Doing the Do to Get it Done!

We are closing in on the end of the first month of the new year. Here we are at the end of January and some statistic says that 90% of people have already broken their New Year’s Resolutions.

I don’t know about you, but my “resolutions” are changing all the time. I don’t look at the calendar and say that I am going to use the coldest, most frigid month of the year as my opportunity to start something new. 

If we are going to start resolutions, at least make it nice outside! Who wants to go running when it is -5 zero. 

Full disclosure - I live in Maine and The Aebli Group was started 8 miles from where I grew up. Unlike most people who live here though, this was a full family decision to move back and start a life here. Not one where I never left the nest. In fact, my wife and first daughter moved back to Maine after living in California and Florida the previous 4 years or so.

Regardless, I am not about to take up new outdoor activities or commit to changing to a more healthy lifestyle when the only time reason to be outside right now is to run to the car or bundle up and snow-blow the yard.

Resolutions should be something that you are thinking about and adjusting or pivoting on monthly, if not weekly. The saying is that if you’re going to eat an elephant, you start one bite at a time.

I was fortunate to learn from some great mentors and advisors when I was younger that a resolution really has 3 parts. 

The first part is the most sexy. It is some far away, never before seen, pot of gold, or 18 year old me size 42 suit. Typically this goal is something we have seen on TV or that society tells us we should aspire to.

The second part it often over looked, but arguably the most important part. The work necessary to reach that goal is really the key to completion. The problem here is that, when you create the pot of gold goals, very rarely is their a planned or proven blue print to follow that will get you to the giant beach house or the very fast car.

Lastly, in my opinion, this is the absolute most difficult step in getting to the pot of gold goal. The truth is, the hardest part to reaching your goal or keeping your resolution is getting started. That very first step. What do you do immediately to get there? 

If you want the giant house or Formula One race car, you need to earn more money. Where the idea of the goal and pot of gold goal get messed up is the means of how to get there. The goal isn’t really about the house or the car, it is about being better at what you’re doing now that will afford you the opportunity to buy those things.

Inherently we are taught to create goals that are not realistic or even possible because in order to get there, you need to turn all of your focus on the task at hand to earn more money or be a better person so that as a reward, you can achieve those material things or reach personal fulfillment. 

Which brings me all the way back to the beginning. My resolutions and goals change all the time. As I continue to knock items off my list, the pot of gold changes into other things or personal achievements. I want to be a better husband, father, Christian, son, brother, leader, boss and friend. What I get excited about is the work it takes to get these things done. 

What I really relish is that first step. Starting the journey and getting the work done. The accomplishment is that the work is really never done. 

As you take a look at your life and your business, one of the things that I want this site to become and evolve into is an opportunity for you to see the Proven Profitable steps that we have been show and taken and apply them to your projects. It doesn’t make any sense to make the same mistakes as others that have come before you.

The truth is, that our business and your business are not different. Fundamentally, businesses are all the same. The goals, although different materially, are to provide a better life for yourself and others. The ones that are truly successful are able to create systems and platforms that allow others to have the path paved before them so that they can focus on the next barriers to knock down.

To get started, take that first step and plan the next one. Look for people that have come before you and hold yourself accountable to meet those milestones and accomplishments along the way. As you get closer to reaching that end goal, that is when you realize that there is something bigger out there for you to reach for next. 

I promise that not all of these posts will be philosophical, but I felt the first one should lay the ground work for where we are headed and what The Aebli Group is all about - Doing the Do to Get it Done! #ProvenProfitable