Dear MotionWorks Family:
Happy New Year!! Ready or not, it’s 2019! A whole new, crisp year to start all things fresh. A clean slate to write a whole new story. What will it bring? Surprises, or the same old, same old? Well, part of that is up to you!
With a new year comes some new goals, improvements, or resolutions. Those who know me well know how much I disdain resolutions. Why? Because once they are “broken,” they are ditched, and the person gives up, feeling they are a failure at everything in life if they can’t even maintain their resolution. If you set a goal versus a resolution, one bad day doesn’t force you to throw in the towel.
But it’s harder than that. If you really want to change something in life, make a commitment to a goal. But don’t end with simply the idea of what you want your goal to be. If you want to seriously see this thing through, here’s a helpful process.
- Devise a goal that includes both what you will do and a time frame to achieve it in. Hint: It should be a goal you have been pondering, researching, and planning for a couple of months, not a shot in the dark thought that entered your head at the stroke of midnight, New Year’s Eve. It needs to be important enough to see it through.
- Write it down!
- Break it down into 3 or more smaller steps that have to happen to get you there, and include deadlines for completion for each step.
- Tell 3 other people about your goal.
- Put in the hard work it will take to achieve it.
Keep in mind a couple of important things. Realize that it will take not just commitment, but sacrifice too. Sacrifice of time and money, maybe even purging some unhealthy friendships, habits, or activities that have been constantly derailing you from achieving your goal in the past. Surround yourself with friends, family members, and experienced mentors that will cheer you on and encourage you when times get tough and it seems you might not be able to achieve that goal. They will keep you on your path to success. Will a group activity help you reach your goal? Put together a team that will keep you motivated and hold you accountable each day or week. This way there will be no doubt you will be successful in achieving your goal.
That’s it. There it is. When you break it down, it’s not that difficult, is it? Sometimes we look at successful people and wonder how they do it. They just see this plan through is all. Nothing special, no secret sauce. Just hard work and commitment, especially when times get tough and it seems you will never attain that goal. That is when the successful call on the memory of prior successes, and recognize this place as the dark of night before the dawn. Never give up! That is the simple difference between success and failure.
What are my goals for 2019? I wrote them down in my phone about 3 months ago- right as they came to mind. Feel free to ask me about in 2019, and I will be happy to report my progress towards each- that will help keep me on the path to success.
- Complete my book and obtain a publishing deal (12/31/2019).
- Speak for a non-PT/AT event on patient-centered care (12/31/2019).
- Further develop plan of patient-centered care consulting (12/31/2019).
Whew! Well I’d better get busy and finish that book- just a couple of chapters left to go. In the meantime, enjoy your new year. Don’t forget to take stock of all of the positive aspects of your life to be grateful for, as this lays the foundation of all the good, growing, and learning that is yet to come.
Happy New Year! Now go out there and get ‘em!!
Ambitiously Yours,
Jill
Dr. Jill Murphy
Owner/Physical Therapist
MotionWorks Physical Therapy