The Power of Righting the Ship

Why we struggle with accomplishing New Year's Resolutions.

Happy Tuesday!

When doing my monthly review for January last week, I re-visited Bo Eason’s book, There’s No Plan B for Your A-Game, and re-discovered the powerful concept of “righting the ship”.

🛳️ The Ship Analogy

Imagine you’re the Captain of a ship trying to reach Treasure Island. You look at the map of the sea and chart your desired path:

You set off for your destination with gusto:

Unfortunately, you’re also part of a complex social system, so there are winds opposing or altering your path:

If you’re not aware of these winds or forget to adjust the sails, you’ll find yourself somewhere very far from Treasure Island when you re-consult your map:

This scenario is similar to checking in on your New Year’s Resolutions… in August. Your progress might be small, or you might have worked on something else entirely and forgotten about it.

But more than half of the year is over. You might as well abandon the resolutions and try again next year, right?

Except that next year, the same thing happens. And the year after that.

Three years go by, and now you’re just somewhere in the ocean.

Course-Correcting

When you “right the ship”:

1. You reflect on where you are currently and how far off you are from your goals

2. You adjust your actions based on the knowledge from Step (1)

That’s it.

Small Tweaks > Big Leaps

When you check in frequently with your goals and make small tweaks:

• You need less effort to adjust your actions

• You accomplish your goals faster and waste less time on meaningless things

I’ll leave you with a powerful quote from Bo Eason’s book:

Your job is not to beat yourself up, not to be ashamed of failing to keep your word and your declaration. Your job is to right the ship.

That action you’re taking right now—is it in line with your plan to be the best? Yes? Great. Carry on. No? Course correct now.