When's the last time you learned something new?
As kids, learning is an expectation. As adults, we often assume we're like the proverbial dog who can't learn new tricks.
Except that's utterly false.
Ingeborg Rapoport, MD, who fled Nazi Germany in 1938, became the oldest person to have earned a PhD at age 102.
Dr. Harlan Van Over became the oldest person to pass the test for a sixth-degree black belt in taekwondo at age 94. He began TKD at 59.
Atomic Leow graduated medical school at age 66, one year after many people retire.
That voice that says you can't add a new habit or skill to your repertoire is trying to keep you small.
I've found these 3 steps are key to forming a new habit or learning a new skill:
Desire
A realistic plan to make a small change/addition
30 day commitment
This has worked for me several times as an adult, whether it was running, learning guitar or practicing daily mindfulness.
Habit expert James Clear breaks down habit acquisition like this:
He suggests that whenever you want to change your behavior, simply ask yourself:
How can I make it obvious? (cue)
How can I make it attractive? (craving)
How can I make it easy? (response)
How can I make it satisfying? (reward)
All of this is to say that the hardest part of creating a new habit is starting. Before that, you can’t even imagine what it’s like to do the thing.
It’s true in life, and it’s true in our work.
This is especially true for everyone I know who creates consistent marketing content. Committing to consistently creating social media content is so much harder than actually doing the work.
But consistency on social media is key to reaching more people and having a bigger impact.
Here are 4 ways to get consistent on social media
Commit to a time on your calendar that you're focusing on creating content. Schedule it as a meeting with yourself and don't let anything else disturb you in that hour.
Create content ahead of time. This saves you time and means you can ignore social media when you're busy or burnt out.
Start with FAQs from your patients or clients. Whenever you hear a question repeatedly, that's a good indication that it's fodder for content. You can write something up later or even dictate your response to a question (while maintaining privacy, obviously). Hand that over to someone else on your team or a virtual assistant to turn it into a blog or social media content.
Get help to make creating content easier. The Clinicians Social Media Club makes creating content fast and easy.
Here's to showing up a little more each day!
Wendy✌️