Normal is not a word I would use to describe 2020 and most would agree with me on this. As we roll in, or stumble, in some cases, to the last 3 months of the year there still is a chance to pull something out of this mess.
By now there should be a pattern of a new normal forming. We have our supply of toilet paper and our choice of facial masks. We know within inches what six feet of distance looks like and our hands have never been cleaner. Life has changed for sure but we adjusted and we carried on as best we could.
Out in the world, there is still lots of opportunity for chaos to erupt and we would have had to been living in a remote cave to not have been effected by what we’ve seen and heard on the news, but our lives must still go on. So I decided to offer up a little idea for you that has helped me in the past get focused and make some real progress towards a goal that I wanted to achieve, and it may help you pull out the last quarter of the year with a personal win towards a goal of yours too.
I call this idea the 3×3 Project and I have written extensively about it on this blog in the past. The premise is simple: Choose a goal, then do three things or actions every week for three months that will move you towards that goal. At the end of the three months you will be amazed by how much you’ve achieved.
A quarter, or three months is not a long stretch of time. You can almost see the finish line from where you stand right now and if you get to the end and are not satisfied with your results, you did not waste a whole year but probably learned a whole lot which will help you adjust your goal to better suit the following quarter. Which in this case will also be the start of a brand new, and hopefully better, new year.
You need to be organized so at the beginning of each week, you will need to decide what those three actions will be. I would suggest you write them down in a note book or journal. The reason for this is three fold. (There’s that three again. Did I mention yet that three is the number of manifestation? You’re trying to create something after all.)
First, you need to get the actions out of your head and onto paper. It’s so easy to change your plans, or slack off by mid-week, if your intended actions are not concrete. Putting them into words on paper does exactly that. You will have created a plan for the week and so all you’ll have to do is execute it.
Second, it helps you form a pattern of progress. For example, if your plan is to start a walking program for better fitness, by creating a plan each week for the three actions you want to achieve, you will be able to measure your momentum and physical improvement. “What get measured, gets moved” is a favourite saying of mine. Writing down your planned three actions for the week gives you a graph of sorts to measure your progress.
Third, planning and writing down your actions for the week gives you control because you can estimate the time needed to achieve each action and plan in advance for any resources you may need to produce or acquire, plus work around other schedules and responsibilities you may have.
Of course you are welcome to plan more than three actions for the week that move you towards your goal but commit to at least three and make them non-negotiable. As the saying goes – fail to plan, plan to fail.
Let’s talk about control a bit more. This is a personal resource that has not been in great supply this year. I can only speak for myself but I had a boat load of plans this year which the pandemic sunk. I have spend the last six months floundering day to day just living life with no shore to swim towards. Now that I am adjusting to this new normal of living within the constraints of a pandemic world, I have started to make new plans to finish up the year. By going slowly and choosing to commit to three actions a week for the last three months of 2020, I feel that I will regain an element of personal control over my life that had been taken away from me in March.
When you feel in control, even if it is just in one area of your life, you bring back power to your being that you may felt you’ve lost. You may also find that by focusing on this area that you are taking control back of, may also relieve a level of anxiety within you that you may, or may not have even realized was there. Who hasn’t felt anxiety on some level this year?
The 3×3 Project is all about focus. When you focus on a goal, even a small one, you apply your energy towards something outside of yourself. Just like the suggestion of writing your three actions every week in a journal makes then more concrete, focusing your attention on a goal outside of yourself gets you out of your head and into your body where real action can happen. You will be doing instead of thinking or worrying. You will be making progress, even if in baby steps, but most of all, you will be moving forward in life once again.
I am putting forth the challenge. Pick a project or a goal. It doesn’t matter what it is, just that it’s something that you can focus on for the next three months and that you can create 3 actions for each week that will move it forward. It doesn’t matter if the goals is lofty or small, business or personal. It doesn’t even matter if the goal is achieved. What matters is that you make an intention, focus on it and get moving again to finish up 2020 strong and with some sense of control over a year that has been nothing near normal. Are you with me on this?