Dec 24, 2018
Start Right. Start Fast.
Your Game Plan for the First 100 Days of the New Year
Allow me to begin with a statement and a declaration of purpose…
I have no idea what your goals or resolutions are for the first 100 days of the year…and I have no business telling you what they should be.
My job is to show you how to achieve them in the fastest, most efficient manner possible. That’s why I wrote this Start Right Manifesto.
The purpose of this Start Right message is three-fold…
1. To explain the importance of starting the year fast, focused and fired up.
2. To provide you with a game plan — specific actions and implementation strategies that you can deploy to make this your best year ever.
3. To throw down a challenge.
So let’s get started by focusing on the critical question:
What is the importance of leveraging the first 100 days of the New Year?
The New Year provides you with a one-shot, window-of-opportunity to blast out of the gate fast, focused and fired up. And, as with any opportunity you have an obligation to capitalize on it.
Should you choose not to, I assure you — you’ll come to regret that decision…as nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity.
You must recognize a few things about the importance of seizing this opportunity to start the New Year right.
1. The first 100 days of the year will have little value to you from a productivity standpoint if you do not pounce on them with the intent to set a pace, build momentum and secure some early wins.
In a very real sense, this is a use it or lose it proposition.
2. Your loss is someone else’s gain as someone with more courage, conviction and confidence then you will find a way to seize it…and make the kind of progress you only wished for.
The importance of how you execute the first 100 days of the year cannot be overstated…
Why? Because when you have a successful first 100 days…it naturally follows that you are building momentum and setting yourself up for having your best year ever.
This approach is smart business and quickly becomes a devastating competitive advantage as your competition is knocked off balance by your quick strike offense and left with no option other than to spend the balance of the year playing catch up.
The first 100 days of the New Year is when you’ve got to give it everything you’ve got…and the game plan that follows provides you with the motivational fuel and justification you need to start the year fast, focused and fully committed to making this your best year ever.
STRATEGY #01 GET SERIOUS
LET’S BEGIN THIS FIRST STRATEGY with a finger in the eye type of maxim…
You will not start fast, nor do you stand a chance of making this the best year of your life until and unless you DECIDE TO MAKE IT SO.
To make this the best year of your life, you must look in the mirror and decide once and for all…that you’re done playing games, that you’re done settling for table scraps, that you’re done standing by idly on the sideline while other people that you do not perceive as being neither as bright nor as talented as you who are living in nicer homes, driving finer cars, and enjoying a far superior quality of life.
WHY? It’s actually very simple…DECISION ALWAYS PRECEDES ACTION.
STRATEGY #02 ACCELERATE
IF THE OBJECTIVE IS TO SET A PACE, crush your goals and make this your best year ever… than you owe it to yourself to find the fastest way to get the job done right.
If you can’t, won’t or simply refuse to accept or dismiss out of hand what I’m about to share with you…you’re making a huge mistake, one that will cost you your chance at maximizing the first 100 days of the year.
The truth is…any goal or plan expands so as to fill and reinforce the unrealistic amount of time you have made available for its completion.
The solution? Move fast…accelerate!
STRATEGY #03 START SAYING NO
“NO” IS THE MOST POWERFUL in your vocabulary as well as a complete sentence.
It’s the easiest word for setting a limit, holding firm to boundaries, and being clear about what you will or won’t do during the first 100 days of 2019.
Success in every area of your life demands a short “YES list and a long NO list”, yet most people have that one reverse engineered…and pay dearly for it.
Saying “NO” is the most strategic decision you can make as it improves and accelerates your effectiveness — guaranteeing a fast and focused start to the New Year.
STRATEGY #04 FOCUS ON RESULTS
THE GREATEST WASTE of untapped resources in this world are the resolutions and intentions that don’t translate into purposeful, goal directed behavior.
Resolutions and intentions like getting in shape, writing a novel, learning a language, or even unpacking the boxes from your last move are completely meaningless without focused and consistent execution.
To make this your best year ever, you must judiciously focus on results for the simple reason that in the end…only results matter.
Resolutions alone are incapable of putting food on your table, clothes on your back or gas in your car.
Your results serve as the ultimate judge, jury and execution of your performance.
This truth applies the same way to a sales person’s ability to meet or exceed quota, to a student’s ability to maintain good grades in school, to a Coach’s ability to build a winning record, as well as to your ability to crush the first 100 days of the year.
STRATEGY #05 BE UNREASONABLE
HITTING THE GROUND RUNNING and crushing your goals in the first 100 days of the New Year requires that you become unreasonable in what you expect from yourself…and in the unreasonable demands you make upon others.
