How Success is All About the Prep
Last time we laid out how to create goals for yourself after identifying the areas of your life that require more focus. Have you started making some moves towards those goals? I’m not hearing any responses, so I’ll just assume that things are going awesome.
Today, I wanted to talk about some things you can do to help you on your road to success. When it comes to human behavior, we break things down into antecedent, behavior, and consequence. For our purposes, the behavior is the action we need to take to achieve our goal (e.g. save money, exercise more, spend more quality time with loved ones, etc.). Antecedents are the things that take place before that behavior and are the focus for today.
Being a good dad is something important to me. That means being present to play with my son, as well as being patient with him when he’s being naughty and testing the boundaries. At the time of writing this, we just spent the day moving into our new house. Very exciting, but also very tiring. That being said, my 2-year-old son and his limitless energy still wanted to play and be mischievous when I was ready to fall asleep wherever I landed. While he was being mischievous, I found my tolerance running quite low and my temper rising. I realized I was starting to yell, so I stopped myself and kicked a little plastic toy that was nearby.
Not exactly a “Best Dad Award” moment. Since that moment, I had been reflecting on what I could have done differently to avoid it next time.
I was obviously very tired. But what could I have done? It may seem very small, but I could have asked my wife to watch him while I took a 15-minute power nap. Now it seems so obvious, but at the moment, it never crossed my mind.
My answer was simple. What can you change before you do the thing you’re supposed to do? Said another way, how do you prepare for success? In my case, taking a nap would allow me to be a present and playful father.
An example is getting rid of all the junk food in your house if you want to be healthier. People accumulate wealth by automating their savings and having it taken out of their paycheck so they never “miss out” on that money. Some people identify when they feel the best (e.g. morning, afternoon, evening) and set their work around that time of day. One person I follow is Michael Hyatt, and he has a date night with his wife once a week. Some people take ice baths first thing in the morning. Professional athletes have rituals prior to the game/match. This list goes on and on.
These are all different forms of preparing for success. Some seem really important, others seem banal. Some seem extreme, and some seem logical. My hope is that you realize that something needs to change. Remember, in order to have something you don’t have, you need to do something you currently don’t do.
I need to take more power naps when I’m tired so I can show up for my family and others. What change can you make to live the life you want?
Kevin Koo is a professional coach who specializes in personal, business, and leadership development. Contact him at kevinkoocoaching@gmail.com
