Once you know your big goal, it can be a lot of fun to dream about it—what it will be like to live in that beach house, what it will feel like to have that lifestyle of freedom, etc. But to get there you have to reach smaller goals, and to achieve these goals you have to make them measurable. Why does that feel so scary? Well, if you pick a goal and decide to achieve it by a certain date, or format your goal in terms of a number (such as deciding you want five new clients, for example), you commit yourself to take action on that. Making measurable goals is scary because you have to do something next!
Taking action can be terrifying because by taking a step you allow the possibility of failure. If you never did anything, you wouldn’t fail either. Sometimes our fear of failure overtakes our motivation to achieve our dreams, and we fall back on doing things the “safe” way. This often looks like avoidance or procrastination. We avoid setting goals with a specific measurable objective, or a specific deadline. Or we set these goals, and then we procrastinate about achieving them.
I have experienced these feelings myself. I spent this very morning taking the first steps toward achieving one of the 2022 goals that I set for Fesyk Marketing.
If I had to categorize this goal it’s one of the many smaller steps to achieving the big goal (my BHAG) and yet it feels enormous at the same time. You see, it is an action step that is way outside of my comfort zone. It is something that lights me up and aligns with my BHAG in a meaningful way. It is something that makes me feel inspired, creative, but also vulnerable AF. This goal relates to content creation and I think almost all of us can agree that creating authentic, meaningful content feels a little like we are exposing ourselves.
When we feel exposed and vulnerable, our little lizard brain, our amygdala screams “don’t do it!”. So we stop. And we tell ourselves stories like “I don’t have anything original to share,” “Why would anyone want to hear about what I have to say” “Wait, what was that great idea I had again? I had it, but now it’s gone”. The ancient part of our brain does not see this as holding us back, its job is to be a protector and to prevent us from the dangers of life like being eaten by a lion. It’s not very practical in this day and age but evolution hasn’t been able to erase these little connectors deep inside our brain that are stopping us from doing the things that help us grow and achieve success.
So today I want to tell you the strategy I use to shush the part of my brain that holds me back and focus on what is actually important, which in this case is setting and achieving smaller goals to help move closer to my BHAG.
My secret is this. Do it anyway. One tiny step at a time, as much as you can possibly muster in the moment. How does one go about doing it anyway, you ask? Here are a couple of options.
#1 Mark time in your calendar or add an action step to your to-do list.
It’s so easy to procrastinate, but if you continue to create space to work toward achieving your goals the more likely you are to take action. One of my favourite sayings is: where the attention goes the energy flows. So, if you intentionally carve out time to focus on achieving your goals you surely are more likely to achieve them.
#2 Daydream.
Picture yourself achieving your biggest goal. Next, picture yourself achieving your small goal. Both feel really good! Whether it’s a smaller goal like ticking the box, leaving a networking meeting with five new connections, publishing a blog or social media post or, actualizing your BHAG, it’s important to take time to feel what the result will be like when you get there. If you feel a bit of fear or imposter syndrome when you lean into your dream, do a gut check and spend a little time writing down what it feels like to get the results you’re looking for.
#3 Brainstorm.
If you’re out of ideas on what to do next in your efforts to achieve your goal, set aside 20 minutes and list 10-15 things you could take action on right now. Stretch yourself a little. Tap into your intuition. There are no bad ideas. Once you’ve got your list pick one or two that you find a little more inspiring than the others and take action on those. If you need some inspiration for this check out this goal-setting worksheet we put together to help you.
#4 Move!
If you are staring at a blank screen, completely blocked of creativity and inspiration, the best possible thing you can do for yourself is to move. Go for a 20-minute walk, take a shower or jump onto YouTube and do a 20-minute workout or yoga class. Movement begets movement so as my favourite YouTube yoga teacher Adrienne says, “find what feels good” and get moving. You will be astonished at the results.
#5 Stay Accountable.
As I actively work toward creating a course to help business owners take action and create their own marketing plan, I get overwhelmed by the number of things there are do. I get stuck in overwhelm and sometimes it’s hard to take action steps forward. So my last piece of advice is to find motivation from others going through the same thing. An accountability partner can provide a sense of inspiration and help to create momentum too. You definitely don’t have to go it alone.
Those are my five tips! They help me to stop procrastinating and to start moving time and time again. Let me know how these work for you, or if you have some tips that always help you take action, let me know in the comments below. Keep going! You’ve got this.
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Key Takeaway
You need two things to achieve your goal. The first is vision. A picture in your mind’s eye of you achieving your goal. And the second is action. Achieve that vision by creating smaller, measurable goals and taking action steps as often as you can. Celebrate your wins and keep going!
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Need a little more help setting goals? Check out our previous blogs on goal-setting: