Success Day

Irresponsibility can be an addiction as strong as drugs or alcohol, Irresponsible Anonymous is a 12 step program to kick the habit of breaking promises, this is step three, it’s about dedicating a day to action, so you can remember the feeling of success.

All wars have a breaking point, a clear moment where someone takes a step forward, the opponent’s line is broken, and what you thought was the most crushing of failures turns into the greatest of victories.

This moment has arrived in your battle against irresponsibility; we are going to set a milestone in your story, a moment where you will notice the difference a little method can make.

The concept is very simple: you will make an appointment with yourself. Take your agenda (if you don’t have one I would recommend your cell phone, because you always have it with you) and pick a good day for a “Success Day”. Block this day and prepare for it.

Why a day for success?

Life is a constant battle between the planned and the unexpected, this battle can sometimes be so frustrating that we give up and forget the satisfaction of taking control even if it is for a small moment. By defining a day for success with certain frequency (I do them once a month), you will have a moment to repel the tide of commitments and retake direction.

How to prepare?

I recently read a phrase that describes the process of preparation: “we must synchronize intention with action”, this is exactly what we will do the day before.

In step #2 i wrote about creating lists of commitments, this list is crucial to what we are going to do, if you have not prepared it yet take a few moments to read the article and prepare a short list so you can plan your success day.

What you must do is decide 5 commitments from the list and write down the 5 Next Actions that will help you move forward in accomplishing them.

We will be translating from the language of intention into that of action, for example:

• Intention: Cleaning the kitchen – Action: Going to the supermarket to buy disinfectant.
• Intention: The Management report – Action: Sending an e-mail to Susan to ask for the sales figures for December 2009.
• Intention: Fix the squeaky door – Action: Remind my wife to add the 3M oil to the shopping list.

The keys to this effort are:

• Begin the phrase with a verb.
• Be detailed
• It should be understandable by a third party, consider this delegating to you.

The page you wrote your 5 actions on must be with you during the whole day. In the morning, the first thing you will do is check this list and begin to act.

Each time you complete an action, mark it and congratulate yourself, you are in movement!  Being responsible and completing actions.

If at some moment you feel anxious, imagine tomorrow, and how great it will feel to remember today and how it great it was to take action.

Next week we will speak about how to extend this experience to a routine for every day with a little help from our friends and family, during these seven days, try to take as many “success days” as you can, If 5 things seem like too little, remember that life has a wonderful capacity to produce unexpected things, so take small steps and limit yourself to 5 for now, further on you can start expanding your area of action.

I am very interested in knowing how the process has gone for you and I am waiting to help with any problem through the comments section of this post, or my twitter @alexmrv.

Happy Success Day!