That Thing You (Don’t) Do

We all have one, or a few. That nagging thing you could or should do that would make a potentially substantial difference to some realm of work or life, but never do. Or maybe you start but lose momentum because it takes you out of you comfort zone and/or gets lost in the myriad of other ‘busy stuff’ we do every day.

Yet in brief moments of reflection, our conscience or intuition tells us that we could, maybe should do these things – whatever they are. We can deny, ignore, distract-yet those nagging thoughts never really go away in the longer term.

These annoying things that we never seem to get around to need more of our attention. Let’s identify them, ‘hold them up to the light’ and write them down. For there is a reason your ‘gut’ is nagging you about these things. Quite simply, they could make a positive difference to our work, life, productivity, relationships, whatever.

Usually, these things that our conscience and intuition annoy us with fall into the classic ‘Important but Not Urgent’ category of the good old Time Management Matrix. As we all know, what is ‘Important but not Urgent’ tends not to get done, unless it is scheduled. These thoughts or actions usually involve such things as building better relationships, creating or finding new opportunities, longer term planning and strategy, preventative actions, personal growth (e.g. getting training or coaching) or health, fitness or recreations activities.

I’ve had my share over many years, in both my ‘salaried career’ and latterly, business ownership. ‘Write more blogs’ is one of mine! Another nagging thing as a business coach and executive mentor has been the doubt that no matter how well I may have served a client in the moment, how do I know they don’t slip back into old patterns once the business mentoring or executive coaching relationship ends? How do I know better behaviours and lasting insights are truly embedded with my clients?

I’ve taken it upon myself to get more serious about this. How can and will I help monitor or measure that new, better behaviours become embedded for the long haul? I’m looking at best practice amongst the best coaches in the world, embarked upon an executive coaching accreditation and course, amongst other things. I’m still on the journey, but I know by taking action on that ‘nagging little thing’ I will be a better business coach and executive mentor.

So, what is that thing or things that nags you. That thing you know would potentially make a difference that you ignore, or just don’t commit to?

Here is my suggested process for finally actually doing something about the thing/s you would like to do, but never do:

1. Write the thought or action down, i.e. get it out of your head
2. If there are more than one, write them all down
3. Choose the one that you intuitively ‘feel’ will bring the most benefit if you focussed on it properly
4. Make a commitment to yourself (use the honour code) in writing, that you will schedule time to in your calendar to get a start on the activity/action within the next week
5. Commence it, get traction on it
6. Move on to the next most important identified task if you have one
7. Rinse and repeat

Why not make a commitment today to address it and commit to it finally? Once you start you’ll wonder why you didn’t tackle it earlier! What one thing could you start or reignite to bring about a positive, lasting change in your work or life?