Ever focus so hard on a goal and not reach it? I know the feeling – and it’s a crappy one.
The problem with putting all your energy into a goal is you end up focusing on the things that you can’t control, it stresses you out, decreases your productivity, and usually hurts your end results. But if you focus on tiny daily action targets that you can control and support your end goal, you will reach your goal faster and enjoy the journey along the way a lot more.
Focus on doable daily actions that will eventually bring results.
Focus on what you can control, and stop focusing on the results, especially in the beginning.
Just like in school doing your homework every day helps you score better on your tests, you need to do your adulting homework every workday.
For businesses, these are usually the tasks that bring you income. Every business has different income producing activities. For blogs, one of the main things that I can control is my content -writing my outlines, turning those outlines into articles, adding some SEO to my articles, and then promoting them on Pinterest. SEO and Pinterest are new skills that I am learning, so just like homework, I am going to use my articles to practice, practice, practice and see where that takes me.
For losing weight – focus on logging your calories every day at first. This helps you bring awareness to how much calories are actually in different foods that we eat. Then implement focusing on working out every other day. It doesn’t have to be a good workout…just workout. Especially in the beginning, I don’t want you focusing on what level you are or aren’t at – just showing up is the win. Seriously.
Treat Yo’ Self
To help you take your focus off of the goal, set up a reward system for the daily grind tasks and celebrate the small wins. The point here is to nurture building consistency with those tasks that are proven to bring results in your industry.
The reward can be whatever you want, but I recommend they be small and easy so you can reward yourself often. They don’t even have to cost you anything. I would reward myself by watching an hour of my favorite TV show with my husband. On the weekends my reward could be going out to lunch. And after passing an exam we would reward ourselves with a couple of days off from studying and I would hit the town with the hubs and friends.
Know why you are working so hard
It is so important to find meaning and purpose in your goal, otherwise you are not going to dig deep and do the mundane, hard, and/or boring stuff in order to reach your goal. It will be so much easier to do something more fun if the reason why you want something down the line isn’t bigger than your current desires. When you are at peace with why you want something it actually helps bring a little joy to even the most tedious of tasks.
Be patient with yourself.
We don’t give ourselves enough time and grace to form habits. It takes time. If you miss a day – big freaking deal. Just get back to it the next day. You’re creating a lifestyle for yourself. It took me six months to get to the point where I log my calories every day without really thinking about it. Six months. Some months I got most days down but there were days where I forgot to log in. The old me would feel so guilty I would give up and stop logging in altogether.
How I regained control on one of my goals
Last year I had a goal to get 3 certifications in order to have more options and possibly increase my income. Before I could really even focus on significantly increasing my income, I needed to get experience and my certifications first.
But at first, I was focusing hard on the possibility of making more money. I ended up failing my first two exams and I was feeling pretty dumb. I questioned my goals and my ability to achieve them.
Then someone in one of my online classes DM’d me on Facebook and asked if I wanted to study with her. So after figuring out how we wanted to study together I told her that I wanted to shift my thinking and the way I’ve been approaching this goal.
I stopped focusing on the money and passing the exam. The only thing I cared about was committing to meeting with her everyday and learning a little more than I knew the day before. All I cared about now was consistently doing something that supported my end goal every day and knowing that progress was being made. That. Is. It.
I knew that the most important thing was actually learning the material, not passing a dumb exam. And I knew that if I made progress each and every day, I would have to eventually get there no matter what.
After only 3 weeks of studying with my new friend, we both passed the exam. And we repeated that process each month until we both had 3 certifications. The following month after that I was offered a new job with a pay raise.
Recap
If your goal seems daunting and when you think about it analysis paralysis happens – you’re not alone. Most people spend more time thinking about stuff than actually doing – and I’m included in most people. Just remember to focus on tiny daily actions that you can control, treat yo’ self, know the why behind the goal, and give yourself some patience and grace along the way.
Other articles you’ll love…
ONE Reason Why Your Side Gig Is Causing Stress In A Relationship
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.
Leave a Reply