The reasonable person adapts themselves to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adopt the world to himself.
Therefore, all large, significant and lasting progress depends on the unreasonable person.
True success is achieved by the minority of people and requires an unconventional way of thinking. Great achievements are, have been, and will always be the results of unreasonable people driven by unreasonable expectations and exceptionally high standards.
STRATEGY #06 GO ABOVE AND BEYOND
THE DISTANCE BETWEEN those who make big things happen in the first 100 days of the year and those who are merely passive players…has everything to do with one’s readiness, willingness and ability to go above and beyond expectations.
Delivering only what your customer expects will give you job security (maybe), but it won’t make you stand out.
If you don’t stand out…you’ll miss out on new opportunities. You won’t get promoted, you won’t get the referral, you won’t get the repeat business, and you won’t get the lifetime loyalty, devotion and reverence you’re after.
You can’t possible expect extraordinary results or superior compensation without consistently going above and beyond your client’s expectations.
You either get the importance of it, or you do not.
STRATEGY #07 RISE AND SHINE
IF YOU”RE EVER going to find your greatness and make this your best year ever…you must decide that what you want is BIGGER AND FAR MORE IMPORTANT than any fear, excuse or self-limiting belief which prevents you from achieving it.
By doing so, you will rise to every challenge with confidence, conviction, and certainty.
The ultimate reason for setting big, challenging goals during the first 100 days of the New year is to entice you to become the type of person it takes to achieve them.
You must decide that you will not be defeated, you will not succumb to difficulty, you will not lower your standards, nor will you ever tolerate an excuse…as your greatest glory is not in falling, but in rising and shining every time you fall.
STRATEGY #08 BE RELENTLESS
YOUR SUCCESS IN CRUSHING the first 100 days of the New Year is forever linked directly to your heart…your will…your steadfast commitment to your goals.
The relentless attitude is the winning attitude, and the remarkable thing about life is that we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
You cannot ever let fatigue make you a coward, nor can you ever expect to win without struggling, without suffering, without sacrificing…as these are all essential elements for making this your best year ever.
Starting the New Year in the best way possible necessitates that you fight on with undying, relentless determination.”
STRATEGY #09 STAY HUNGRY
EVERY GOALS POSES an identical question…How badly do you want it?
To realize your potential and to start the New Year fast, focused and fired up, you must respond with some version of this answer: More.
And then you have to prove it…that’s where hunger and passion come into the picture.
Passion is hardcore devotion to a person, goal or cause; it infuses life with meaning, joy, significance and unbridled enthusiasm.
It’s desire in your heart, it’s fire in your belly…it’s the twinkle in your eye…it’s your magnificent obsession.
In the end, the hungriest person always wins…therefore, stay hungry and prove to yourself everyday how badly you want it by taking take massive relentless action.
STRATEGY #10 BECOME A QUICK-CHANGE ARTIST
AS YOU WORK TOWARDS THE GOAL of crushing the first 100 days of the New Year…you must embrace the idea that your ability to recognize and adapt to change quickly is an asset in need of cultivation.
While adapting to the relentless pace of change is difficult…not adapting is fatal as history is littered with the bodies of successful people and companies who were brought to their knees, and put in an early grave due to their inability or unwillingness to adapt or adjust to the changing environment in which they found themselves in.
Change descends upon each one of us equally; the difference is that some of us realize it faster than others and adapt accordingly.
That’s why you must become a quick-change artist.
ARE YOU READY TO MAKE THIS THE BEST YEAR OF YOUR LIFE?
There’s no point in pretending that starting the first 100 days of the New Year fast, focused and fired up is anything less than the SAVVIEST MOVE YOU CAN MAKE.
And while there are plenty of excuses, there’s no good reason for you to procrastinate, to say the timing is not right…or that it’s not worth your time.
That’s why you’ll want to check out the 100 Day Challenge.
THE 100 DAY CHALLENGE…is a proven execution model that produces the highest levels of performance.
Like any world-class competition…the 100 Day Challenge contains the elements necessary for the unleashing of your greatness…rules, performance standards, accountability, a scoreboard, a finish line, fans, competition and most of all fun.
It’s time to change the way you achieve your goals. It would be my honor to show you how.
Happy New Year!
Gary Ryan Blair is creator of the 100 Day Challenge…a radical approach to goal achievement that shows people how to achieve 10X size goals by applying the methods and best practices of growth hacking. Get all the details here.
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