I invited Graham W Price, a chartered psychologist and coach, to write a guest post for us, discussing ways to help us each reach our business goals.
How to boost your willpower to make your corporate communications succeed
The best laid plans of mice and men… we all know the saying and the chances are we’ve uttered it many times. We all have great ideas and good intentions that could make a real difference to our corporate communications (and our careers), but sometimes we just don’t seem to make them a reality.
We can make excuses such as “a lack of time”, or “other things got in the way”, but really it’s about lacking the willpower to stick to our goals and make them a reality.
So how can we boost our willpower to carry through those intentions that are going to positively impact our work and our lives?
Chartered psychologist and success coach Graham W Price has ten top tips to boost our corporate communications willpower:
- Goals: Set goals, write them down, make sure they’re SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, reasonable, time-based). Write down a time by which you plan to achieve each one.
- Motivation: Write down the benefits of achieving each goal. Visualise it as being achieved – make it a clear, strong, vivid visualisation.
- When-then games: Spot any unhelpful when-then games you may be playing (“when I’ve been here another six months and understand the company better, then I’ll take action”; “when I’m 100% sure of success then I’ll make a start”). Drop them now and start taking action.
- Commitment: If the goal is important and challenging, make a commitment (a promise to yourself that you can share with colleagues) that you’ll do whatever you need to do to achieve it.
- Act as if:
- If you believe you might need more ‘get up and go’ to achieve the goal, think of someone you admire who’s achieved something similar, or could easily achieve it. Ask yourself what they’d be doing in your situation. Then do it
- If a lack of self-belief or any other limiting belief is holding you back, ask yourself what you’d be doing if you had a more positive belief. Then do it
- Bold action: If a one-step-at-a-time approach isn’t working, take bold action. Do something courageous or imaginative.
- Time management:If it’s a big important goal, set some time aside every day to move it forward, irrespective of whatever short-term priorities may be competing for your time. Talk to your manager and drop tasks that don’t need to be done and won’t contribute significant benefits.
- Accept the feeling, choose the action: If uncomfortable feelings get in the way, accept the feeling (be willing to experience it and tell yourself it’s just a feeling that needn’t stop you and won’t do you any harm) and do whatever you’d be doing if you didn’t have the feeling. Doing this repeatedly will unwind the unconscious beliefs that are driving the feeling. If you’re fearful or anxious, and you know your reticence isn’t justified by any real danger, accept the feeling and do whatever it is that’s making you anxious. Use this same approach to deal with any other recurring uncomfortable feelings.
- Focus on contribution: If you’re stuck on a goal, ask yourself whether it’s because you’re just focusing on your own needs, wants and perceived limitations. If so, try rephrasing the goal in terms of what it will do for others, your boss, your employer or your customers. This can take the focus away from your own so-called limitations and gives a new impetus to the goal.
- Take control: Identify anything that’s mediocre in your life (both business and personal) and take steps to eliminate it. Get fit, spend more time with the kids, eat healthily, create a sensible work-life balance, lose weight, keep the desk tidy, quit smoking. Use the nine tips above to make it happen. This will raise your self esteem, confidence and will power.
These tools aren’t universally applicable. Some ‘when-then’ games may be sensibly cautious. Taking some bold actions might be unduly risky. But utilising the tools appropriately will give us the willpower to achieve our goals and enhance our success – not just our own success but the success of the work we deliver within our organisation.
Thanks Graham!
About the author:
Graham W Price is a chartered psychologist, therapist, coach and development trainer. He is an accredited member of the British Psychological Society (BPS), the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) and the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and a registered practitioner psychologist with the Health Professions Council (HPC).
He is author of “What Is, Is! The Power of Positive Acceptance” published by HotHive, outlining all the above tools and others needed for achieving satisfaction, resilience, improved relationships and success.
For more information about Graham see www.abicord.com/graham-price
Lucy is Editor at Corporate Eye
