I have a friend who asks me regularly to give her a push to follow through with certain ideas and plans she has. Every time she says it, I have a smile on my face. Not that I like to push people, no. I smile because I realize that I am not the only one who needs a little push every once in a while – a push into the right direction.
Today, you’ll (re-)discover a great little technique to push yourself. A little subtle push to allow yourself to move forward with your personal development plan, no matter how busy you are (for a 101 of such a plan, click here).
Now, just to be clear, I am not talking about a physical push here, I mean a mental push which allows you to move towards and take action on whatever your plans are.
Christine
Imagine you are Christine. Christine is a 34 year-old career women, who has recently returned back to work after a one-year maternity leave to be with the two young kids, a three old boy and a thirteen month-old girl.
Before taking the leave, she had a prospering role as a Senior Manager in Procurement. She speaks English and French fluently. Based on her hard work, dedication and team spirit to collaborate with the colleagues across different countries, she was close to being promoted before she left. She had the privilege to participate at several workshop and training to work on her communication and leadership style. Through these training, she got more and more interested in improving her way of managing and leading in her business, but also private life.
Now, she is back on her old role, as the promising position had been filled in the meanwhile and a new superior has arrived who would like to get to know her better.
Despite having the partner and parents’ support to look after the kids, her need for prioritization and more work-life balance is growing – the days are just too short to do everything and she realizes that.
At night when she is not too tired, she usually reads articles and blog posts in the internet to help her through every day situations, like how to be more productive and how to stay focused.
A few months ago, Christine participated at a self-awareness training during which she was requested to note down some action steps. Being motivated to continue with the topic, she sat down one night after the event and wrote down her objectives for the next months till the end of the year and identified a few things she wanted to do to realize those goals.
Meeting Jason
Yesterday, she met by accident in the supermarket Jason, one of the other participants of the self-awareness training, and they talked a while catching up on their progress. Christine did not feel too comfortable, as Jason mentioned all the things that he had done in the meanwhile.
Christine asked him whether he had a secret. Jason laughed, no, he did not have a secret, on the contrary, he had a very busy schedule too, like everyone else. He said, the only thing that really helped him was to schedule his tasks. Otherwise he would not get it done, and once he scheduled it, especially if it was an appointment with an external party, he had the motivation and “external pressure” to really do it. And that works perfectly for him.
Christine said, “Okay, if it is that simple, I will also find some time to schedule a few of my actions. And I focus on one goal at a time.” She already knew which one, she wanted to start with reconnecting with people that she’d been out of reach with for a long time!
Jason gave her a last little tip: “I actually have a citation from Tony Robbins on my wall in my study room. That helps me not to forget and to move forward each day. You might have heard of it, I will send you the link!”
When Christine came back home, she already had a message from Jason in her inbox, no personal note, just this citation:
“What’s talked about is a dream. What’s envisioned is exciting. What’s planned becomes possible. What’s scheduled is real.”
—Anthony Robbins
Your turn
Now, if you have read this far, chances are that you are also among those people who would like to have a little mental push.
So, act like Christine and schedule one task for the rest of the week, do it now!
Progressing with your personal development plan does feel good, after all! 🙂
Are you done? Great! Share your thoughts below!
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