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Tip 5 - Developing your inner team to increase happiness
and success
No matter what we are doing, our time and resources are limited. Discovering our goals and moving forward effectively is so important. Finding what you really want to do, committing to accomplishing something and then putting in the effort will mean you'll want to get the biggest return on your investment, in the most efficient way.
So who do you need to be to increase your effectiveness in achieving any of your goals? A somewhat strange question some would say. Perhaps you already have many more resources within you than you realise. Here’s a way of thinking that utilises all the best parts of ourselves to the greatest effect and enables you to create an inner team. Of the various roles we take on in life, some of the more useful roles to adopt that lead toward success are:
Dreamer/Visionary/Explorer (your creative self)
In this role you discover and create the resources needed to generate new ideas. Ensuring you are as clear as you can be about what it is that you are working to accomplish. Use your Dreamer to be sure you know exactly what success will look like.
Designer (your inner artist)
Eliminate as much uncertainty and vagueness as you can. Surround yourself with what you need to stay on track, believe in all the parts of yourself, and stay focused on your goal. Paint the life you want. If you are trying to lose weight, don't fill your kitchen with junk food. If you are starting a new business, carve out the office space you need and surround yourself with people who encourage and believe in what you are doing. If you are cutting back on spending, don't use your free time window shopping. Instead make sure you have frequent reminders of why your hard work is going to pay off for you.
Realist (your inner project leader)
Set concrete measurable goals so you’ll know when you have achieved them. Set a realistic date for achieving your outcomes. Schedule ‘milestones’ for yourself. In other words, identify the dates by which you plan to achieve specific steps towards your goal. This will help you stay on track and recognise the need to make adjustments as you go along (if you are having difficulty achieving the milestones identified).
Life happens and things don't always go the way we planned. Sometimes what you learn from taking action is that you may need to try a different plan. If something doesn't go well, don't view it as a failure, see it as information which will help readjust, realign, and remap your course if necessary.
Constructive Critic (your inner judge)
In order to give your dreamer free reign, keep the constructive critic back to use only on the plan details. Use your critic to ensure you have something exact to aim for. For example, being ‘more’ of something is not a clear goal – no matter what you're trying to be more of (more healthy, more patient, more relaxed, more productive…).
Worker (your inner warrior)
This is the role for implementing your idea. If you have a difficult step to take
or are finding yourself procrastinating, set yourself a deadline. You might decide
to write three pages of your novel before 3 p.m, get to the gym three times before
the weekend, or get your holiday card list organised by a certain date. Deadlines
can be particularly useful when you are struggling to make a decision and are feeling
stuck. Set the deadline and commit to simply moving forward by making a decision
before the deadline arrives.
Pleasure Seeker (your inner hedonist)
High-achievers can be tempted to ignore this
role. It's easy to get so used to having your nose to the grindstone that you've
planned your next project before your current one. Don’t skip celebrating the milestones
and goals you achieve. The pause you take to congratulate yourself and let the good
stuff sink in is part of what will energise and motivate you, and grow your confidence
for your future endeavours. Plus, standing on the mountain top and really seeing
how far you've climbed, is an incredible, soul-feeding experience.
Are there parts of you that seem to sabotage your efforts? For example:
Stick in the mud/Perfectionist (your inner procrastinator)
Nothing will get us off track faster or derail us entirely like our inner perfectionist. Perfection is not something we can often achieve and neither is it usually necessary. The belief that we have to get something perfect before we can consider taking another step is a great way to never get anywhere. Work at developing an awareness of when your desire for excellence is serving you and when it has surpassed any definition of usefulness. There is a concept called the Pareto Principle you might want to consider, which states that 20% of our efforts produce 80% of our results. The additional 80% of our efforts will only yield an additional 20% of results. According to the Pareto Principle, the first thrust of our effort is the most productive use of our time. Spending time on the back end working to make something ‘perfect’ is often time intensive and non-productive.
Do you have all these on your ‘inner team’? You may have more, less or others.
We will look at what enables your team to work together best in the next tip.
It can be difficult to work with all this without help. A relationship with a coach can enable you to build your inner team. Click here to book a free introductory session to find out more.
