Debra Chantry-Taylor: Start the Year Off Right: No More Broken New Year’s Resolutions

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:00 

Let's not faff about your New Year's resolutions fail because they're built on these things, the vibes, the excitement, possibly a hangover and absolutely zero infrastructure. It's like announcing you're going to run a marathon simply because you bought trainers, which is, as we know, exactly what people do if your resolution requires motivation to survive, I would probably suggest that it is doomed because motivation is fickle. Structure is loyal. 

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:33 

Welcome back to another episode of Better Business, better life. Happy New Year to you. I'm your host, Debra Chantry-Taylor, Taylor, and I'm passionate about helping entrepreneurs lead their ideal life by creating a better business. And today I'm going to be tackling new year's resolutions, or what I like to call the annual self deception ritual. It's always the same. Every entrepreneur says the same thing in January. This year will be different. This year I'll be focused. This year will be more profitable. This year I'll get fit, get organised, get more profitable and get my life together. And it's usually accompanied by a brand new notebook or a new electronic notebook, a smug Instagram or LinkedIn post, and absolutely no behavioural change whatsoever. So this episode is for people like me ready to stop kidding themselves and build something structurally sound instead of relying on a hope fueled wish list. And today, I'm using my three uniques again, bringing all of my three uniques to the episode to give you fierce clarity, slicing through your fantasy resolutions, loving truths, calling out the lies you tell yourself with love tenacious teams, because you cannot scale without them. So let's start this year properly. Let's not faff about your New Year's resolutions fail because they're built on these things, the vibes, the excitement, possibly a hangover and absolutely zero infrastructure. It's like announcing you're going to run a marathon simply because you bought trainers, which is, as we know exactly what people do. Entrepreneurs fall for these three January illusions. Number one is the illusion of the fresh start. You believe the calendar flipping magically resets your habits, but it doesn't. You've actually brought your old behaviour with you, the same leadership patterns, the same avoidance, the same reactive decision making, the same family politics that derail your focus. Number two is the illusion of capacity. You assume your January energy represents your whole year's ability, but it doesn't. January is like a temporary Sugar Rush. February exposes you. Number three is the illusion of commitment. You think that wanting something means that you'll do it, but you won't, not unless you build the system that forces you to wanting is very different to actually doing and taking action towards the things that you actually want. So here's your fierce clarity moment. If your resolution requires motivation to survive, I would probably suggest that it is doomed, because motivation is fickle, structure is loyal. So here's my first loving truth kicking in. I believe you're probably asking too much of yourself. I know I'm guilty of this, and so I wanted to share this with you. So let's just be really clear. You're not lazy, you're not over, you're not you're sorry. Let's just be really clear. You're not lazy. You're actually just overloaded. Entrepreneurs tend to create resolutions based on insecurity, not intention. You look at everything you didn't achieve last year, and you try to compensate by setting all the goals at once. I know what it's like. We are so self critical and critical sometimes of our team as well, and so rather than actually celebrating the wins, we'll go straight into critical mode and set all these goals, lose weight, grow revenue, build a better culture, be a better parent, do yoga, meditate, sleep eight hours, learn Italian, learn French, learn Spanish, eat more vegetables, attend networking events, sort out the family business tension. Oh, and maybe a calm, enlightened leader while you're at it. It's exhausting just listing them, and I'm sure there's a lot more, if you're anything like me. So here's the loving truth, you are human. You cannot overhaul your entire life in one month. It's just not possible. Because here's the actual problem, you've set goals, but you don't set conditions. So it's not that your intentions are wrong. It's that your environment is so you surround yourself with no accountability, no clarity, no prioritisation, no scorecard, no weekly rhythm, no delegation, no tenacious team support. You're effectively trying to build a house on jelly or given it was just Christmas time. Maybe it's more like a trifle, and we know that that is not going to last. We have to have solid foundations. So why do we as entrepreneurs tend to slip back by about week three? Well, let's talk about that three week slump. By week three, what's usually happened is the planner is abandoned. The team are confused. The business fires flare up, and your fighting fires. Consistently, you're reacting, not leading, and your resolutions begin to quietly die of natural causes, and here's why, I think that is. Number one is usually your team isn't aligned. If your team aren't clear, you cannot stay consistent. You'll always be sucked back into that firefighting. Number two, you didn't remove the old habits. You can't bolt a new habit onto a dysfunctional system. Your old routines will devour it. You've got to create new habits. Number three, you didn't anticipate resistance. Every change comes with discomfort, and if you're not prepared for that, then you quit. Number four, your goals were too vague. Be healthier, be more organised. Grow the business. Let's be honest. Those are wishes, not commitments. Number five, you've ignored the family business dynamics. If the family circle is misaligned, the business circle pays for it every single time. So here's my fierce clarity moment resolutions fail because they rely on you being a different person on the first of January without changing anything around you. So here's how to set goals that don't fall about. Here's the loving truth. You can absolutely create change, but not in the way that you've been doing it. I have got some steps here that I'm going to take you through five clear steps that will really help you to set those goals that don't fall apart. My personal preference is to pick one personal anchor and one business anchor, not five, not 12, just two, one from each of those key areas. So one personal anchor, one business anchor, and these are your non negotiables for the year number two is to set up a simple weekly rhythm. It doesn't matter what you call the meeting. It matters that you have these things, a scorecard, priorities, accountability and space to truly identify and fix issues. And let's be honest, consistency beats enthusiasm. Every single time I'm going to share from personal experience, there have been times in my business when my business when I have not run my weekly level 10 meeting, and it's those times when the wheels start to fall off the business. Even if you have a weekly meeting and you finish it early and you don't get through as much stuff as perhaps you had hoped to, it doesn't matter you've actually done it, and that is a consistency that you actually need. Number three is about creating friction for old habits. We want to try and make it harder to fall back into your usual nonsense. One of the James clear books, James, sorry, one of the James clear books talks about habit stacking, and that's certainly one way to do it. But it really is just about making sure that you are being self aware, recognising when you're falling back into those old habits, and then make it harder for you to do that. Have somebody hold you accountable. Have some kind of risk and reward. So you get a reward if you complete the new habit, and you get some kind of stick if you don't, actually if you do fall back to the old habit. Number four is about setting boundaries that protect your energy, so your availability is not a public service. You probably can't see, but behind me and in my office in Melbourne as well, I've got two great big planners for the year, and I plan out my entire year, and I put in things that I know that I want to do that will help me to have clarity breaks that will help me to take time out for me, it's usually two big holidays each year, one in the middle of the year. This year is September and Zimbabwe, and then Christmas break, which is a slightly longer break as well. And then I need to have at least four or five long weekends. I need those. They really protect my energy. And then I get down right the way into and my weekly calendar to ensure that the things that are important to me, like going to my Pilates class, taking the dogs for a walk, going cycling, doing photography, those things are also booked in, which means it doesn't mean that I don't work hard. I work really hard. I see a lot of clients. I do a lot of back to back to back sessions, but I've got those things planned in there, and it means that I know that those things come first. So just remember that our energy being in a clear headspace is what makes us a great leader. If we are constantly giving our energy out to everybody else and not saying no to things, we're going to really struggle to protect that energy. And number five, treat yourself with compassion, not perfectionism. Growth isn't linear in business or in your personal life, it's messy and it's human, and we just have to treat ourselves with some compassion and just accept that it is a journey and it's progress, not perfection. Don't be hard on yourself. It's so easy for us to really pick on the things we haven't done well. But in the book by Dan Sullivan, I think it is the gap and the gain. A great book if you haven't read it, he talks about the fact that you should always measure backwards. There's nothing wrong with having a goal. There's nothing wrong with having a plan to get to that goal. But we also want to be really careful that we're not always on the hamster wheelchair. The next big thing we need to ensure that we actually look back and go, Hey, how have I done in the last 12 months? Where. I come from, where am I now, and really celebrate and recognise those wins, and that gives us a sense of feeling good about ourselves, which gives us the energy to continue on. So just remember, growth isn't linear.  

