A few years ago, while doing some personal values work, I found this quote very impactful. Hard work for me has always been something I felt I had to do to achieve anything. I wasn’t ‘gifted’ with great talent in any area in particular. Especially at school. However, once I started to work harder, study more, and put the effort in, better results started to come. This was a lesson I learned around the age of 13. A very valuable lesson that set me up for my version of success over the coming years, mostly. This value, or some might call it ‘work ethic’ was called into play more than ever in recent times. Juggling the day, family life, the podcast & content creation, and whatever else comes my way has been challenging. Without the hard work core value, I’d probably have dropped the ball a lot more. While wanting to maintain all the priorities each day, I wanted to ensure there was still room for personal and professional growth and development. And during the executive coaching diploma work, the idea of taking on 21-day challenges with another colleagues was piloted. For me, it worked great. I recall picking reading 30 minutes every day as my first challenge. Getting up that half hour earlier to read from the course reading list. There is something powerful in this I remember thinking. Soon after that, I decided to do these every month, starting in January 2017. My first one was a Dry January. My first blog post on the site talked about this back in February 2017. During 2017, some monthly challenges went great and some didn’t happen at all. 2018 was an improvement on 2017. A January 5km every day the highlight. But, by god, it was hard work! Then this year, 2019, I noticed a change. While the actual commitment to challenges were still very tough (No Coffee November a standout one), deciding on one and setting it as a goal has become much more of a habit. It’s now just something I look forward to doing each month. Picking the challenge, thinking about how it can positively impact me (or others around me), and making the commitment. Halfway through this year, without too much preplanning, I set up a RoboftheGreen/1% Better group/community on the Slack collaboration platform. Thinking back to the 21-day challenge in coaching class, sharing your challenge and having others help, support, and hold you to account, made a big difference for some, especially as some days were more tough than others. Since then, others have started to make a commitment (to themselves and others) to monthly challenges. And check-in regularly on their progress. There are no rules, no expectations, just a growing group of likeminded people keen to overcome the resistance of the voice inside your head. The one telling you the many reasons taking a monthly challenge on is crazy. Sounds too much like hard work, right? As it’s the end of one year and the start of another, us humans tend to set new year’s resolutions. Many that are too big to take on alone. Ones that require a lot of will power and support. If this sounds like you, just remember that nothing hard comes easy. Go into your resolutions or goals with eyes wide open. Make it something you WANT to or GET to do, instead of HAVE to. And if you need some free support and some accountability buddies to give you that push, you’re welcome to connect in with the group we set up here. Setting the goal is the easy part. Implementing it is the hard bit. It will take hard work. And we can help you with that. Call To Action – Sign up to the group now or anytime and start committing to and achieving your goals link here. Till tomorrow, Rob“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard” – Tim Notke.
