The mindset of "doing"
I would dedicate this post to the people out there who have the best ideas, the skillsets to execute those ideas well, the desire to think about succeeding with those ideas, but somewhere, they still don't do it. This post is dedicated to me.
The reasons for lack of action are plenty, but at the same time, the reasons are none.
While there are so many tricks to get you to "do," there's only one that works for me, and I hope it works for you too (if you're anything like me)
"Throw yourself into the deep end of the pool."
I have always noticed that no matter how lazy or unproductive my days get, there is nothing like a REAL Deadline that kicks me in the butt and pushes me to give a 110% to commit to the goal, and this has been the case my entire life.
So how do we create a "REAL" Deadline? Well, it's simple but difficult. You need to really push yourself out of your own comfort zone by sharing out your deadlines loud and clear with people who you hold extremely high respect for,
If you're a business, then those people are naturally your customers. Make a promise that you know you will be reaching for.. and that's exactly the kind of pressure that will get your best work out of you.
Whether it's your customers, clients, teachers, mentors, and at some point even yourself, as long as the person on the other side is someone who you cannot imagine letting down, you will on your own create the very "tangible" reason of why you need to meet your own deadline.
I would also advise on setting short deadlines; it's of interest to anyone when your goals are 3 months away - however, it's much more exciting, scary, and driven when deadlines are within a week or two at max.
So next time you have a dream or a goal that you really want to accomplish,
Break it down into tasks that you need to achieve, and each week, promise the results to the people you respect, set a real date and time, and share it on the day.
More likely than not, you may work the night before - but at the end of the day, you'll surely get it done, which is why it matters.
Amen to that! Sometimes sprinting will bring out the best in me by breaking down pieces and creating these mini milestones that add up very quickly. I noticed as well that tracking my time (even with pomodoros) has helped me jump into action and get real with my time usage! I also think that goals are important to keep you honest and for planning, but just as important are habits or dedicated practices that support them!
Sometimes the effect of 1, 2, 3 hours of truly uninterrupted intentional timed work daily creates the space that you cannot bargain with to show up and do SOMETHING! And usually you'll pick the important things to work on for your goals because using an uninterrupted dedicated time for something of little impact goes against our nature-- like driving all the way to the gym to walk around aimlessly. I love your points and honoring them with habits that require you to show up !! :)
Thank you so much Jordan! I surely agree with tracking time, I’m not someone who always notes it down or makes time slots, but I simply have a focus timer running next to me which makes sure i sit through its duration for my task.. while it sounds counterintuitive, sometimes the biggest breakthroughs in my projects come from those long uninterrupted hours rather than as Eureka moments out of nowhere.
Wish you the best with your endeavours!
This works but only for short-term, high-importance goals. I like to compare this to running a sprint. Seeing a goal in front of you within reach makes you give your best and is the fastest way to get there. But you can't break a 10k in 100 sprints and "fire a starting pistol" every 100 meters.
While setting constraints is a very important technique you need to utilize daily, I highly recommend against artificial deadlines. There are better techniques that can help you make progress without working yourself to death to reach a deadline that might not even matter.
Hey Sergey thanks for adding some very valuable feedback, I agree that this method does make it feel like a sprint, and to be honest my intention was to break down the whole marathon mentality into sprints because it forces me to reach more definitive milestones at the end of each of those sprints.
It may be a different method, but it just feels that breaking down those massive marathons to these smaller sprints is something that works better for me personally.
Its definitely easier to eat an elephant bite by bite :)
Really good key points to keep in mind, thanks for sharing 💯
Thank you Shazie! Always happy to share.