By Lisa Phillips, @LisaPhillipsbks
A new year brings a new season. There’s such a freshness about it and how everything suddenly seems like a new start. Habits. Techniques. Implementing new marketing plans. Starting a new book.
It’s all so exciting.
That new planner smell? It’s the absolute BEST.
It’s so tempting to implement a complete overhaul of my sleeping pattern, working out, reading my Bible, marketing, reading, writing, spending time with family, drinking water, and so many more things. To throw out all those set patterns I don’t like, which produce results I don’t want.
The alarm clock will go off, and I’ll suddenly be a completely new person with willpower and self-discipline. Someone who doesn’t drink so much coffee (as if) and gets all their work done before lunch.
How about this instead?
Rather than change EVERYTHING, what if you just changed one thing?
What if you only changed one thing at a time?
That way, you only have to tackle one behavior pattern at once. You’ve only got to work on doing one thing differently. Then, once you’ve decided if it’ll stick or if you don’t care enough to keep the new habit or tactic, you can move on to the Next One Thing.
Cue: my tendency to think about everything in terms of strategy.
What if…
You have a list of things you’d like to do or develop, so you give yourself a period of time to work on that. One month, or 12 weeks. Set a manageable expectation in a quantifiable amount and…see what happens.
Did you reach your goal? How did it go?
Is this something you want to keep doing?
Arbitrarily deciding to change a whole list of things for an indeterminate period sets you up to fail at least some of them. And those goals wouldn’t be on your list if you didn’t care enough to include them.
So what if you chose one at a time and went on a 365 day journey to who you want to be rather than three weeks to epic fail, with some minor success thrown in there? One at a time, you get to focus on success. Some things on your list won’t last, and that’s okay. Some you’ll keep for a season—or a lifetime.
Here’s the difference between success and failure with resolutions and goals.
Do you want the result more than you want to keep what you’ll have to give up?
I can cut out tons of carbs because I don’t care about bread or cereal. I wouldn’t even be bothered if I never ate pasta again for the rest of my life.
Ask me to give up potatoes?
*laughs hysterically* Oh, heck no.
To me, wanting to be thinner is not worth giving up potatoes. If that was the one food standing in the way of me being 20 lbs lighter? I’d get out the potato peeler and start prepping dinner because I don’t want to be thin more than I like potatoes.
If you want to succeed at any goal, you have to want the result.
More than anything, you’re going to have to do or give up along the journey to success.
I want a fresh spiritual life that comes from daily Bible reading more than I want fifteen more minutes on my phone.
I want not to have heart disease more than I want to not get on the rowing machine.
I want to grow my author business more than how much I dislike marketing—so I’ll push through.
I want to get the words down and finish that book more than I want to have to say I failed to meet my deadline.
My values and my strengths drive my Whys. They drive what I want when my life is balanced. And produce healthy desires. Those desires produce healthy habits. Those habits make me better for myself and the people around me.
What do you want?
She’ll give everything to protect her family.
He always knew she was the one.
Veterinary tech Pepper Miller lives a quiet life in Last Chance County. She’s watching her niece until her sister shows up…if she ever does. When Victory’s father demands he take over her care, Pepper knows something has gone wrong. With a new drug in town, and her sister embroiled in a dangerous bargain, it’s up to Pepper to protect the people she loves.
Even if it costs every secret she’s ever kept.
Fire Department liaison Allen Frees lives with the injuries he sustained as a police officer in a raid gone wrong. He’s put his life back together but getting the truck crew and engine squad to succeed might be his toughest assignment yet. When Victory is nearly kidnapped at a community event, Allen steps in to help Pepper keep her niece safe. The one thing he couldn’t fix was the love he lost, but he isn’t going to let Pepper walk away this time.
No matter what walls he has to break down.
Last Chance County returns in this blazing new series from Sunrise Publishing.
USA Today and top ten Publishers Weekly bestselling author Lisa Phillips is a British ex-pat who grew up an hour outside of London. Lisa attended Calvary Chapel Bible College, where she met her husband. It wasn’t until her Bible College graduation that she figured out she was a writer (someone told her). Since then she’s discovered a penchant for high-stakes stories of mayhem and disaster where you can find made-for-each-other love that always ends in happily ever after.
Lisa can be found in Idaho wearing either flip-flops or cowgirl boots, depending on the season. She and her husband have two kids and two dogs.
Find out more at www.authorlisaphillips.com