Make Your Own Luck
Lucky streak. Luck of the draw. Beginner's luck. Dumb luck. The English language is filled with little idioms about luck, and many people think luck is the key to success. And I'll concede that in life, there are some things that boil down to just that…luck. But I'm willing to bet that if you really thought about it or sat down with anyone who could objectively be perceived as successful in life, you'd realize that success is about so much more than just luck.
In January, I talked about how creating a process is one of the steps you need to take to achieve the life, business, and self of your dreams. This month, I want to go a little further in explaining how you develop your process in a way that is helpful to you and creates space to keep the momentum and creativity flowing. I call it my Lifeaholic Life Process, and I break it down into four steps that you can apply daily, monthly, or yearly to pretty much any goal you want to achieve.
Step 1 - Dream
Start with a pain point. What does your dream life look like? What's a problem you'd like to solve? What's making you feel unbalanced? This could be a habit, issue, or situation in your life, business, or self that you'd like to change. Let's use the example of always getting home late from work, so you don't have the time or energy to exercise. That's your pain point. Once you've identified the problem, think about what it would look like if you no longer had it. Using our example, you would start getting home earlier, so you have time and energy to exercise. That's your outcome.
Step 2 - Plan
Now that you've identified the pain point and the ideal outcome, start brainstorming what steps you need to take to achieve your desired outcome. For example, how can you make sure you leave the office earlier? Are there tasks you can delegate? Can you create a priority rating for your to-do list so you know which items you can shuffle around or save for another day? Think ahead and decide what you'll do if you receive an end-of-the-day request or if your day is interrupted for some other reason. Where can you start to say "no"?
Step 3 - Test
This is where you'll spend the most time and energy. In this part of the process, you'll follow the steps you've outlined in Step 2, taking care to track what works and what doesn't. You see, Step 3 is where ALL the work happens. It's the stage where you ask others for things, test new ideas, decide on what matters and what doesn't, and collect "no's" along the way to create a schedule where you can leave work when you plan to and feel confident about it. Keep in mind this step takes time! Also, remember that it's important to be kind to yourself if your plan doesn't immediately work. In the testing stage, you're trying new things and figuring out what works best for you.
Step 4 - Perfect
This is the best step! You've dreamed up your ideal outcome, planned your solution, tested it out, and finally landed on the process that will get you what you want. Finally, you're making it home on time and finding the time and energy to get in that workout. In this stage, you keep doing what you've been doing, allowing yourself to tweak your process here and there if things change or something comes up. Then, now that you've perfected the process on this problem, use this plan to start tackling other stuff you want to change.
Luck isn't something you can plan for, so let's not rely on luck to achieve the life, business, and self of our dreams. Let's instead invest in a proven process you can use over and over again to create success!
I'll be talking about this all month long on Instagram, but I also elaborate on these concepts in my weekly newsletter, so don't forget to sign up!