Could You, Would You, Did You?

I believe the little voice in our heads needs to fed daily with really great food for our thoughts. Our thoughts create our feelings. Thoughts and feelings together determine our consistent actions. Reading, learning, listening to CDs, participating in great mastermind groups, etc… I know, you get the picture.

Recently I was listening to a series of CDs loaned to me by one of my clients. My clients often give me great brain food stuff – they know what a learning junkie I am… thanks all! Back to the point – of what a gift I received while listening to these CDs.

The most difficult part of planning is the implementation – not the actual planning. There are many things that keep us from doing what we need to do in order to achieve our goals. There’s procrastination, not enough time, not enough money, not enough resources, other priorities, and on and on and on. When working with clients and monitoring activity and measuring results I often hear, “No, I didn’t get that done.” I say this to myself all the time… ”Oh self, you didn’t get that done…you’ll have to reschedule that in.” Well we all know that we DECIDE what to do… no one else. We decide what activities are going to be put into our 24 hours a day. And our achievements are a direct result of each decision we make. We decide what we’re going to do, when and how… it’s all up to us.

Well here’s my big aha moment – by changing the word “didn’t” or “couldn’t” to “wouldn’t”, see how you look at that uncompleted task or activity. Because when we are deciding NOT to do something we’re actually deciding that we WON’T do it.

“I wouldn’t exercise yesterday.”
“I wouldn’t call that client yesterday.”

Try this new word and see if can spur you into action. It’s working for me!

Originally published in Work Better, Not Harder on September 15, 2011