One Impactful Change
What one thing, if it were different, would have the most impact on your life?
I was having a conversation with a friend the other day and this question came to mind. It’s one that I use in coaching a fair bit, and it can be applied at both the macro and the micro levels.
One client was struggling with workload as he began to take on a new role. Now, as is often the case in situations like this, he still had to fulfil the day-to-day obligations of the old role as he transitioned. In order to be able to release the old role’s responsibilities and deliver for the new role, his main impactful change was that he had to recruit and build a new leadership team.
This question became a great guide for him - in his case, starting at the micro level, building the new team would have the maximum impact on his work life. This then has the potential to improve his work-life balance, and as a result at a macro level, his life overall.
So he made sure that the first thing he did every day was to see how he could advance this initiative - this was his priority number one. Deliver that, and many of the other things would fall into place - or at least he’d have the energy and brain space to start thinking about other things.
This is a big tip - if you have a high-impact activity that you can work on, focus on moving that forward every day, as far as you can. Only when you’ve made as much progress as possible on that day can you move on to other things.
On a different scale, this question can help guide you towards your best future. What one thing, in your life, would have the biggest impact if it was different?
For the friend I mentioned above, it was spending more time on his primary hobby. By having that aim in mind, he could start to look at what changes he’d need to make in his life in order to do that. Perhaps it’s watching less TV, or (pre-pandemic at least), getting a job closer to home to gain back commute time. Or maybe it’s just being more mindful of having the opportunity to practice this hobby.
Having a clear aim like this lets you see whether what you’re doing with your time is leading you towards what you want, or away from it.
Note that once you change that one thing, you’ll probably find there’s another thing, and another thing after that. As humans we’re always striving to move forward - just make sure that your current priority fulfils some sort of purpose-driven motivation rather than something like “if I had a million dollars”. What would having a million dollars enable you to do? That is a more interesting change to focus towards.
So, let me ask you this - what one thing, if it were different, would have the most impact on your life? Write to me and let me know.
When you're ready, I offer 1:1 coaching for leaders who are looking to take their life and career to the next level. Send me an email and we'll set up a time to have a chat.
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