🥇 How To Go Streaking Toward Your Goals

Welcome back! 👋

This week, we’ll walk through a few tips to make achieving your business and personal goals mo’ fun, mo’ likely, and mo’ faster this year.

Did you know that only 3% of people set annual goals, and only 1% of people write down their goals?

Yet, research has shown that you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down.

I heard these stats years ago, and until a couple of weeks ago, I had forgotten how rare goal-setting actually is for people.

Being part of an organization for the past 10 years that prioritizes teaching, training, and coaching around business planning every year made it seem so normal.

Every October, I sit down to review successes and learnings from the current year and begin writing a plan for the following year.

The plan begins with stated business and personal goals, written using the S.M.A.R.T. framework, followed by a GPS of sorts that outlines specific focuses that will determine the monthly, weekly, and daily actions I will need to take in order to accomplish my goals.

Such a process helps you (and your team) have a (unified) vision and clarity on the most important tasks to focus on throughout the year.

Unfortunately, while setting goals and creating a plan can be exciting, it can also cause a lot of overwhelm and anxiety right out of the gate. Now that you have a plan, you realize it’s time to do the work, and you may find yourself in a snowball of inaction and overwhelm, hindering you from achieving your goals.

Focus on habit creation to accomplish your goals faster.

You’ve set some big goals for this year, and perhaps you’re not sure where to start. Begin with finding what activities are fun for you that are in line with your goals and build your days around that.

HERE’S HOW:

1. Shift Your Focus From Outcomes To Daily Habits ✅

2. Become The Person Who Can Achieve Your Goals 🙋

3. Prioritize Your Time For Energy ⏱️

Step 1: Shift Your Focus From Outcomes To Daily Habits ✅

For years, I've focused on the wrong thing while goal-setting.

I spent too much time focusing on the result I wanted to achieve by the end of the year rather than the actions I needed to take to get there successfully. Perhaps there was too much emphasis in the training I had on how to plan and less on what to do next. Therefore, my brain got stuck in place.

As a business owner for 10 years and a big thinker, I often became overwhelmed by my goals and, as a result, oftentimes didn't hit them.

This year, I shifted my focus.

I shifted to the daily habits I want to create to become the person I want to be and develop the skills I need to have to achieve my goals.

By shifting focus from outcomes to habits, my focus is on what I can control and the actions that will likely bring me to those outcomes.

This is the part I was aware of, the breaking big goals down into smaller chunks part, and wasn’t able to execute until now.

I had to figure out what drives me.

Step 2: Become The Person Who Can Achieve Your Goals 🙋

In order to accomplish your goals, you need to grow into a better version of yourself.

To decide you want to achieve a certain result isn't enough. You must learn new skills or change how you've operated in the past to have a different outcome. Bigger goals require bigger actions and new habits and skills to support those actions.

Focus on the daily steps you can take to become the person you need to be.

This is easier said than done. You have to know what drives you.

For the past 25 years, I had somehow convinced myself that I wasn’t competitive. I realized last year that couldn’t be further from the truth. I had buried that part of me in an effort to protect myself from the fear of failure or losing.

Going into last year, I thought about when in my life I had been consistent.

Consistency provides clues to your drive.

Consistency is also how you WIN.

Be consistent in the right things and achieving your goals becomes easier.

I realized that the Apple Watch I’ve had for the past five years had something that ignited my drive without me noticing it.

Gamification, tracking, and accountability around physical activity.

I also tracked 1,095 consecutive meals in Noom in 2023.

I was driven to continue streaks.

Streaks create habits.

Jackpot! 💰💰💰

If I responded so well to this, how could I implement it in other areas of my life to create habits around my business goals and things that bring me energy?

Set meaningful goals and gamify bite-size action.

Even 10 minutes each day learning a new skill can compound into massive results quickly.

If I can’t find and invest as little as 10 minutes each day toward my goal, is that goal truly important to me?

Step 3: Prioritize Your Time For Energy ⏱️

Once you decide what goals are important to you and begin taking action daily, you will find you need to edit your priorities and allocate your time better to give you the energy you need to create new habits and learn new skills.

Last year, I was reminded of how critical energy, prioritization, and time management are for action. Writing a newsletter and 20+ Twitter posts each week while learning to write was mentally taxing and physically exhausting for a new digital writer. It became clear I had to focus on protecting my energy and time to ensure I remained consistent.

First, determine which 20% of tasks yield 80% of your results and commit to actions that support the consistent completion of those tasks.

Then, add things that give you energy throughout the day. This will be different for everyone based on your goals, interests, and your environment.

For me, it’s moving my body with a daily walk or run and learning new skills that move me closer to who I want to be, personally and professionally.

I work from home, and my Command station has books everywhere and a keyboard behind me, so it’s easier to get in some reading and piano lessons in between appointments and research and writing sessions.

One day at a time, prioritizing habit creation of things that energize you and help you become a better version of yourself will build momentum to help you accomplish what’s most important to you faster.

Have a productive and energizing week, my friends!

ONWARD TOGETHER.

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