Why I've stopped trying to do a 180 on my life.

And why I'm making a one degree turn instead.

👋🏼 Hey, I’m Anna! I’m a founder and operator in an ongoing relationship with writing. Welcome to my weekly newsletter where I share business, career and life lessons that I’ve learned over years of trying hard, failing often, and on occasion, succeeding too.

---

For the past six years, my New Year’s resolution has been to pen a best seller and thus become a Great Writer. I’d wistfully dream about flicking through the freshly printed pages of my hard cover book, but for whatever reason I’d take precisely no action to make that vision come true.

Surprise surprise, over those six years I didn’t become a Great Writer. I didn’t even become an average one. All I became was fed up with my inability to follow through on the one thing that truly mattered to me.

But at the start of this year I decided to switch up my strategy. I knew that in order to realise the person I knew I could be, I had to do things differently than I had done before. I shelved my dreams and instead, promised myself I’d write for thirty minutes a day with no outcome in mind. This new approach wasn’t sexy: I didn’t create a vision board, nor was I channeling my inner Kimmy K telling myself to ‘get-your-ass-up-and-work!’.

Instead, I’d tell myself to ‘sit-your-ass-down-and-write’ all the while wondering whether it was possible to change my life quietly rather than banging loudly on the doors of success.

But sitting here 345 sleeps later, I’m proud to say that I tried really, really hard to show up each day, and that all my trying produced more results than the previous six years combined.

This year, I:

• Published thirty articles.

• Pitched them out almost ninety times.

• Became a contributor to Fashion Journal and Smart Company.

• Created my own personal corner on the inter-web.

• Started this newsletter.

• Earned my first writing dollar.

• Landed a scholarship to one of the world’s best writing programs.

I set out to achieve exactly none of these things, but like magic my effort created momentum, which lit the fire of motivation, which led to more effort. Over time what once I thought was impossible - writing one high quality piece per week - has become as natural as belting out the entire Taylor Swift Eras Tour playlist by heart.

345 days on, I’m not delusional enough to think I’m a Great Writer…but I finally feel like I’m on the path to becoming, at the very least, a good one.

The one degree turn, explained.

The Tony Robbins brand of progress is all about doing a 180: dream big, manifest your future, do a thousand push ups before dawn and transform your life.

But my brand of progress has far less screaming and jumping around. I think of myself like an archer setting up to shoot an arrow at a target. I assess the distance. I put my finger in the air to feel the direction of the wind. I pull back the bow. I release and fire.

But whether I hit a bullseye or miss the target entirely depends on my tilt. The most minute change in direction - a millimetre up, down, left or right - means the difference between an epic win or giant loss.

“Even the smallest degree of intentional change is effective. A plane one degree off-course flies to a completely different country. A change in attitude, location, influence, can lead to remarkable downstream shifts in outcome.” -

starting from nix

That’s the thing about one degree turns: the tiniest action can produce deceptively large outcomes. This is true for writing as well as for every other area of our lives:

• If you want to increase sales in your business, reach out to one new person a day.

• If you want to grow your freelance gig beyond yourself, hire a VA and delegate one tiny task per day.

• If you want to defeat signs of aging, apply sunscreen every morning.

• If you want to improve your fitness, run around the block each afternoon.

The truth is that changing the trajectory of your life is as excruciatingly simple as this.

Reset and redirect.

As we all set our sights on 2024, let me ask you this: what might happen if you pressed pause on your big vision and decided to commit to one tiny action instead?

What could your life look like a year down the track if you finally did the thing?

What if you picked up a paintbrush? Made that phone call? Had that conversation? Put on those running shoes? Created that pitch deck? Went on that date?

Here’s what I think: if you do it then next year is yours.

It’s your year to pick up an arrow. To point it into the wind. To shoot a bullseye.

Are you ready?

Aim.

Fire.

---

👀 Let me know what you think

What’s your experience with focusing on habits over goals?

---

🫶🏼 Subscribe for more ideas

To receive a dose of thought provoking career, business and life lessons in your inbox each Friday morning, you know what to do.