Motivational Archives - Page 2 of 4 - Pick a DirectionPick a Direction

What Riding My Bike Taught Me About Taking Risks

Lessons about taking risks come in all experiences and forms.

A very recent one came from riding my bike. Sometimes you have wonderful moments enjoying the outdoors, other times you are concussed with a bleeding head.

My First Ride

It was a deliberate decision: I am going to be that guy that rides his bike to work.

This type of transportation costs less money. It’s exercise. It’s a chance for me to see a side of this beautiful city (Charleston, SC) I don’t normally get to experience. But mostly, I like going against the grain.

Just like that it was settled, I bought a 1979 Raleigh Roadbike with years of “character” through Craigslist for $120. After another $45 on a lock and a new chain at the bike store, I was pumped to pedal home on my newest prized possession.

I only enjoyed my ride for three blocks before the back tire popped off in the middle of traffic. At which time I almost got hit by a car (for the first time) on Calhoun Street.

I quickly realized if I wanted to become an experienced biker, I couldn’t depend on others to work on my bike for me, I had to do it myself. There’s been times when I needed help, but not with simple things like putting my back tire securely on my bike. The $8/hour college kid didn’t care about my equipment or my body, all he cared about was the cheeseburger he was going to eat at lunch the minute I left the store.

Nobody cares about your bike/idea/business/success as much as you do. It took a tire falling off my bike for me to realize this, just take my word.

The Good ol’ Days

After the first little mishap, I learned to work on my bike without having to take it to the shop. There are so many resources online and through YouTube it’s unfathomable. You can fix or learn just about anything with only an internet connection and a few tools.

I spent the next couple months navigating the streets of downtown Charleston with care. Many are cobblestone alleys and there are more one-way streets than you can shake a stick at. But the biggest danger is the fact that bikes are not allowed on sidewalks in Charleston. Bikers have to obey all traffic laws and must be on the streets at all times since the sidewalks are so narrow.

I learned to (A.) Pedal fast & (B.) Keep my head on a swivel.

But it’s fun!

I loved the way the traffic made me focus on the task at hand, forcing me to take calculated risks. And the speed is intense, there’s nothing like getting into a full sprint and getting the job done faster than anyone else.

The Crash

One day I crashed… HARD.

I concussed myself, smashed my hand, mangled my equipment, and worst of all… my pride was hurt. It cost me over $200 in repairs (more than I spent on the bike to begin with). The price tag and the head + body aches were more than enough to send most people hobbling for a comfy seat in their car. After all, the bike was a choice.

But I knew it wasn’t the end of me.

I knew what I did wrong and I saw where I made the mistakes that set me up for the fall. I took immediate measures to prevent these mistakes: (1) no more riding at night unless totally necessary and (2) helmet required.

If you’re ever going to do something bold, you cannot be afraid of failure.

You have to be willing to take risks. Sometimes the risks are physical injury. Other times risks come in the form of investments. Still other risks may come in the shape of a career choice.

But the risk is better than the alternative: do nothing. Because when you do nothing, NOTHING HAPPENS.

The Meaning Behind The Story

Everything is relative. I spend a lot of time thinking while I’m on the bike. I originally wrote this to make correlations between riding my bike and business. We learn from stories, and I hope you can get a good chuckle out of this one. I know I did!

Go back and re-read this post, but this time change up some verbiage. Replace bike with business, crash with failure, traffic for competition, and so on. Go back to the beginning and think about your business, think about the passion you started with.

There are parallels for days, sometimes it just takes a bump on the head to make everything clear!

—

If you were a bike, what kind of bike would you be & why?

Leave me a comment or chat with me on Twitter, I’d love to hear from you. Have a great week!

—

Sign up for Posts via Email below

Giving to Gain

Click the Cover Page to Download

I went ten months without a job.

I spent most of that time lost and confused, not knowing which path to take. And when I finally chose one, I didn’t know if it was the “right” one.

All I could do was forge forward and trust that everything was going to work out. I put my story into a book. This is how I gave my way to two jobs without a resume.

It wasn’t easy, and I’m still working hard at it. But I’ve learned some valuable lessons by taking this path.

The book is filled with my experiences, stubbornness, mistakes, and successes as I attempt to do things my way. I’d love for you to read it. Just click the cover page and download the PDF.

You don’t even have to signup for my email list, but I’d love it if you did you can signup on the right sidebar 🙂 .

