Tag: goals

Are you productive? Or are you just busy?

Don’t confuse busyness with productivity. Work on things that matter/move the needle. Don’t spend time on the trivial…eliminate that which isn’t necessary for you (or anyone) to do, automate that which can be automated (have A.I. help), and delegate that which needs to be done but not necessarily by you.

If you want to grow, you will HAVE to learn how to do these things. We all only have so much time and energy during the day. If we spend all of it doing things that don’t bring us closer to our goals, we are leaving a lot on the table.

Being busy is not necessarily the same as being productive. How can you minimize the busy work and focus on doing the most meaningful and/or dollar-productive work?

A man who chases two rabbits catches neither

A man who chases two rabbits catches neither​
A man who chases two rabbits catches neither.

Focus on finishing one task before moving on to the next one.

In today’s ADHD world, it’s easy to get distracted by new ideas or to think you can multitask effectively, but the truth is if you are constantly chasing after two dissimilar goals, you’re unlikely to accomplish either of them.

SMART Goals for 2022

Have a SMART goal in mind.

S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym standing for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. These goals are designed to keep you on track and motivated to achieve what you want in life. They work because instead of just having a general idea of what you want (i.e., “I want to retire early”), they make you think about the path of how to actually get there.

For example, if you want to retire early, how early? Does retiring early mean retiring at 60? 55? 45? You need to set an end date to create a sense of urgency. This will also help you reverse engineer your goal to see if it’s realistic/attainable. You’ll need to figure out how much you need to live off of per month or per year and then can use cool tools like the 4% rule to see how much money you need invested to hit your retirement goal. Are you ok living off of $40,000 per year ($3,333 per month) or do you need $80,000 or more? What expenses will you have when you retire? In addition to basic living (food, water, transportation, cell phone), will you still have a mortgage payment? Don’t forget you’ll likely need to pay for healthcare. Using the 4% rule, you’ll need $1,000,000 invested if you want to live off a $40,000/year income.

The good news is that if you’re young, you have a lot of time to make good financial decisions and allow those good decisions to compound over time. The bad news is, it’s a long time to stay focused on a goal. So Instead of taking a straight line to where you want to go, it might be more of a winding road.

How do you stay focused for 20 years? To do this, you have break it down into more manageable chunks (having “milestones” to look forward to), celebrate the wins once you achieve those milestones, review your goals regularly, have an accountability partner to make sure you’re not straying too far off your path, understanding that sometimes you’ll have to delay gratification, not worry about what others think and stop comparing your life to theirs, and have a strong reason for wanting what you are stating is your goal. Do you want to retire early only so you can sit in front of the tv all day or do you want to enjoy life with others? If it’s the latter, who’s to say you can’t do that now?

Be focused, not finished

Some of us set goals (or have New Years resolutions) and feel like we did something just by writing them down.

Some of us start out with good intentions to accomplish the goals we wrote down, but when motivation wanes, when things get tough, or life gets in the way, we conveniently forget about our goals or discard them.

Some of us accomplish our New Years resolutions early in the year, not because we’re overachievers, but because we set the bar too low (almost like a checklist that has “brush teeth” on it).

And some of us achieve our goals and then relax or return to bad habits to celebrate the accomplishment. There’s nothing wrong with celebrating wins (big and small), and I actually think it’s important to note how far you’ve come. But don’t get complacent. Don’t celebrate too long or get too far off-track. It’s time to get back to work. Just because you’ve accomplished a goal doesn’t mean you’re finished. After all, you’re still alive, right? Everyday, you can get better. Strive to be better than who you were yesterday.

How to succeed when dreaming BIG

Anything is possible. You just have to set your mind to it and avoid distractions. What is the most important thing that I need to accomplish today? What actions do I need to take to accomplish that? What resources do I need to accomplish that? If I’m unable to accomplish it on my own, who do I need to connect with to help?

Once you figure all of those questions out, go out and do the one thing. But don’t get complacent afterwards…instead, figure out what the next most important thing for you to do is and start the process all over again.

The universe rewards action. It’s not what you know, it’s what you do. Who cares if you have the knowledge but don’t do anything with it?

Dream big. Don’t dream for just an above average or realistic goal. What would your best life look like? Why not try to accomplish that instead?