Having a plan and being disciplined.

One of the most common reasons I see that individuals or small businesses are successful in their mission/role is that they have a good plan and are making sure they or their team has the discipline it execute it consistently.

Having a Plan

• Make sure it is simple. If it’s too complicated for you to remember, it’s going to be hard to execute even with discipline.
• Make sure it’s clear. Do you have a SMART goal and are the milestones or steps to get there clearly defined? Plans that are broken down into smaller attainable steps are more likely to get finished. Those little hits of dopamine help you get to the finish line when you complete a step.
• Make sure it’s communicated and understood. Having a plan for a team that no one knows about is useless. Everyone who the plan depends on needs to know and understand the why, how and what. Depending on traits and knowledge of your team, you may want to get them involved in developing it!

Being Disciplined

• Plans are no good if they aren’t executed. The key to execution is committing time to perform the actions that will lead to the success of the step or the goal.
• Make sure that time is set for when you will be in an environment or a mindset to perform that action or behavior at 100%
• As humans, we are naturally not so great at self accountability. We are easily distracted away from the hard things. Try working with a partner on the goal or set up an accountability coach. Make sure that individual is as committed or more committed than you!
• Make sure you set up time regularly such as weekly, monthly, etc. to review your performance against the metrics or the goal. This can be a habit tracker, a scorecard, etc.
• Never forget that discipline comes from inside you. There is no tool or trick that can replace that. If it’s really meaningful, commit to it and get it done.

2020 was a year that threw a lot of people off their routine and off of their game. Don’t let 2021 be much of the same, be disciplined, have a plan and execute on it.