The Difference Between

When you’re bored there are too many distractions to be productive
When you’re busy there is just enough time for everything
When you’re bombarded you can’t focus long enough to get the important things done

Bored is uninteresting
Busy is exciting
Bombarded is overwhelming

If you’re bored, you’re lazy
If you’re busy, you have initiative
If you’re bombarded, you’re foolish

Avoid bored
Stay busy
Don’t let yourself be bombarded

Find your busy place today 🙂

—

Leave me a comment or chat with me on Twitter, I’d love to hear from you. Have a great week!

—

Sign up for Posts via Email below

How to Stick to Goals and Knowing When to Ditch Them

It all starts with Why. Simon Sinek explained that in 2009. Why do you do what you do?

It’s a question not all of us can answer. For a long time I couldn’t. I just sort of put my head down & worked my tail off. I was rewarded for it, but in hind sight I was just following orders like a good worker bee.

In the past I’ve written about quitting on your goals and when that’s an honorable thing to lean into. But recently, I have found myself sticking with some goals that I may have quit in the past.

There’s a big difference in quitting because you’re uncomfortable and quitting because you don’t want to commit.

It comes down to your WHY

Knowing why you set your goals and having conviction about them will make all the difference. If you’re not in love with a goal, why would you push through hard times to achieve it?

If you’re not in love with a goal, why would you sacrifice anything for it?

If you’re not in love with a goal, why are you pursuing it?

If you’re not in love with a goal, why bother?

Answering these questions before you ever put a goal down on paper will help you decide whether or not it’s worth sticking to when times get tough.

Pro football players decide whether or not a season of brutality is worth a potential Lomdardi Trophy in the off-season while life is calm. They don’t decide whether it’s worth it during pre-season camp while their bodies are aching (unless you’re Brett Favre of course).

If you know why you’re getting yourself into something, you will have more conviction to stick to it than if your goal is randomly plucked out of the air. Or worse, if you’re setting certain goals for the wrong reasons.

The Why Behind My Goals

In January I published a few of my goals to make them public knowledge and keep myself accountable. I picked these because they matter to me and will help shape me into who I want to be. I have other financial and personal goals, but these are a couple that I want to put meaning behind to illustrate my point.

Build a TV Stand –

I used to work in the furniture industry and my company sold “cookie-cutter” furniture by the truckloads. Literally AND figuratively. All the furniture in my house came from that company and now that I have divorced myself from them, my furniture reminds me of those days.

Since I want to move on and really enjoy expressing my creativity through wood-working, I am in the laborious process of building a TV stand.

If I give up on the TV Stand before it’s finished, it’s like I’m still attached (yes, that may sound cheesy to you) to the company I’m moving away from. Plus, as a creative person, I do not get satisfaction from starting a bunch of projects without finishing them.

I get satisfaction from shipping finished works.

I talked about creating quality work with this project and it has given me it’s share of headaches to smooth over. But ultimately I’ve stuck to this goal now I’m almost ready to finish it.

Write an eBook –

I have a BHAG to write a book. As in, a hardcover book that tells a very specific story I was fortunate enough to experience. The problem is, I’m an average writer at best (if you agree, you don’t need to tell with me in the comments, just silently nod your head). I need as much practice as I can get so I don’t botch the opportunity I have to share it with the world.

Writing, editing, & publishing an eBook is nowhere near as big of a feat as publishing my book.

However, it’s like the kid who starts out surfing 2 foot waves. Once he masters those, he can move on to the 3-4 footers. And then he can take a trip to Costa Rica and attack some 6-10 footers. He doesn’t just jump into Pipeline on his first day paddling out.

I started really small by journaling. Then I began to publish my work for the world to see on this blog. Now I’m getting into the eBook. They’re all baby steps.

I have to get this under my belt to continue building towards publishing my big book next year.

This too has given me plenty of doubt and frustration. But after I got the ball rolling, I’m able to crank out a page every day I sit down to write.

What you won’t see is the nearly 10 pages of scrapped work left in my journal. I didn’t give up because this is important to me and I know WHY I’m pushing through those dips.

Quitting My Own Company

I see now what Seth Godin was talking about in The Dip. He spoke extensively on why is’t OK for us to quit. Quit the things that don’t make sense, quit the dead-ends before you waste anymore time.

In the early part of 2014 I had goals to start my own company, hire sales people, create an awesome service, and forge my own path. I started with current clients and laid out prospects, revenue goals, hiring goals, and even put a business plan on paper (and by paper I mean a marker board in my bedroom).

Within 45 days of making all those plans and carefully setting all of those goals, I quit them – all. I was offered a position that had more upside than my current path. The best case scenario in both situations looked completely different.

I weighed having my own company versus working as an independent contractor for an established company.

My business plan was held together by shoelaces & duct tape. Although I knew the business could evolve in the future, there were a lot of dead ends on the horizon.

