3 minute read
TURNING KNOWLEDGE INTO BEHAVIOURS
Karen Kissane is a Business Coach and Mentor with a passion to help others realise their potential and achieve more in their life and business. She offers business, team and leadership coaching and training and is the founder of The Smart Woman’s Business Hub. Karen has mentored for The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and is also a member of the Forbes Coaches Council.
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TURNING KNOWLEDGE INTO BEHAVIOURS – the secret to success
As a life and business coach, I’m fascinated [and slightly obsessed] with the question of why success comes more easily for some, yet others struggle to create the life they want. People aren’t born successful, they become successful. Based on that, success can be attributed to daily habits and understanding our own ‘map of the world’. By turning the knowledge we have into behaviours and building the confidence to take steps forward, it really is possible to design the life we want. Several decades ago, researchers carried out a goalsetting study at Harvard Business School. Their cohort were students who were about to graduate and they wanted to analyse the effect goal-setting had on their future outcomes. They asked the students one question. Had they a written down goal and a plan for the future? Only 3% answered yes to having a goal and a plan. The study found that, in the future, this 3% group earned significantly more money than their counterparts. The moral of the story is clear? Setting goals is crucial. However, on its own, a goal isn’t enough. Anyone can set a goal, it’s what you do to take the action towards it that makes the difference in reaching it or not. Having a plan and taking action turns your knowledge into behaviour. Whatever you want to achieve in life, the success comes from taking action. Those who do nothing, achieve nothing. If you want to quit your 9-5 and own a business, you have to launch it. If you want to have a best seller, you have to start writing. If you want to be more visible, you have to put yourself out there. The hard part isn’t in knowing what to do, it’s in actually doing it. Only 8% of people stick to their New Years’ resolutions and, not only that, by the middle of January, most resolutions have been abandoned! Why? Because people are motivated to achieve but they don’t know how to actually make it happen. They have no
sustainable plan so they quit and end up in a worse place than they were before, now also frustrated and disappointed. Action always beats intention So what is it that the 8% of people know that the rest of us don’t? It’s quite simple. They are specific about what they want to achieve and they have a plan. For example, saying you want to live a healthier life isn’t enough on its own. What kind of healthy? If you want to lose weight, how much weight? Break it down into how much per week then it’s infinitely easier to take steps to make it happen. Eliminate the vagueness and get really clear. Set realistic goals - if the bridge is too big to cross, it can go the other way. Your goal should stretch you but not be out of your reach. No-one wants to fail at reaching their goals, not because they haven’t taken action, but because the goal was unachievable in the first place! “You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” - John C. Maxwell
High achievers define timeframes Leaving a goal open ended is easy to wriggle out of. No date or time equals no urgency. Ask yourself, specifically when do you want to achieve This? By 5pm next Friday? By the1st of next month?
“By writing your goal down, you have a 33% stronger chance of turning your knowledge and ideas into long lasting behaviour.”
When it comes to building a successful life and business, there are three things to have in place. If any one of these elements is missing, reaching your goal will be harder to come by. 1. STRATEGY 2. TAKE ACTION 3. RESILIENCE Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in, day out. By personally committing to taking intelligent, consistent steps towards your goals every single day, you will make progress. It doesn’t matter how small the steps are, what matters is the implementation and turning your knowledge into long lasting behaviour that propels you forward.
