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We all know how to set goals that excite us, and as we get ready to go into 2020 (crazy, I know), I’m sure you, just like myself, have some big goals that you’re currently excited about.
We also know that no matter what, the difference between setting your goals and achieving your goals are the actions you take in between.
These are the small steps that you are constantly taking over time. They’re typically the steps that no one else really sees or knows about.
They’re also the steps that you’re probably not giving yourself anywhere near enough credit for doing. But, if you continue to show up and do them, you can achieve any goal that you’ve set for yourself.
Now, some of these actions you may enjoy doing since they’re things that you’re naturally gifted at. Then there are also those things that you may not enjoy doing so you either outsource them or yes, suck it up and do them right.
Not everything that’s required for success will always be 100% of what you want to do. Same goes for every area of life.
For instance, people who want to live a healthy lifestyle know that they need to workout but they may not necessarily enjoy doing so.
Regardless of how they feel, they do it anyway because they know It’s going to help serve their body and get them to a specific goal.
You may be avoiding necessary steps
You might be finding yourself creating a to-do list for next year with the same action items you should have done this year.
These are steps that you know you need to be taking but cannot seem to bring yourself to do them.
You’re probably asking yourself why you keep putting them off despite knowing they’re going to help you and your business grow?
You may be sticking to doing the things which are easy or safe instead and giving yourself a hard time about it all.
Well I’m here to tell you, welcome to being a human because we all do this very same thing in different areas of our lives.
What I’ve realized over the past few years is that most times, this happens because we rely on self-motivation or self-discipline which naturally points us to the things we enjoy doing.
Without the right accountability, you almost always will choose the path of least resistance and avoid doing things that you don’t enjoy.
It’s why when we’re working for someone else, we show up and do the work no matter what the task is. Yet when we work for ourselves, we tend to let a lot of things slide.
This is simply because as humans we don’t thrive off of self-motivation alone. We almost need to catch when we are falling into our own traps, kick our own butt and get us moving to achieve any goal that we’ve set.
The right accountability matters
I think many people have these amazing goals and great visions for themselves but then spend so much time beating themselves up for not being there yet when really, we just need to change the way we are taking action.
We need to change a few little things and tap into how we’re naturally wired so we can take the action that is needed to help with goal achievement.
This is actually part of the training that I presented to the women in the collective this year.
The Collective
The collective is a 6-month experience that I run that includes full one-on-one with me and a support group. It’s limited to seven women at a time all in different industries that are coming together with the goal of scaling their business for freedom driven success.
It’s a very tight-knit group of women who are all dealing with the same kind of struggles that many business owners have specifically around getting disciplined and showing up for things we need to do.
I took them through seven steps to help them get focused, achieve their goals, and avoid getting caught up in busy work along the way.
If you are currently experiencing this lack of self-discipline, I want to first understand that you aren’t alone. Since I’ve seen this in so many businesses, including my own, I have learned what works and want to help others apply it into their own business and life.
Seven actionable steps to help you achieve your goals
1. Identify the gap.
This can be applied to any area of life, business, relationships, spirituality, etc… Now, rate them on a scale of one to five.
So one being “Houston, we have a problem” and five being “I know It’s not perfect but I’m doing really well in this area.
The one with the lowest score is what you’re going to take through this process. You can also just focus on your business as well.
2. What does success look and feel like?
What would the next level of success look like for you? Really think about that. What would your lifestyle look like? What would you be filled to the brim with? What would be selling for you?
Allow yourself to imagine anything because in reality, anything is possible. So allow yourself to really sink into not just what the next level success looks like, but also what it feels like to you.
Does it give you a sense of ease? freedom? security? safety? Write down the words that come to mind.
3. How will you know you’ve hit that next level of success?
This comes down to your own to-do list and whether or not you’ve achieved things you set out to achieve.
They are the things that you’ve checked off your “to-do” or “to-accomplish” list so this is very subjective.
You’ll know when you’ve achieved your next level of success when you’ve accomplished what you were aiming for. Examples include, the amount of people signing up for your course, or even paying off your home.
Keeping track of these things will help you stay committed and motivated as you review and celebrate your progress.
4. What actions show that you’re on track?
Let’s say your goal is to hit $400k next year; that might be a big gap from where you’re currently at. You might currently be at $85k or even $175k.
The reality is, It’s a huge jump and in order to get to the $400k, you’re going to need to focus on the small steps that you’re taking consistently. Identify what those steps are and begin to list them out.
Did you or are you building your list? Have you increased your prices? Etc… Then, look at someone who’s already achieved making $400k or half a million per year and observe their actions and what they’re doing.
What consistent action are they taking? Get ideas from their actions then write out your list of 10 things that you need to do or are doing to indicate you’re on track and then narrow it down to 5.