Debra Chantry-Taylor  10:16 

Just do what you need to do if you want a different year, though, it's not just you that needs to change. It's your team that needs to change too, because your resolutions are pointless if your team doesn't involve with you. When I talk about tenacious teams, I think of tenacious teams as people who carry the load without constant nudging. They solve problems before they even hit your desk. They take true ownership and accountability for their department, for their team, for the things they know that they have to do. They'll communicate really clearly and consistently, and they will execute consistently. They're always taking steps forward. They're always doing things and moving forward all the time. And they will understand your priorities, because if your team undermines your resolutions by relying on you for everything, your January intentions will collapse pretty quickly. So if you want different results this year, upgrade the team or upgrade their behaviour, either way, January cannot be carried by you alone. So if you want different results this year, and you've had to listen to some of those things and you're thinking, maybe my team isn't taking ownership, maybe they're not communicating clearly, maybe they aren't executing consistently. Maybe they don't understand my priorities. You've either got to work to upgrade the team or upgrade their behaviour. So you've got to be the leader that actually helps them to upgrade to that tenacious team. Or you need to look at actually, if you can't change the person, need to change the person. But either way, January cannot be carried by you alone. Intervention time time for the truth that we're avoiding your New Year's resolutions. Don't need more inspiration. What they really need is fierce clarity about what matters, loving truths about your limits and what's actually achievable, and a tenacious team who can execute without whispering your name every five minutes. So this year can be different, but only if you stop making resolutions and start building systems and start managing your people's energy. So Happy New Year. Stop writing goals you already know you won't do and please, let's make this the best year ever.