3 Things Today

What are the 3 Things you are going to get done in 2006?

Every year around this time I start asking myself this question. The exercise of narrowing it down to only three things is actually much harder than it seems. Usually I can come up with a dozen things I’d like to do but of course most of them I never will.

So by really forcing myself to choose only three things I have to think hard about what my priorities are and what I’m going to focus on in the coming year.

Another trick is that all Things are equal in the sense that if I pick one personal Thing (say, spend at least one night a week with my friends) then that can bump off a business Thing (get a promotion). This process of picking and choosing, bumping off good goals for better ones can be agonizing and it always makes me think of that old nugget of wisdom, “You can do anything, but you can’t do everything.”

How do you set your priorities for the coming year?

As usual, Steve Pavlina hits the nail on the head in this excellent article about cause and effect. You know those times in your life when you have been truly, truly ready to make a change and that change seemed to flow out of you almost effortlessly. This concept of being “ready” or committed is clearly the key ingredient to success for any goal:

“Time and again I‚Äôve seen evidence that not only people, but the universe itself, can sense a lack of commitment to a goal. Have you ever heard someone tell you about a goal of theirs, and you can just sense how wishy-washy and uncertain they are about it? They say things like, ‚ÄúWell, I‚Äôm going to try this and see how it goes. Hopefully it will work out OK.‚Äù Is that evidence that a clear decision has been made? Not remotely. Are you going to help this person? Probably not ‚Äî who wants to waste their time on someone who isn‚Äôt committed?”

Be sure to read the whole thing.