On the other hand, the company I currently work with has unlimited potential and I entered in on the ground floor of a budding powerhouse. The guys respect me and they’re the kind of people that follow the Jim Collins train of thought, they just want the right people on the bus right now.

To them, I’m one of the right people. And on my end, I’m pumped about where that bus is headed.

Good thing I was willing to quit my own goals to work with guys that care about me and want me to be part of something so cool.

I could see I wasn’t in a dip, my situation wasn’t going to get better, and this wasn’t just a hard time I had to push through. I was on a dead end road.

Just like so many of you, I was on a path that I knew didn’t lead anywhere I wanted to be. I hopped off that train, why haven’t you?

—

When was a time that you stuck with a goal? Leave me a comment or chat with me on Twitter, I’d love to hear from you. Have a great week!

—

You can Sign up for Posts via Email below

Enduring Discomfort and Learning to Push Your Limits

Everyone has a pain threshold. Some of us can take more than others. Some of us can’t take much at all.

On one hand there are the people such as Marcus Luttrell (The “Lone Survivor”). He was shot multiple times, experienced a compound fracture in his leg, and fell down a mountain after his 3 comrades were gunned down. Then he walked to another village before being rescued! (This explanation hardly does this hero justice, check out the book or the movie to find out more.)

Let’s just say his pain threshold is higher than yours and mine.

Then there are people who can barely run a lap around the track without complaining about a blister or some sort of ache. They have never had to endure physical pain in their lives.

So what separates the two categories? And what does that distinction mean? Today I want to explore some reasons for enduring discomfort and skill of learning to push your limits.

Learning to Push Your Limits

One of the things I feel extremely fortunate for is my experience in sports. In sports, especially football, you learn to push yourself beyond your limits. You learn that you have more potential than you know. But if you want to tap into that potential, you have to be willing to put yourself through pain.

Those of us that were willing to put ourselves through the pain of training hard were fortunate enough to play. The translation of that lesson into the real world is hard to convey to someone that has never trained for a physical competition or race.

Putting ourselves through physical hardships teaches us to endure mental hardships.

Long days at an office are nothing compared to playing with a broken bone. Having to put up with a moody boss is petty compared to conditioning tests in the August heat. And you feel less of the need to complain about pay when you don’t have to sit in an ice bath every night just to be able to get out of bed the next day.

Becoming More Stoic

If you know what it’s like to sacrifice and endure some sort of pain (physical or mental), you are able to survive hardships longer.

I was talking with a new friend this weekend and I told him about my work history, jumping into the unknown, and everything I have been doing since. I told him about cutting my expenses and living below my means in order to save money.

He called it going into “survival mode.” I love that term.

I know what it’s like to sacrifice. So when it was time to cut expenses, go through some rough patches, and dig in, I was ready for it.

In survival mode, we have to be able to endure things that might seem crazy or stupid to people that live with an abundance of luxury in their lives. I often wonder what would happen if we had a major crisis and we (Americans) had to begin sacrificing all of our luxuries. Who would make it?

To me, “survival mode” was about cutting the fat and limiting my expenses. If I didn’t need it I stopped paying for it. I was able to stretch my savings if I was willing to get used to some hardships like dropping cable and riding my bike as often as I can. Which now are two things I love about my life, I’m not glued to the TV and I get exercise even on days I can’t get to the gym.

Minimalists know exactly what I’m talking about. The less you have, the more free you feel in a lot of ways. If you get used to having a little, than abundance is not necessary. And you magically become more grateful for the things you DO have.

Testing Ourselves

I didn’t realize how much I could sacrifice until I had to. It’s difficult to change a lifestyle when you are comfortable. But the more we live in comfort, the weaker we tend to become (this is my personal opinion and I will gladly debate it with you). When you live a life of ease, you aren’t ready for the real challenges when they come your way.

That’s not to say I sleep on floor every night and “forget” to brush my teeth because it’s uncomfortable talking to people. But taking a cold shower every once in a while isn’t going to kill anybody. And when you can endure self-inflicted discomfort, the unexpected discomforts don’t seem to have as much of an effect and we are able to take them in stride.

Regularly testing yourself helps to build up that ability to cope with discomfort. So when it comes and you’re not ready for it, you won’t freak out. You can comfortably act like you’ve been there before.

Testing yourself build confidence and the ability to take on more challenges/hardships/uncomfortable situations. I want to challenge you to regularly step out of your comfort zone and start learning to push your limits.

