Do you ever find it hard to stay focused on your long-term goals, especially when they seem super distant or the path to success is unclear?
How about your professional goals? Maybe you have a dream career in mind, but it feels miles away, and you’re not even sure how to get there.
I know when you have long-term goals it can be hard to stay motivated day to day.
My AHA moment came when I decided to start thinking about my goals as a few decisions made every day.
What that meant was, every day I would ask myself,
Is what I’m doing bringing me closer to my overall goal or moving me further away?
Or
What can I do today to bring me closer to my goal?
Because the truth is, every action you take, every choice you make in the thinnest sliced moments of life is either creating a connection to what you want or it's driving a disconnection.
When you break your goals into one decision at a time, they become a whole lot easier to reach. And if you’re ever unsure of the choices you’re making for your future, you can ask yourself: Is this action going to bring me closer to my dream or further away?
For instance: Is accepting this job going to advance me toward my goal of becoming a professional speaker and writer or drive me further away?
I call this method of thinking "cleanse or clog." Cleanse=connecting choices. Clog=disconnecting choices.
Confession time. I love desserts! So I often like to describe "cleanse or clog" from the standpoint of dieting.
When you're dieting, rather than focus on the total number of pounds you want to lose – which can seem daunting – think of it as I just need to eat this apple over this cupcake this time.
Now, I'm not suggesting you have to be perfect. Perfection is actually a clog in itself because it lacks balance. So what I do is link my cleanse-or-clog method with the “80/20 rule”, with desserts going into the 20% of my intake column and healthy choices going into the 80% column.
Imagine in your career if you made cleansing, connected choices at least 80% of the time? And you did that for at least 45 days? How different would your life be after 45 days?
Now I want to hear from you! Do you have a dream that feels miles away? What is one thing you can do today to bring you closer to your goal?