A new book aims to help you tackle your to-do list and stick to your self-improvement goals

As January nears its halfway mark, some of your New Year’s resolutions may have already fallen by the wayside. The author of a new book hopes he can help you get back on track.

“I feel like January is like the biggest Monday. So, you can kind of start over,” said Jesse Lipscombe. In The Art of Doing: A Guide to Getting Motivated, Getting Unstuck, and Getting It Done, he emphasizes the importance of developing small daily habits towards achieving your goals. Or to coin a phrase, “How you do anything is how you do everything.”

“It’s those small daily habits and practices that actually produce the fruits for later on,” he said. “So, it’s this idea of like, trying to really pay attention to all the little pieces along the way and do them as best as I possibly can, just setting myself up for success.”

Lipscombe’s central philosophy is the three-step process: action, movement, and momentum. He admits taking that first step can often be the most difficult.

“We tell ourselves millions of reasons why not. And other people can add to that negative mind chatter. ‘Maybe I’m not ready. Maybe I have to learn a bit more or I need to have more experience,’” he said. “[But] once you take that first step, you act, right? Once that happens, then you create some movement. And once movement happens, then the momentum takes over.”

Part memoir and part how-to, Lipscombe says The Art of Doing is really the story of a regular guy who dared to do remarkable things. He has been, at various times, an actor, a track-and-field athlete, a musician, an entrepreneur, and a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) speaker. He is also a husband and the father of three boys.

Lipscombe says achieving your goals is not just something you owe to yourself, but to those around you.

“When we have a passion or a talent, I think it’s super selfish to keep it to yourself,” he said. “I don’t think we have them because they’re for us. They’re actually for other people. They’re like lights. They’re beacons. So, you know, for whatever reason you’ve been drawn to this thing, or you’re talented at this thing, you should show off. Show off so that someone can see you and be like, ‘Oh, I could do that too.’”

Lipscombe says going after what you want is about being true to your authentic self. Growing up Black in St. Albert, Alberta, then a predominantly White suburb of Edmonton, Lipscombe says he felt pressure to mute his competitive nature and create a representative self, an artificial persona that would help him maintain friendships and not alienate others.

“For the majority of Black folks, and racialized individuals in general, we’re living in something of a White world, and there are always consequences and ripple effects to whatever you bring to the table,” he said.

“So, if I’m going to bring my authentic self, I’m aware that that authentic self may cause other people to feel some kind of way. The neat part about that, though, is, as I’ve grown and learned, that’s none of my business. And if my authentic self rubs people the wrong way, then I guess that’s their thing to deal with.”

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The Art of Doing ends with a workbook section so the reader can put Lipscombe’s principles into action. He says your dreams are a lot closer than you think.

“I think a lot of the time we build this mountain up of how we could achieve some of these things, and a lot of them are so much closer than we’ve ever anticipated,” he said. “I hope that people take this book and actually use some of the tools to make these things come to fruition.”

The Art of Doing: A Guide to Getting Motivated, Getting Unstuck, and Getting It Done is published by Collins.