leadership dot #3028: flexibility

There has been much written about the importance of developing habits that you tend to daily but I think that oftentimes puts unnecessary pressure on people. Jerry Seinfeld is known for his calendar where he placed a big “X” if he wrote a joke that day, but did it really need to be so rigid?

Especially in these unusual times, providing yourself with some grace and flexibility may do more to help you actually achieve your goals. For example:

• Set your goal to reach out to 10 customers/week instead of holding yourself accountable to two per day.
• Instead of saying you’ll read every night, make it your goal to read two books/month.
• Rather than committing write a daily dot, I pledge to publish one, allowing me the flexibility to write in advance.
• Pledge to walk 70,000 steps each week instead of feeling bad if you don’t get in your 10,000 each day.

By building in some flexibility into your goal-setting, you’ll have the opportunity to achieve your end result without the guilt of straying from your linear schedule. In the end, it’s the accomplishment, not the tracking that matters. Take realism into account and give yourself the latitude to stay focused on the big picture, even when life intervenes.