Getting Things Done: Making New Year’s Resolutions a Reality with Worksheet

 

Frustrated with your lack of productivity? In this issue we have both assessment questions and tips that can change your life and help you get things done! Worksheet included

Of the many people who make New Year’s Resolutions, few complete them. This is because people don’t make real change inside themselves. If you have trouble fulfilling a New Year’s Resolution or getting things done, you probably need to work on all the things that help make your character: behavior, attitude, beliefs, experience, thoughts, and feelings. Here are some questions and ideas to help with all of these areas. Start with these assessment questions to map out where you might be coming from when it comes to getting things done. (Feel free to print out the accompanying worksheet)     Assessment Questions     What is your attitude about tasks? Do you love them, hate them, do only the ones you like, put them off, or delegate them to your staff, spouse, or kids? Take a good assessment here because it will tell you a lot about what you’ll need to do to get things done. Are you taking on too much responsibility for tasks at work or at home? Are you in charge of everything at church, and you just realized you’re not the pastor?  If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, too much responsibility may be causing you to feel resentful and passive-aggressive. Not finishing tasks may be your silent protest against others or even yourself for too much work. How did your parents, mentors, and/or older siblings do with tasks? Who were your models? How did you feel about the way they handled tasks? Did getting things done trump relationships in your family? Was it mostly about the doing of chores and acting responsible versus actually connecting to others? Any work-aholics in your background? Were there too many “should’s”, “have-to’s”, “need-to’s”, or “shouldn’ts” thrown at you as a kid? These messages can make getting things done emotionally burdensome. What is actually important to you? What are you highly motivated to do? Where do you see your best performance? What small attainable goals can you reach that will help you get to what is truly important to you? Think of these small attainable goals as daily or weekly things you can do. Keep them simple and clear. Wisdom or Prioritization can shape  your vision, mission, and goals. These flow from your values but also include your dreams. Write down your dreams, crazy ideas, and then go further. Tell yourself you want to do X, Y, or Z within a certain time.  For example, go beyond your original idea of building your company and stretch it to building several companies. Do you have an accountability buddy? A person who will accept you when you fail, hold you to getting a small attainable goal done, and/or encourage you when you feel like quitting? If not, get one. This is where the concepts of task and relationship can come together and create great things!     Creating A Plan     Get a vision, mission and goal statement down on paper. Start with your values and what you’d like to say about yourself when you’re 95 years old. Then bump it up with a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, going beyond what you might normally dream up. Go crazy big, throw out all risk-adversity, and think of something outlandish!     Grow your character: Work on growing up the younger parts of you that may be frightened or holding you back. Write a letter to them explaining to them that you must move forward, grieve the past, and go on a great adventure. Allow these younger parts to write back and express their feelings and what they would like from the adult you. Keep the dialogue going until you reach internal agreement.   Understand wisdom: Wisdom is largely about priorities both on a micro-situational level and on a macro-strategic level. What is your big priority? What is your priority in each individual situation? Knowing what to do, how to do it, and when is important. Understanding the order of things and the small steps needed to create the bigger thing is key .         Know well your small attainable goals (SAG’s): This is the day-to-day key to making wisdom work. By knowing your SAG’s, you’ll create a series of small steps that will get you to where you want to go. Evaluate failure: Most man-made disasters get intensive evaluation and assessment after the event. Why? Good investigations produce results that can prevent future disasters. Guilt and shame are not welcome here. They cloud the issue. But good assessment can answer the question “How?” and help prevent more of the same problems. Give up to Get: Getting things done usually means setting priorities and that often means giving up and grieving something we may still value. But it’s giving up good for excellent that can create so much more richness in life. Really, we do this all the time when we exchange money for goods or services. It’s just that money is easier to give up than time, energy, or other priorities sometimes. Write down what you’re doing every 15 minutes: This simple trick gives you a metric or “speedometer” on your mental dashboard that helps you measure progress. Be careful of the forest and the tree bark phenomenon: If you focus exclusively on the forest (or future) you’ll never see what you need to do today. If you only look at the tree bark in the forest, you’ll be getting things done but may reach the wrong destination. Make a mini-bucket list: If you get so much done or this project completed, you’ll go play a round of bocce ball with your neighbors or co-workers. If you get this or that task done you’ll take your family out for a movie. Get an accountability partner: Someone who will not nag you, but encourage you. It can really help with tasks if you can call them and tell them what you’re gonna do, and then promise to call them back when it’s done. Resources   New Life Ministries: Cloud, Townsend, Stoop, Arterburn, Hubbard, Yerkovich and the whole gang. Rich material for growth at home, church and work!   John C. Maxwell Team A leaership legacy continuing to make a powerful impact in lives and leadership circles   The Leadership Connection: “What keeps you  up at night?”  – A question we ask pastors, principals and other non-profit leaders.   Academic Consulting & Editing Team: Got Dissertation? Got RFP? We do research papers! Research design, proposals and editing. Argosy University certified.     the New Life group   140 Gregory Lane, Suite 250 Pleasant Hill, Ca, 94523   Phone/Fax – 925 798 4551   Cell- 925 351 7240   kithill@aol.com   New Life Network member’s office,  Pleasant Hill   John C. Maxwell Team – Founding Partner & Consultant   Our Staff!   Liana M. Tate, M.S. LMFT ~ Staff Therapist   Liana@5minutewalk.com   Shelly Galvan, M.A., LMFT ~ Staff Therapist   Shelley.Galvan@comcast.net   Kit Hill, Ed. D., Director   kithilleddlmft@live.com

