Behave Yourself

This blog started out 2014 talking about New Year's Resolutions. We had tales of long term goals, encouragement to keep trying even when we are broken, and advice to focus one day at a time on our goals.

One of my goals for this year is to get fit and healthy, which is a fancy way to say I need to loose 75 pounds. This isn't the first year my weight has been on the "I've got to fix this" list. Yet each recent year has concluded with the scales moving in the wrong direction.

What did I do about it for the first 3 months this year? Basically nothing.

I was aware of it as a goal. I was tracking what I ate in an online tracking program. However my food choices were not consistently altered to match the stated goal. In other words, I failed to implement any of the necessary behavior changes required to make the end goal a reality. The weight loss outcome in and of itself wasn't powerful enough to drive the necessary behavior change.

In April this all changed. Thanks to a speech earlier this year by Ana Ortega, I decided to accept the Whole 30 Challenge and spend the month eating a very strict Paleo diet. This meant I had to admit my addiction to Dr Pepper, cut out all breads, added sugars, and any form of processed foods. Every meal was pre-planned to eliminate food choice decisions when I was hungry. Every day I was reading information about recipes and how to make proper clean food choices.

The plan worked. During the month of April I lost 13.5 pounds and dropped 11 total inches in my chest, waist, and hips. Those numbers by themselves are exciting. But what I am most proud of is that I now have a system in place for continued improvement. It will take more than 30 days for this eating template to become an ingrained habit. This time however I finally feel like the 75 pound reduction will be a piece of (gluten free) cake!

What does this have to do with Toastmasters?

The same principals of behavior modification apply for for attaining your speaking and leaderships goals. What systems have you put in place to reach your Toastmasters goals for the year? Are you writing down speech ideas as they occur to you? Do you have a specific plan in place, with target dates set, for moving through your speech manual projects?

If not, let me encourage you to spend time thinking about the behaviors required to take you to the next level of success.

Jeff Wright. CC


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