I watched one of my favorite movies last night "Groundhog Day".  I love being a voyeur in someone’s learning process; I suppose that is why I am a coach.  Bill Murray’s character learns by repeating time and creating the ideal day. The journey he takes taps into his true core, what is important to him. First, he explores his base needs including sex, and then he indulges (drinking) by pushing the limits until he breaks through the final barrier by facing death.  He realizes that even doing these things he is not happy. There is no script to life that you can follow, no cookie cutter template.  I think the quote I have chosen as my theme for 2009 really clarifies the idea of life with no script  -

When we shift to getting real with what is important to us then we live our true authentic lives.  When the lead character in Groundhog Day stops pushing and gives in to life he gets to move forward.  He gets to live his next day and stop repeating the same thing.  To do this you need to shake things up, dislodge your habits and look at your programming.  Live your authentic life.  How do you do that? 

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So where does the year of the ox come in?  The buzz about the year of the ox reverberates with this idea of "hard work" so I began to explore the concept of what hard work means to me. The first thought that sprung to mind was I'm already giving 110% how can I give more. What will that do to my health and well being. I love my life and to be honest I have to keep myself in check about doing too much so the idea of doing more didn't seem like an option. So if hard work for me doesn't mean doing more what does it mean. Worker smarter, more efficiently came to mind which lead me to the key to my definition of hard work, consistency. In my last article "Three Questions..." I talk about strategy and explained and emphasized the benefit of consistency. Today I want to explore how it fits into the big picture of your life.

How do you bring that consistency in and work smarter rather than over extending yourself? A great tool in my search for direction, insight and clarification is the idea of going granular. In this example I am talking about taking the idea of consistency and breaking it down like a beat in a scene or a grain of sand out of a beach. Consistency means daily, consistant, habitual and this brings me to daily habits.

Daily habits make up our lives. Hundreds and hundreds of them. Most of them are unconscious so in order to work harder our habits need to work smarter for us. We need to be more efficient but more important more effective with ourselves every day. Effective really seems to add an important dimension to my definition of "hard work"; Effective, consistent daily actions. Habits are action based so the word action also creates a buzz here for me. Another factor to consider is how do you know something is effective?  How do you monitor the effectiveness?

So now in my quest for granular I am going to look for specific things that fit into my definition. My examples are:

• Doing my morning pages - 10 minutes every morning.
• Getting up at 6:30 AM and meditating or as my daughter, Sofie calls it "tating"
• Doing three complimentary session every week.
• Attending one networking event per week.
• Writing in my blog.
• Checking my Facebook wall.
• Sending out thank you cards.
• Calling the people in my network and maintaining the relationship.

What's missing? Purpose! Without purpose, we lack motivation and drive. Why take "effective, consistent, daily action"? Why work hard? This seems to be the kernel of the piece and is a great place to start. What's important to you? What are your core values, hopes, dreams and desires? Why are they important to you? From there, you can compile a list of actions to create daily, weekly and monthly routines that give you the consistency which the year of the ox symbolizes.

If you are stuck, think of your ideal day? Design it and then take some of the elements and bring them into your routine now.

To develop a strategy and for it to be effective you need it to contain specific repetitive actions, like a drip system. A lot of you have heard me talk about the marketing statistics but I will repeat them again. In order to maintain a steady stream of clients/opportunities/sales you need:

• 2,000 - 3,000 people to know what you do (don't worry you don't have to personally know everyone of them).
• 25 - 28 interactions with a prospect.
• 5 - 7 significant interactions with a prospect.

Therefore if you are putting together a marketing strategy it is crucial for you to have a consistent plan of how to develop a network of that size and to consistently put yourself on their radar. Before you run out and rent a billboard keep in mind there are hundreds and hundreds of ways to do that without spending a dime.

We must tackle life like a gymnast, balancing on the high beam as we shift between letting go and structure in our lives.  In this journey of life, to reach fulfillment I believe we must work hard to perfect our routines and then forget the work. Just as a pianist practices his chords and then loses himself in a recital of Chopin.

Happy New Year.