Keeping resolutions was even difficult for Ben Franklin, until he created a system that helped him keep on track. See if Ben Franklin's Virtuous System works for you. We've even developed a chart based on Ben Franklin's system. Download, listen & read here.
Welcome to our 34th big success show. Today we'll talk about New Year's resolutions. Don't just make them. Get them. The big success show with George and Mary Lynn. Can you believe Mary Lynn another year is just about gone? I cannot. And every time I say that, I feel so old, because I remember old people used to say, "Man, I can't believe this year's over already. Now I'm saying it too." Oh, you look old, so no, I'm just joking. But the thing is, obviously New Year's approaching, we're all making resolutions. Every year, make resolutions and break resolutions. That's a tradition. Well, in this year, let's resolve to not just be goal-setters, but to actually be goal-getters. Goal-getters? Say that's what the 2G stand for in big success. That's exactly right. And there's a great example of goal-getting from a man named Ben Franklin. And Ben, my goodness, what can't you say about Ben Franklin? He did so much. I mean, we know him for electricity and the little kite thing. The flight kite. Declaration of Independence. He made France like us. Yeah, now that was an order I bet. No, we need him to come back from the grave. Jeez, an author. Poor Richard's Almanac. Yeah, I think the list goes on and on. He definitely led an interesting life, right? And he had such diverse interests. And as a fairly young man, he set out to be a perfect person. And so in order to be perfect, he developed a list of 13 virtues. 13. You know, I'm lucky if I can keep one or two resolutions. He's like, "Oh, let's see. I've got 13 virtues. I want to accomplish this year." One thing I find interesting is, you know, out of all 13, the one that he had the most trouble with, according to his book, his autobiography is order. Organization. And, you know, it's like, there's this guy that does all these things. And the one thing he's having problems with is organization. And for some reason, I just really like that fact. Well, I can relate. So, but what he tried to do, which is kind of interesting, he tried to do them all at once. And unfortunately, he failed miserably. Yeah, matter of fact, I love his quote. This is straight from his autobiography. And he said, "While my care was employed and guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another. Habit took the advantage of inattention." Doggone habits. Inclination was sometimes too strong for reason. Old habits are hard to break. So, yeah, even 200 years ago, even for a man as great as Ben Franklin, he had a hard time sticking to what he wanted to do. Yeah, so what he did was he developed a system. Each week, he decided he would work on one goal. Now, he kept all of them in front of them. But each week, he focused on just one. And the other part of it was, he recorded his results on a single sheet of paper for the week. And what I think is interesting is that on this paper, the marks that he made weren't for when he accomplished them, but it was for the ones he didn't accomplish. That's right. And so he's trying to start the day and end the day with a clean sheet of paper. I like that because to me, you're going to think about it more when you look on a piece of paper and say, "Oops, I didn't do that." Well, the other thing is, I think since we're all maybe, you know, there's a little laziness perhaps in all of us. If I do what I'm supposed to, I don't have to write anything down. But if I don't, I have to take action. I have to pull up actually the paper. I resolve to lose that piece of paper. All right. So coming up, we're going to talk about what we can learn from Ben Franklin in this nifty little system of his. There's four things we can learn from Ben Franklin's system. First, don't expect what you don't inspect. Develop a system that keeps your goals and your results right in front of you. Next, intention plus attention equals manifestation. You set the goals, pay attention to what you set, and you're likely to get them. Third, focus on one goal at a time. Keep all your goals in mind, but make sure that you focus on changing one thing at a time. Baby steps. And finally, each day, you start with a clean slate. If you mess up, don't beat yourself up over it. Tomorrow, you get to start with a clean slate again. Geez, it's like every day a new resolution. That's right. That's the idea, actually. You can get a written summary of today's show on our blog at bigsuccess.com. And we also have a copy of Ben Franklin's virtues. So you can see an example of how he filled out his sheet for his goals. And we've even got a blank one. So if you want to use his system, you can. You can easily download it. It's free at big success. That's big with 2gsuccess.com. And let's get our big quote for the day, George. Well, our quote today is by none other than Ben Franklin. What? How timely. We really had to work hard to come up with who the quote should be by today. But here's what he said. He said, "Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man." Or a woman. So resolve to make this year your best year ever. And next show, we're going, New Year's Eve's coming up. We're going to give you a suggestion for what to do with your cocktail napkin. Really? Other than clean up your spills? Until then, here's to your big success. The Big Success Show at B.I.G.G. Success.com. The Big Success Show at B.I.G. The Big Success Show at B.I.G. The Big Success Show at B.I.G. [BLANK_AUDIO]
