By: D.A. Slinkard
We are just a few days into the new year and I want to start this off with a question – How is your year going thus far? Hopefully everyone reading this is generating the kind of success imagined at the end of 2017. If you are not as successful as you hoped for or you have not even begun to concentrate on what you want to accomplish in 2018, it is time to build momentum in the early part of this year. Too many people derail their weeks, their months, their years, their lives, all because they fail to concern themselves with the right mindset.
I want you to think about everything you want to accomplish this year and make a list of these items. I want you to list this items in the order of importance to you as a necessity for making 2018 a success for you. When you make this list, I want you to envision these items as if you will not fail in your endeavors. Too often we limit our thinking and our lives because we have the fear of failure instead of approaching it with the mindset of “What if I don’t fail?”
This needs to be the year we no longer take the haphazard approach of the “what if.” How many times have you heard someone empathetically ask, “What else can go wrong?” and behold something else adds to the negativity. Asking questions with negative connotations adds no value to our lives or what we want to accomplish.
To build the momentum in 2018, your focus needs to be on activities that help you reach your desired results. As you look at your list and the actions needed to achieve success, if you find an item that moves you further away from your goal or is not producing positive results, then you need to purge that item now. How many times do we quash our own dreams by wasting our time and our efforts on things that bring absolutely no fruit to our lives?
Maybe that should be our goal in 2018 – not to waste our time or our efforts on meaningless things. Seriously think about how “busy” we Americans are with our lives and the amount of distractions we have. We wonder why we struggle to find the elusive work-life balance, but is it really any wonder with the emergence of technology? I can remember the days when the only way to talk to someone on the phone was to call their home number, and if the person was not home, then you would not be talking to them.
Technology has made us readily available through our computers, tablets, phones, even those Dick Tracy smart watches. Although we are available for communication, is this killing our momentum for success? I am going to tell you that it is. How much more successful could we be as a society if we were able to “de-technology” ourselves from our electronic devices? As I write this article, my phone keeps dinging, and what do I do? I stop writing to check my phone notifications; and before I realize it, I am lost ruffling through email after email, text message after text message. This is the same old story for numerous people, and what little motivation was had is lost because of the distractions we must fight against.
Thus, for 2018, with your list in hand, I urge you to make it a priority to “de-technology” yourself so you can have the success in the upcoming year that you desire, and just maybe you will be able to cut out some of life’s distractions. This may be easier said than done, but until you try it, you have no idea what will and will not work for you. If you are able to eliminate just a fraction of the distractions in your life, what kind of improvements could this make for you and your family?
How much more productive could you be in your entire work-life balance if you were able to focus just a little bit more attention on what is going to bring you success in 2018? This is what our resolve must be for the upcoming year; we must look at life as, “What if we cannot fail?” The time to build momentum is now by looking at your list, knowing you will achieve success, and taking action.
By: D. A. Slinkard
D.A. Slinkard is the manager of the Athens Staples store