Getting Things Done: Making New Year’s Resolutions a Reality Worksheet   (Link to printer friendly version)   Part 1: Assessment   Review and answer the following questions.   1.      What is your attitude about tasks?  (Example: Put them off, do the ones you like, love/hate them etc.) a.       _______________________________________________________________ b.      _______________________________________________________________ c.      _______________________________________________________________   2.      Are you taking on too much responsibility for tasks at work or at home? If yes, list some areas where you may be taking on too much responsibility. a.       _______________________________________________________________ b.      _______________________________________________________________ c.       _______________________________________________________________   3.      How did your parents, mentors, and/or older siblings do with tasks? (List 3 people and explain) a.       _______________________________________________________________ b.      _______________________________________________________________ c.      _______________________________________________________________   4.      Did getting things done trump relationships in your family?  If yes, what did you feel then and what feelings come up for you now?   a._____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ b.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________     5.      Were there too many “should’s”, “have-to’s”, “need-to’s”, or “shouldn’ts” thrown at you as a kid? If yes, name the person and the obligation (e.g. “Mom said, ‘You should go to college,  or to church, or to the opera’” ) a.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ b.      _______________________________________________________________ c.       _______________________________________________________________ d.      _______________________________________________________________   6.      List three things that are actually important to you. a.       _______________________________________________________________ b.      _______________________________________________________________ c.       _______________________________________________________________   7.      What small attainable goals can you reach that will help you get to what is truly important to you? a.       _______________________________________________________________ b.      _______________________________________________________________ c.       _______________________________________________________________   8.      Write down your dreams, crazy ideas, and then go further. Tell yourself you want to do X, Y, or Z within a certain time.  For example, go beyond your original idea of building your company and stretch it to building several companies. a.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ b.      _______________________________________________________________ c.       _______________________________________________________________ d.      _______________________________________________________________   9.      Do you have an accountability buddy?  If not, list a couple people that you think would be good for the job and why you think having one could help you. a.       Person 1: _______________________________________________________ b.      Person 2: _______________________________________________________ c.       Person 3: _______________________________________________________     Getting Things Done Worksheet II   Part 2: Create a Plan   Now, let’s look at some behavioral, experiential, and character building steps we can take and create a plan from our assessment questions above.   1.      Get a vision: (Part a) Write down what you’d like to say about yourself when you’re 95 years old. (Part b) Then, bump it up with a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, going beyond what you might normally dream up. Throw out all risk-adversity, no dream is too big for this. a.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ b.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________   2.      Understand Wisdom: Wisdom is largely about priorities both on a micro-situational level and on a macro- strategic level. What is your big priority or priorities?  What would be your priority in any important individual situation? Write down examples.   a.       _______________________________________________________________ b.      _______________________________________________________________ c.       _______________________________________________________________ d.      Situation 1_______________________________________________________ e.      Situation 2______________________________________________________ f.       Situation 3______________________________________________________   3.      Know well your small attainable goals (SAG’s):  List 3-5 of your SAG’s. a.       _______________________________________________________________ b.      _______________________________________________________________ c.       _______________________________________________________________ d.      _______________________________________________________________ e.       _______________________________________________________________   4.      Think of two past failures and evaluate them.  Answer the question “How did this happen?” rather than “Why did this happen?”   a.       Event 1: ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ b.      Event 2: ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________   5.      Give up to get: Getting things done usually means setting priorities and that often means giving up and grieving something we may still value. But it’s giving up good for excellent that can create so much more richness in life.  List 3-5 things that are hard to give up but you think would be beneficial to do so. a.       _______________________________________________________________ b.      _______________________________________________________________ c.       _______________________________________________________________ d.      _______________________________________________________________ e.       _______________________________________________________________   6.      Be careful of the forest and the tree bark phenomenon: If you focus exclusively on the forest (or future) you’ll never see what you need to do today. If you only look at the tree bark in the forest, you’ll be getting things done but may reach the wrong destination.  Have you experienced the forest and tree bark phenomenon?  Write about a time, or times, when you got caught up looking solely at the forest or solely at the tree bark in the forest. (Part a & b)  Then write down how to avoid this in the future.  (Part c) a.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ b.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ c.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________   7.      Make your mini-bucket list: List down the fun, interesting or challenging things you can do when you complete a task. Don’t make it too long or too distracting. Short and sweet does the trick. a.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ b.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ c.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ d.      _______________________________________________________________ e.       _______________________________________________________________ f.        _______________________________________________________________