I’ve been hooked into my own 2014 planning and goals over the last few weeks as you know, but I’ve had these two sayings running around my head:

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.”

Now, you also know I like a gooooooood stretch and that I’m one for working hard until you crack something. Both sayings suggest getting stuck in a loop, doing the same thing on repeat, getting identical outcomes, unable to move towards your goal. These sayings seem to contradict my mantra of “stretch your life”, which is about moving towards your goals through doing new things AND being persistence in your efforts. Aaaahhh, that’s why they’re bothering me.

I want to propose an alternative interpretation. To achieve the life, career, business or health you want, often there is no “do it once” fix all solution. Rather your achievement is a series of steps. You will need to work hard at each step until you achieve your better results. This could be through simple, identical repetition or by trying the step in different ways, seeking out the approach that works for you.

For example if you’re a career changer, you might send your CV off to numerous job adverts. That’s one method to getting a new job and it can work. This is where the sayings come into play. You might get different results from different applications – “come to interview” vs. “no thank you” responses – but would you use just this one approach over and over again until you land your dream job?

No. More than likely you might also use online tools like LinkedIn or about.me to promote your skills and experiences to the market. Perhaps you’d attend networking events through your professional body or meetup.com to get known by people doing what you want to do. Or join a class to build or refresh your capabilities. Similarly, life, health or business changers need to blend their approaches and be diligence in their efforts to maximise their results.

In summary, added stretch and change to your life is a combination of knowing what you want, recognising when to do the same thing again or when to do something different to improve the results you’re getting AND a passionate dedication to achieving your goals.

I’m starting 2014 practicing what I preach by changing up my knee rehab. The turbo trainer sessions require more repeats to perfect my muscles (can’t tell you how good being back on a bike feels!) and I’ve switch to dry needling with the lovely Hayden at Physio in the City, from soft tissue massage on my leg. As a complete “pass out at the sight of a needle”-phobic, this is really big for me! Session one went well, even if I did do some funny breathing! The results? 4 tiny fingerprint bruises and zero pain! Wahooo!

How are you doing the same things and the different things to achieve your goals, ambitions and dreams? Inspire us in the comments or over on Facebook.