Behind the Mike

It’s that time of the year when we start thinking about the ridiculous concept of New Year’s Resolutions.  Let’s get serious for a moment… why is this limited to the New Year?

One of the most powerful things you can do is shatter your resolutions into quarterly declarations of resolve that have certain levels of accountability and steadfastness involved.  In short, if it ain’t working, what makes you think that doing it for another quarter is going to change anything?  What’s the old bumper sticker?  “If you do what you’ve always done you’ll get what you’ve always gotten!”   Why would you expect different results?

Resolutions are about goals, and goals are about defining the objective and establishing a plan of action.  People don’t or won’t set goals because of four reasons.

1. People are not sold on goals and are afraid to commit, to write them down and to share them with others, i.e. to be accountable.
2. People don’t know how to set a goal.  Answer the questions “who, what, when, where, how and why” and you’ll be 90% there.
3. People are afraid they’ll fail.  Nobody likes to fail.
4. People are afraid they’ll succeed.

If you put the first three in one pile and the fourth in the other, the latter will outweigh them all.  People are more afraid of success than they are of failure.  I suggest that some people don’t give up on goals quickly enough!  There I said it… quit doing it sooner rather than later!  Here’s a novel concept:  I want you to start giving up on your goals every 90 days.  If it ain’t working, don’t keep repeating it!  Start over and revamp, reshape, revisit and rewrite the objectives.

Ninety-day thinking is nothing new in the goal setting arena, but rarely is it practiced.  What if, by design, you tore up your plan every ninety days and started over?  What if you had quarterly resolutions?  There’s no law against it.  I can tell you this… more people have failed on their New Year’s Resolutions than they have on their quarterly resolutions?  How can you fail at something you never even tried?

There was allegedly a Harvard study (some think was a myth) supposedly done between 1979 and 1989.  It made some interesting points about goals.  Graduates of the MBA program were allegedly asked:  “Have you set clear written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?”  The results of the study suggested the following:

• Only 3% had written goals and plans.
• 13% had goals, but not in writing.
• 84% had no specific goals at all.

Fast forward to ten years later; Harvard supposedly interviewed the same members of that class and found the following.

• The 13% who had goals but not in writing were earning, on average, twice as much as those who had no goals at all.
• The 3% who had clear, written goals were earning, on average, ten times as much as the 97% of graduates put together.  The only difference in the groups was the clarity of the written goal they had for themselves.

I’m no Harvard graduate, but when I spoke there years ago, this alleged study was brought to my attention.  True or not, it simply reinforced everything I have come to know about goals.  You have to have them in writing for them to have sustained meaning.

I would suggest you need to take it one step further.  Not only should you have written goals but I think they should be reviewed daily and revised at least quarterly.  Also, if it’s not working, you should have enough sense to abandon the sinking ship and move to a new plan.   As the old saying goes, if the horse is dead, get off it.

Knowing when to change direction is as important in life as it was to have initially established a direction.  Yogi Berra, the great Italian philosopher, once said “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!”  Carnegie once said, “If you’re right 51% of the time you’ll be a winner.”

I agree with both but I suggest you take it one step further.  Knowing when to abandon a failed plan is just as important as the original plan.  Review, revise, revisit, reevaluate and replay the down.

What irritates you is what drives you. What better proof could you ask for than the Presidential election of 2008? People were so irritated with George Bush that they quickly turned to Barrack Obama, no so much because they were for Mr. Obama but opposed to the Bush doctrines.

Further evidence can be found in their similar irritation with Mr. Obama’s policies in his first year. So much so that they elected a little known Republican in what could easily be called the most liberal Democratic state in the Union, Massachusetts.

The great Italian philosopher, Yogi Berra, once quipped that “The trouble with the future is it ain’t what it used to be.” Boy was Yogi right, but why?

The various institutions in society all subscribe to a system that is governed by rules. It could be the rules you face at your job or business. Even if you are self-employed, the people who contract you for various services expect certain behavior.

Rules exist in school, in your religious faith, in your family and in society. Breaking these rules, as we Catholics would put it, could be a venial sin or a mortal sin. In society, it could result in a misdemeanor or a felony. In business, it could mean getting written up or fired. In the Catholic faith, it could mean confession or Excommunication.

As children, we are totally innocent. When my beautiful grandbabies Ashley and Ava come to grandma’s house, they know the place is theirs. Our pots and pans are their pots and pans. In their minds and ours, it is simply understood.

The more comfortable they get, the more rules they are comfortable breaking. I see it as them seeking their independence and establishing their own kind of branding.

When my sons asked about tattoos and ear piercing, my response was simple: Where are you going to sleep? We have rules in this home. If you do not like them, do not let the door slam on your way out. Period.

What really drives most decisions in life is irritation. People will only change when they are so irritated with how things were that they will make changes at any cost.

Thomas Edison was so irritated at reading by candlelight that he set about the process of inventing the light bulb, failing nearly 10,000 times before he got it to work.

The guy that invented the bar code they use at Publix and Walmart invented it in the early eighties. Imagine how ticked off he was that it took nearly twenty years to get into every retail store. Irritation drove it all.

My Aunt Olga used to always double check her grocery bill when she unloaded, despite the fact that she was making her purchase from her own brothers, Arthur and Eli Mack at Mack’s Cash and Carry grocery store. More often than not she found errors in favor of her brothers and always made it right. Imagine how ticked off she was that it took so long for the bar code finally become a reality. Where was it all these years?

Irritation leads to inspiration and to insight and that is the stuff that drives change.

I recently gave a speech to a group called Community Vision in Kissimmee-St. Cloud, Florida. They owe their entire existence as a non-profit leadership institution to a man named Tommy Tompkins, a local builder who became so irritated with the sight of graffiti that he formed Community Vision to combat it. It has blossomed into a much bigger organization with multiple causes, but it got its very inspiration from Tompkins’ irritation. Go figure.

Irritation or not, unless you integrate these new ideas into action, it is all for naught. Most companies, governmental agencies, not-for-profit groups, associations and churches are hung up at this level. They do not know how to manufacture their insight into implementation in the real world.

Our goal in life should be to push for this last step, but the only way to accomplish that is to answer the question of “why” you want to do it to begin with.

When your values are clear, these answers come quickly and easily. No, I will not permit tattoos in my house. No, Aunt Olga would not allow herself or her brothers to be shortchanged. Values clarify and define the actions you take.

Make measurable progress in a reasonable time. How long is it reasonable for your child to spend in the first grade? Answer: one year- measurable and reasonable.