It’s summer time and if you’re like me, your normal routine is perhaps a bit disrupted. Maybe you’ve had holidays and are finding it hard to get back to your good habits? Or maybe you haven’t managed to put great habits in place yet this year? Either way, we are well into the 3rd quarter and you have goals you wanted to achieve in 2021! If you feel you haven’t been making progress tune in today and get some support to (re-)focus and (re-) commit to all you want to achieve this year.
Often, the thing that’s getting in the way when it comes to making progress or re-starting a positive routine is procrastination! So today I want to share 4 effective processes you can use to stay on track, focus your energy and build momentum for the outcomes you’d love to be celebrating on 31st December 2021 and beyond.
1. Eat the Frog
“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.”
This great quote from Mark Twain, essentially tells us to identify the needle moving task/project/routine (your frog!) and work on that first each day.
I’ve had so many discussions with clients who lose their most productive hours trying to clear emails or doing a lot of little, urgent tasks before focusing on the important, difference-making tasks. As a result, the to-do lists feel endless and they never feel finished.
And those activities that make the difference in terms of positioning ourselves for the next promotion, expanding our business or prioritising our fitness or personal development goals? They just never happen.
So do yourself the best favour you can: identify your frog, start your day with it and repeat the process daily. Experience what a game changer this can be for yourself and see how you can make rapid progress using just this process.
2. Take Baby Steps
Sometimes we procrastinate because the task may be intimidating to us. Maybe we don’t know where to start or there are so many steps in the process we get overwhelmed.
In such cases, the most important thing is to break down the project into bite-sized pieces, put them in order of priority if that makes sense and if not just start with the thing you can do and get going.
Keep in mind the mantra that what you’re aiming for here is “progress, not perfection”. And know that the best project is a finished one and that if you’re making progress all the time, you do eventually get it over the line!
Progress is genuinely what’s important here: it gives you evidence of your capability and something to celebrate along the way. This builds confidence and creates unstoppable momentum.
To give you an example of how this works in practice, I realised around this time last year that I’d spent over 6 months having ‘work on new website’ as a task on my agenda and I was getting nowhere! I applied this process and broke the overall project down into key tasks: clarify what’s needed in relaunch of website; identify web designer to work with; get tenders in; apply for grant; develop content; create/curate photos and images… within a few months it was all up and running!
So what’s your big frog and how can you make each task an individual ‘project’, one that you can make progress on and get going. And after completion of each step, celebrate and acknowledge your achievement, knowing that it is in the successful execution of each step that you finally achieve the overall big results.
3. Exercise Discernment
Think about something that you have been putting off again and again and again. If this is a smaller goal or project the steps above will be a powerful help in taking it forward.
But maybe you have a massive life goal that you are just not progressing. Perhaps you started 2021 with the intention of creating a new career or business? Or maybe you wanted to completely change your lifestyle and become the healthiest and most vital version of yourself? Maybe you wanted to transform an existing relationship or start a new relationship with your soul mate?
Sometimes, when we feel we’re not making any progress what we most need to do is discern if we have gone down the wrong road and need to turn around or if we just need to persevere. In this instance, discernment is key!
So here are a few tips for dealing with that.
What are the reasons that you set your heart on this outcome in the first place? Knowing why it is important to you can be a powerful motivation for keeping going, so check back in with your reasons for identifying the outcome you wanted in the first place and why it is so important to you.
Open up to your intuition and ask for guidance: if this dream is for my higher good, increase my passion for it. If this dream does not benefit myself and others, then re-direct me. Keep reminding yourself that you’re willing to be guided. When you’re dealing with big important dreams and goals listen only to your most trusted adviser: your self.
Move beyond the pros and cons of your desired outcome and instead tune in again to your desires and discontents. Pros and cons live in the land of logic and typically focus on problems and how to overcome them. Desires and discontent live in the land of the soul and will signpost you towards what you most yearn for and can best trust as the way forward.
Reconnect with your vision, focus on that north star and the ways to get there will reveal themselves. Make a decision that you are going to go for it and then take the action you can take, starting today. See processes 1 and 2 above to support you in starting and keeping going!
4. Support Team
So much of the time our overwhelm in progressing our big goals and dreams comes from feeling we have to do it all alone. This is one of the things we all have to give up! While you do need to listen to yourself in terms of what those big dreams are, you do not have to pursue them alone. We are social animals and we work best in partnership, we’re not supposed to do it alone!
I’ve seen this time and time again, in my own life and career trajectory and in my clients lives – when we get support from people who lift us up and who are focused on our growth and success it creates exponential momentum and growth.
So put a support team in place: join a mastermind group, find a mentor or coach, join a support group. You don’t have to do it all by yourself.
SAVE THE DATE!
If you’d love to experience a coach-led mastermind group, I’d love you to join me for the Pop-up Mastermind group
Friday 10 September: 2-5pm.
This is a small, limited capacity group where the focus is on getting and giving support and generating ideas and solutions to any question or challenge you might be facing.
Only 6 places available!
Catapult yourself towards celebrating your goals achieved on 31 December 2021!
Save the date, block it out in your calendar now and
look out for next week’s email with all the details.
Image Credits: Brett Jordan & Chang Doung via Unsplash