I know how you feel. Super overwhelmed, angry with yourself for missing goals, your plate of to-dos is overfilled (like at an all you can eat salad bar), and you don’t know where to start. I know what it is like to feel like a hot mess and struggle with ev-ery-thing! I have literally been distracted by a squirrel in a conversation. Interrupting myself mid sentence…no mid-word… to point and say “Squirrel!” – at my future sister in law’s bridal shower. Yup, that happened. But you can achieve your goals.
There is one simple and important thing that if you implement into your life daily will get you to your goals faster than you ever have reached them before. And the beauty of it is – its only one thing that helps you focus on what is really important. Making it simple and easy to implement.
Ask yourself a simple question…
“If I could only do one thing today, what would bring me closer to my goal?”
Yep. That’s it. And it doesn’t even have to be that exact wording. You could change it up a bit….
- What is one thing I can do today that will have the most impact on my goal?
- What one thing will bring me 80% of my results today?
- What is the next step that will bring me closer to my goal faster?
However you want to ask yourself, the point is to focus on one thing that is going to bring the biggest bang for your buck. This doesn’t mean you only do one thing for the day. It helps you focus on the most important thing you MUST do today. I learned this amazing trick years ago from Ursula Mentjes, the CEO of Sales Coach Now and an awesome soul. Ursula is all about using intention in your daily planning to achieve your goals.
Why does this work?
It helps you cut out the bulls#!@.
Somehow there is a popular belief that being “busy” is associated with being powerful and productive. Often times you are busy doing unimportant crapola that isn’t serving you or even your family. This simple daily exercise helps you cut out the busy work and focus on intentional micro-steps.
Can use it for personal and professional goals.
I recommend trying to keep it down to 1-3 personal and professional goals per day (max). Ideally you would only have one professional goal and one personal goal at a time. An example of a typical day with different goals would be:
What is one thing I can do today that will have the most impact on my goal?
Professional Goal:
Reach full-time income within 12 months on my Blog
One thing: Write posts for 50 minutes.
Personal Goal:
Lose 4 sizes (halfway there!)
One thing: Go to my lifting weights class.
Simple to implement to achieve your goals.
Print out sheets of paper with only that one question at the top. It is that easy.
Or if you already have a weekly calendar planner just write that one question really big at the top of the week (so you don’t have to write it out each day).
You could also write it really big on your favorite colored sticky note and transfer that sticky note on your daily or weekly sheet.
The possibilities are endless. Keep it simple and easy so you actually do it.
Everything else becomes “would be nice”.
After you have completed the most important thing for the day, if there is time, you can tackle 1 to 5 more items for your goal. This all depends on how many goals you are working with (limit yourself to 3 max) and the type of to-dos you have for your goal that day. Some take longer than others so remember that the number of tasks you get done per day DOES NOT MATTER. What matters is the impact that is coming from that goal.
Dude, here is what you need to do…
Its okay if you get distracted by shiny objects. I get it more than you know. Try this trick for a week or two and see if you are making more progress on your goals than you were before. If you are – keep using it. If not, chuck it. I bet for 99% of you-you’re gonna see an improvement.
Ask yourself “What is one thing I can do today that will have the most impact on my goal?”. Cut out the bs and focus on tasks that actually bring results. Write the question on a post-it-note or print out the question on blank sheets of paper and use that as your daily to-do sheet. Keep it simple, it doesn’t have to be fancy.
What are you going to do to test this out today? Let me know which tip will work best for you towards achieving your goals in the comments.
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Did you find this useful? Don’t keep it a secret. I would love it if you would share it with a friend, colleague or loved one. It is the biggest compliment you can give me.
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