How High Performers Launch Their Year — A Conversation with Jon Acuff | Buffini Blog
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As we welcome a new year, resolutions (setting them, keeping them, and all too often abandoning them) are on the minds of many.
As a bestselling author and popular keynote speaker, Jon Acuff believes business leaders can reach their goals by following a framework of five core concepts. He also advises leaders to reframe burnout and procrastination not as negative things, but rather, as instruments that can lead to positive change.
Recently, Acuff was a guest on Brian Buffini’s podcast, It’s a Good Life, where he shared more insights into how to get your year off to a great start.
A Framework of the ‘5Cs’
When people ask how to have an amazing year, the answer does not need to be complicated, Acuff said.
“Big results usually come from simple foundations done well,” he said. “If I had to boil it down, I would focus on a few core ideas: clarity, courage, community, consistency, and coaching. Start there and you’re in a great spot.”
Clarity, he noted, is vitally important.
“You have to know who you’re connecting with,” he added. “And do you know what it is you want to do?”
The concept of courage was something many high performers misjudge as discomfort or as something that went wrong.
“But courage is the only way to know you’re outside of your comfort zone,” he stressed. “It’s actually a sign that you’re headed in the right direction.”
Burnout Versus Boredom
Acuff said many people, especially those who are in their 40s or 50s, feel like they are burnt out. But he believes that they are not actually burnout but rather, are bored and not feeling challenged enough.
“We did a study of 3,000 people and 96% said they aren’t living up to their full potential,” he said. “They know they’re capable of more, but they don’t know what to do with that.”
Acuff admitted he too had found himself in that conundrum.
“I felt like I hadn’t been challenged. I’d stopped doing brave things. And you can change by crisis or by choice. Choice is better,” he added.
That insight inspired him, after over a decade of working solo, to create a team.
“I’m learning to say, ‘I need help.’ And I’m learning how small things — like how you phrase a simple response — can build up or deflate a team,” he said. “I’m realizing there’s no leadership playbook where you always know the right move. You’re going to blow it. And you learn.”
“I’m getting asked questions I don’t know the answer to. I’m making mistakes. I’m apologizing the next day. I’m learning in the trenches. But I’m also gaining depth I couldn’t have gained otherwise.”
Reframing Procrastination
Acuff advises leaders should think of procrastination in terms of a “coping mechanism people use to avoid discomfort, fear, or shame.”
“If I can help people see they’re capable — that putting things off only delays something potentially amazing — then we can replace procrastination with something far more effective,” he said.
He shares more on that topic, he added, in his new book, Procrastination Proof: Never Get Stuck Again, which comes out in April.
Listen to the entire podcast here.
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