Catholic Husband

Love / Lead / Serve

What Great Things Will You Do in 2016

I've asked you how you will use the fresh start that the New Year gives you, but today I want to ask you a different question. What great things will you do in 2016?

Achieving greatness requires two things: planning and execution. No project or goal achieves its objectives without a detailed plan. No plan brings results without execution.

A plan is more than just a commitment. A plan shows you how realistic your huge goal is. If you set a goal to lose 40 lbs, you'll quit. But if you set a goal to lose 40 lbs and then plan on losing 1 lbs per week for 40 weeks, you realize just how possible it is.

Having a plan to lose 40 lbs is great, but if you have your fancy plan and keep eating the way you currently do, you'll never make it. Execution requires discipline. But there's a hidden gem in execution. It requires zero decision making. The decisions have already been made in your planning! So you don't need to decide if you should eat that cake or go for a walk on any particular day. The plan says cake is only on Sunday and walks are every day, so execute!

We get tied up in the belief that we can't achieve great things, that planning is a bore and execution is a straight jacket. The reality is planning helps us clarify the vision, the execution helps us meet the objective and together, we achieve greatness.

You have the perfect opportunity today to dream big, make a plan, and set it in motion so that in December you'll have done something truly great with the time that you've been given this year. So the question remains, what great things will you do this year?