I’ve heard more than one writer say that some of what we write is to clarify our thinking. This two-part series on my focus for next year is an effort to refine my thinking as the calendar turns to 2015. If you didn’t read the previous post, you can find it here.
Man plans, God laughs
–Yiddish Proverb
How many decisions do you make in a given day?
- Should I turn right here to miss the traffic light or keep going and hope it stays green?
- I planned to get up and run this morning, but I was up late last night. Should I hit the snooze button?
- My budget for the new car is $250 a month, but the navigation system is awesome, and it’s only $11 a month more. What’s $11 a month?
We make decisions ranging from the inconsequential to the life changing, every day. And for the most part we make them on the fly, with little thought. But what about the important decisions? How should we make those?
Decision filters based on goals have always worked well for me. Most of us use them, but we may not think of the decisions in terms of goals. Want to lose 10 pounds before your friends wedding? Skip the ice cream. Want to save money for a two-week ski trip to Aspen? Go to a less expensive restaurant on Saturday night with your friends.
But what about the goals themselves? What kind of decision filters do we use to decide on our goals?
For the past two years, my measurable goals have been non-existent. Oh sure, I’ve wanted to lose weight, mostly when I catch a surprise glimpse of myself in the mirror, or when my feet hurt after a run. Or, I wished I had the ability to write as quickly as those authors who crank out four books a year. But those are simply wants, not goals. They’re a stimulus reaction.
Deciding what you want to accomplish over the coming days, weeks, months or even years isn’t something that should be based upon what others are doing. These are the important decisions. The ones that require thought, and in my case they’re best made with a decision-making framework. The framework I’m using to evaluate my personal and professional goals are the three words I’ve chosen as my touch points for 2015. Simplify, Multiply and Monetize.
Simplify
I’d love to have a way to quantify the amount of time I wasted making decisions on things that meant nothing to me in 2014. Did I think the new iPhone was a significant leap forward, and if so should I get one? Should I buy a new computer? Is this to-do list program better than the one I’m using now? All these random thoughts require answers and the answers require decisions.
Time is an increasingly scarce commodity in our lives. Should we really spend it on things like evaluating the value of the latest phone/watch combination gadget?
Simplification for me in 2015 means limiting options, making fewer decisions, and saying no a lot more often than I say yes.
Multiply
Since time is limited, generating the best possible results in 2015 will come from multiplying my efforts. Spending an extra hour building a system or a template, which can be used multiple times is worth the effort. Doing something that can only be used once is probably not.
I’m in the creation business, but not everything needs to be created from scratch. As a quick example, a single blog post can be expanded to become a series of posts, which can become an ebook, that can be used as an incentive to get people to sign up for an email list.
Multiplication for me in 2015 means executing on creative ideas that can serve multiple purposes.
Monetize
There are two forms of investment in any activity - time and money. For the past two years I’ve spent both time and money learning the work I’m currently doing, but time is becoming scarce now. I need to be able to multiply (ah, there’s that word again) my efforts, which will require more money and that money should be coming from the work I’m doing now. Not the work I did five years ago.
Publishing rather than creating endless drafts is monetizing. Creating products that add value to the audience of The Author Biz brand is also monetizing. If writing and The Author Biz are to be businesses then I need to monetize the work I’m doing with each of them.
Monetization for me in 2015 means publishing and selling books, as well as the creation and sale of products and services through The Author Biz brand.
Will these three simple words make a measurable difference in what I achieve in 2015? Well . . . yeah - I think they will. There’s nothing magic about the words, but there may just be some magic when they’re used to make the decisions that determine what gets done over the coming year.
Thanks to Chris Brogan for the idea of using three words as a focal point for the coming year and thanks to you for indulging me with this bit of reflection as we move into the new year. And remember, if God laughs at your plans next year, you’re not alone.
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