These become the top 5 things you need to be doing consistently in your business in order to move you forward. These things are usually going to be focused around visibility or connection/service.
5. What red flags indicate that you’re off track?
The positive actions that you list down are the things that are going to help you get to that goal. We’ve all been there—you stare down your checklist and then turn off your computer and work on something else.
This is when you need to get honest with yourself and admit that you are falling off the wagon. You know you need to be working on the top 5 things you’ve set for yourself yet you avoid them constantly.
Here’s an example: When it comes to health/losing weight for instance, you’ll know you’ve fallen off track when you’ve eaten out multiple days in a row or skipped working out for several days or weeks. In business, you may be part of a paid mastermind group in which you’re M.I.A. for.
Whatever the case is, you’ll know what that red flag is for you so write it down. Identify the things that will indicate that you’ve lost your focus and become more mindful of them.
6. Make a list
What I like to do and what I urge others to do as well, is to get a piece of paper or an index card, draw 2 columns and on one side, write down 5 positive actions that help you accomplish your goals.
These are typically the actions that support your next level success. Keep them front and center for you. Then, on the other side, write out your red flags.
These are going to be 5 things that indicate you’ve fallen off track for each of those 5 positive actions.
7. Define your motivation factor for those positive actions
There are four areas of what people are typically motivated by. It’s important to keep your vision and goals very specific as they will serve as your driving factors and what you use to motivate yourself.
Top 4 Motivators
Money.
If you’re someone who’s motivated by money, you’ll likely pay your way to from a red flag action to positive actions on your list. Example, working with a paid mentor/coach or, needing to pay for something such as a cause you don’t believe in IF you do not achieve something you’ve set out to achieve.
For me personally, I know that if I pay a stretch amount of money to a coach, it will urge me to show up and do the work, so that I don’t feel like I’m wasting money.
If you’re someone who struggles with clients not showing up to calls, raise your prices because you need to sometimes stretch people who are not motivated by money in order to get them to do the action(s).
Also, you can tell a friend that you’ll give him/her $100 bucks if you don’t complete something by Friday for instance. Sometimes, the idea of losing the $100 is enough to make you do the thing.
Accountability.
Some people may thrive off of accountability, so they’ll publicly announce what they need to do to their audience or to a business bestie or a friend. This means you are held accountable to someone else in order to help you take certain actions.
Some people may find accountability annoying or ineffective for them and that’s ok—it may not be your motivating factor. But if it is, you’ll find that being held accountable by someone else is enough to help you switch from red flag to positive action on your list.
I personally thrive off of accountability so I love working with a friend or business bestie to help us each map out our businesses and strategies.
Rewards.
Some people are motivated by rewards and that isn’t a bad thing! Rewarding yourself doesn’t always have to be something that costs you money.
It’s just something that gets you to switch from red flags back over to action because once you’re taking action, it brings more action. So, it’s just something you may need to do when you fall off track.
So if a reward is what gets you motivated, keep your timelines short so that you can reward yourself often as you move along. This will help you keep momentum going and the more action you take, the closer you’ll get to achieving your end goal.
For me personally, I work faster towards my goals if I know I get to reward myself with things like painting or redoing our living room.
Find what type of reward motivates you and keep it front and center as you work.
Cause.
You may have one or multiple causes you believe in that are really helping to drive you in your business. In what way(s) does that cause suffer by you not showing up?
If your business isn’t making money because you’re not showing up, it might be impacting the lives of people and not in the way you would like it to. This could be because they’re not getting the support, money, or other resources that you had said you were going to bring to this awareness.
There are so many different things we can do to help causes. Freedom Driven Success donates to a lot of causes throughout the year and that means I need to show up and make money in order to do that.
So if i’m not showing up, then I can purposely use a cause that’s important to me to help me stay motivated.
For example, mental health education is super important to me and a huge motivating cause. So, if I’m not showing up and making money to help pay towards that cause, it bothers me and causes me to desire to work harder.
Find your personal motivation
Bottom line, you need to know what your personal motivation is and use that to take action. Look back at your past and see what has helped to drive you; this will help you figure out what it is.
If I were to put these motivators in order, they would be, money, a cause, accountability, and then rewards.
So write down all of your motivators on a sheet of paper, flip it over and begin writing out exactly what you can do to trigger that piece of you.
You may find that you need an accountability partner or a new cause to get excited about. Leverage these things to help you accomplish your goal(s).
What are your personal goals? Come on over to the Freedom Driven Success Instagram page and send me a DM letting me know!—or even better, share this blog and podcast episode in your stories and tag me with what your motivating factor is.
I’d love to cheer you on and see the goals that you are working on into the new year. Talk soon!