and outstanding results.
People asked me, when and how, I completed a 65,000 word book. I tried doing more in my week. I tried cramming more into my regular schedule and pressuring myself to get creative in windows of 30 minutes. It failed. I finally said, I need to create a different time window to write where I am free of distraction, creative, energized and focused. I started to ask why it needed to be during my work week. I discovered that early Sunday mornings I was refreshed from Saturday off, keen to write and not bothered by business or family obligations. My writing window became 4am to 8am on Sunday. This is a different approach that cost me sleep but gave me energy because of the progression on the book. Radical? Perhaps, but different enough to be effective.
Don’t ask your team what they are going to do more of. Ask what they are going to do differently in 2020. For them to have breakout results, it means doing their work and thinking about their contribution, differently.
Look at each of the areas of your work and your life that you want dramatically different outcomes in. Now inquire within yourself, what can I do, what will I do, differently to get those results, experiences and outcomes?
Look to the unconventional approaches to your 2020 plan. Figure out what is stopping most people from succeeding and change your approach to be unique. Make it different.
Need a planning tool to help you think differently about 2020? Download PDF
Make 2020 great, and different, so your business and personal results are transformative.
