It’s Memorial Day here in the U.S. and I want to thank everyone who has lost a loved one who has served in the military. It’s an incredible sacrifice that many of us take for granted.
Because of the name “memorial” day I often spend this week reflecting on the year so far and who I am becoming. We’re not quite to the halfway point of 2019 but close enough to think about how we want to hit the milestone.
This is one of the reasons I love journaling so much. I’m able to reflect with a lot more accuracy without the bias of remembering past actions (or lack thereof) with positive or negative filters. I can simply look at my journal.
I was on Tracy Winchell’s podcast talking about how journaling helps keep me grounded. If I’m feeling high on my accomplishments I’m able to see how recently I was struggling. If I’m struggling I can see how not long ago I was doing really well!
Reading through journals helps me remember that I’ll have great times and tough times, successes and failures. The important lesson is to remain steady and level headed through everything.
Here is our challenge for this week: flip through your journal and reflect not only on your goals and habits – but how you are responding to the challenges and opportunities presented to you.
For me, in 2019 I wanted to focus more on YouTube and create a course on productivity and habit change through journaling. I launched an early version of the course to a small group of readers in January and am excited about the full course later this year. However…
Looking back, I was over-aggressive in my projections since we had just had our second child in December. I also didn’t account for changing companies and jobs in May, which took up a lot of my time.
Here’s what we can do about it: no matter where you are on the path of accomplishment this year, pick one of your goals or habits to focus on in June. Don’t worry about doing everything, just focus on one thing.
Next, choose one small action you can take to make progress on your goal. If it’s journaling more, write one line or a few bullet points. Maybe you wanted to exercise more, so go for a walk around the block or do 10 pushups or air squats. The key is to be consistent. Something small that you can do every day for a week to build momentum.
If you want more tips on how to start small and be consistent, check out my video on Kaizen Habits. It will help you reframe how to make progress without going overboard on effort early and burning out.
We still have a full month before the halfway mark of the year. Look for a new video on OKRs in a few weeks, it was a popular request from my April planning video that I’ve been preparing for you.
Have a great week ahead, and just a reminder that next week look for the June edition of Monthly Bullets. If you have any great books, articles, podcasts, or videos you think I should check out, send ‘em to me!
Take care,
Matt
Photo by Paz Arando on Unsplash