Whatever your goals are, whether they are business or personal, they won’t come to fruition unless you do something different. Unless you—yes YOU—take some sort of action. And that is where so many of us get stuck.
Why don’t we just do it? I mean, Nike has been trying to tell us that for years! I think there are three mental roadblocks that get in the way and stop our progress in its tracks.
1. We don’t know what we want. It is too abstract, not clearly defined, or so often, it is not even YOUR goal. You think you are supposed to want it because—well—everyone else seems to want it. Your friends all have it, your parents want it for you, Society has made it the norm, or even social media makes it look so good! Instead, try spending some time digging in a little deeper and identify if this is what you really want—because you want it—not because of any other outside influence. Everyone else may want to drive a Mercedes, but do you really care?
2. We know what we want but we have no idea where to get started. Maybe your goal is a big goal—maybe it is something very new for you—and you just don’t know what action to take first. So, when we don’t know what to do, of course, we tend to do nothing. When this happens to me, I take a deep breath, get a blank piece of paper, and just start writing. I write everything I can think of that is a step or a part of that goal or project. Once I get the big steps broken down to smaller steps, I can put them in order and start working. One step at a time. My amazing Husband is a retired firefighter and I have learned so much from his experiences. One of the things that happen in a triage type of situation is you assess the urgency of need and then what needs to be done first. I think this is good advice in life. My husband and I often say, “one bleed at a time.” This helps us break down an overwhelming project into manageable pieces. We need new floors, new paint, and a kitchen remodel, too much and way too stressful. How do we make that happen? It is always one bleed at a time.
3. We know what needs to be done and we still don’t do it. Why? Probably because we are sooooo busy doing everything else. Remember, busy does not equal results. There are a lot of people who are busy. There are not a lot of people getting things done. Our success comes from doing the things that get us closer to our goals. Not just doing the stuff that we do easily or quickly. That is the difference between efficient and effective. The next time you find yourself busy with no time to do the actions or steps that will move you in the direction of your goal ask yourself—is this the best use of my time right now? I am doing this because it is easy or quick or is this a valuable task? When we start to weigh and value our tasks—and ultimately where we spend our time—we can see results. Goals can be achieved.
Stephen Covey says you must “learn to schedule your priorities, not prioritize your schedule.” This is brilliant. (Most of his stuff is!) What are your true goals and how can you make them a priority?
I have always heard, if you want to know what people value look where they spend their money and their time. It is very enlightening. Are you spending your time and money on the things that represent your true values? I am working on it. How about you?
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