Dear , 

Hello! I hope you've still got that fresh-start feeling 😊. Although we're actually in the middle of a season and nothing around us looks or feels particularly new, the change from one year to the next does have a certain big deal energy. 

So, we set goals and make plans. Nothing wrong with that. Because beginnings are often exciting, the temptation is to go overboard and set too many objectives or goals that are out of reach - only to fizzle out before long. We overestimate the power of enthusiasm to carry us to the finish line.

I’m trying really hard NOT to do that; to be careful about setting unrealistic expectations for myself or piling too much on right out of the gate. I mentioned doing a "75 Kinda Hard" challenge and that I’m working on a new work project so, in addition to maintaining my current clients, projects, and life, there’s not much room for anything else. 

However, I have been loosely engaged in James Clear’s 30 Days to Better Habits program. (It’s free and it’s available here: https://jamesclear.com/30-days ) Day 2 of these lessons is all about the 2-minute rule: taking a habit you want to create and breaking it down into something that can be done in 2 minutes or less. If we apply the two minute rule to email marketing and the habit of sending more emails this year, it would look like this:

“Send an email every week” becomes “Make a list and add one email topic/idea to it every day.”

Taking the small action toward the new habit we want to create doesn’t necessarily get the whole job done, says Clear, but it helps us master the art of showing up.

There’s so much valuable insight in James Clear's short lesson that I won't relay here but there is one other important idea worth mentioning:  work on habits that create the identity we want to build. For instance, if you want to be an organization of communication and marketing excellence, build the habit of sending consistent and engaging emails to your constituents. 

Master the art of showing up in inboxes. Working toward becoming an excellent communicator helps us stick to the habits of emailing regularly - as one example.

Since it’s obvious that I’m a fan of James Clear’s content, it won't come as a surprise to know that I’ll be back next week with some of his thoughts - and my own - on the art of letting go. (And if you think I’m not going to tie that to unsubscribers, you'd be wrong, my friend.)

Forewarned is forearmed.

See you next week and…