Schedule your success

​If I ask you, what will make this a successful day? What will your answer be?

For the longest time, I was vague with my answers to that question. That didn't make me unsuccessful. Success can be subjective. But when you start attaching specific results to success, success is easier to see - and feel - and it gets a lot more likely.

Yesterday was Monday. I could have said 'I want to start the week getting a little exercise in.' But I know me. If I'm not specific, 'little' can become almost nothing; 'exercise' can become a trip to the dumpster.

Both clearly would have been better than nothing. But both would have made it harder for me to see and feel successful.

So, before the day started yesterday, I wrote on my calendar a trip around the block in the morning. And then I wrote another one in for after work. Each trip is 1.6 miles.

Here's the thing about those trips. I didn't write walk or run. I didn't write a target speed. I just wrote two trips. Mondays are busy; I know squeezing exercise in is a chore. But I also knew if I DID squeeze it in I'd feel more enthusiastic about my Monday. And if I was specific about it, I'd feel successful.

I got both of those trips in. After a long day of work, I felt like pushing that evening trip - so I made a hard run out of it. And on that second trip, I added an extra half mile to it when I ran to the mailbox and back.

Eating dinner last night, I felt successful. Not because of how fast or far I went, but because I did what I said I needed to do to be successful yesterday - at least when it came to exercise.

I'm not a big list guy, but I am a big calendar guy. I look at a blank calendar page as an opportunity. An opportunity to fill those blocks with things that will make me see and feel success. When I write 'one trip around the block' on the same page as work meetings I risk being disciplined for if I don't show up - it adds a little importance to that trip around the block.

If I write a meeting on a calendar that will help my employer be successful, why wouldn't I write one on there that is going to help me be successful?

I'm not saying you have to schedule your success, I just know it's helped me. I'm not even saying you have to write anything down. But I am saying this. If I ask you what will make this a successful day, and you have a specific answer to that question, chances are more likely that you will indeed see and feel success at the end of this day.

And frankly, I'm in favor of us all feeling a little successful when this day ends...