This can by physical testing like a race, weight loss, trying a new sport/activity, or it can be taking a cold shower. It can be mental testing such as reading a book beyond your ability, it can be writing (P.S. you don’t have to share it like I do), or it can be something such as learning a new skill. Or it can be something social like going to a networking event or asking a stranger out on a date if that scares you.

There’s lots of ways to test yourself when it comes to pushing limits!

Whatever you choose, push yourself and learn to endure that discomfort intentionally. When you can are able to step out of that comfort zone, you’ll find a whole new world waiting for you.

—

What are you thoughts on pushing your limits? How about being uncomfortable?

I look forward to hearing from you below or on Twitter (@mikemccann3), have a great day!

Want posts sent directly to your email?

Fill out the simple form below and check your email to confirm!

This Kid is a Blind Surfer… What’s your Excuse?

I am an avid movie watcher. I’m not a film critic or an aficionado, I just love to go to the movies. It stems from my youth, my brother & I love to take my Dad to action films. If something blows up, he’s in heaven.

Friday we (Katie & I) went to see a film that didn’t exactly go BOOM, but I was still blown away. I am a sucker for inspirational quotes, motivational sayings, and above all else, stories of triumph. Derek Rabelo has a story that is all of that and more. He left me in awe of what someone can accomplish when they set their mind to it.

The Story

Derek Rabelo was born blind in Brazil in 1992. He has never been able to see the water, but it’s always been part of his life. His father owned a surf shop and by the time Derek was a teenager, he was ready to start taking on the ocean.

His story was picked up by a number of people that were inspired by his determination, lack of fear, and love for surfing. The film documents Derek’s journey from Brazil to California to Hawaii in search of his ultimate goal: To catch a barrel at Pipeline.

Derek and Laird

Along the way, Derek gets to meet and surf with legends like Kelly Slater, Laird Hamilton (who’s 50 and still more ripped than anyone half his age), Bethany Hamilton, Rob Machado, and more. Each of these pros gives him advice on the way to his goal, and each of them are in awe of what he continues to accomplish.

The film has a plot-line that delves into Derek’s faith as a Christian. Like all of us, he goes through good times and bad. It’s how he deals with the adversity that enables him to accomplish what he has in life.

If you can’t tell, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and I would recommend it to anyone, whether you surf or not. Beyond Sight is the name of the film. If you are in Charleston, we saw it at The Terrace Theatre on James Island.

Inspirational Surfing

Derek and Rob

As a Beach Rat and Lifeguard, I spent the first 18 years of my life in or around the water. I know how hard it is to hear the waves coming or to stay afloat when you are temporarily blinded by hair or water in your eyes. But permanently blind???

What Derek continues to accomplish is mind-blowing. He has completely thrown out the notion that he has a handicap. He does not want people’s pity, he does not want someone to make it easier for him. He is playing the hand he was dealt and he is making the most of his situation.

Goals are something I talk about a lot. And there is always adversity when trying to accomplish something big. If there’s no adversity, your goals are big enough!

A while back I asked what you would do if you knew you couldn’t fail. Derek has approached surfing and his life-long goals with this attitude, there is nothing too big for him.

Many of us, myself included, make excuses for not doing things. We let The Resistance beat us. Or we allow ourselves to get distracted. We give in and say, “It’s impossible,” or, “I don’t have the skills.” We take the easy way out. We can all use a little inspiration from Derek and his story.

This kid found a way to surf BLIND. What’s your excuse?

—

If you have signed up for posts by email, I have just switched services so you will be receiving emails from a new system each morning at 9:00 AM. Please check your spam folders and add me to your contacts list to make sure you are getting the messages.

Have a great week!

—

Want posts send directly to your email?

Fill out the simple form below and check your email to confirm!

The 1% Rule: How to Grow Your Business

I was having lunch with a friend the other day and I found myself repeating advice I heard on a podcast a while back. I cannot for the life of me remember who the person was, but the advice has stuck with me ever since.

My friend is a former teammate and someone that has great potential, he’s just not sure how to get to his destination. I found myself mentoring him with words of encouragement.

We talked about his dream to have his own sport-specific training company. Natural questions arose like, “When do you take your certification tests?” and “What have you done since we last talked about this?” and “Do you have any current clients?”

We covered a lot of ground over a brief lunch, but I want to share the most important piece of advice I gave him. Today we’ll discuss The 1% Rule of how to grow your business regardless of your industry.

End Game (first)

paying retail
We need to know where we’re going if we’re ever going to get there. My buddy wants to have a sport specific training company that allows him to work with high school and collegiate level athletes to train them for speed and agility, allowing him to open the door for his ministry to young men. He knows where he wants to go.

Great start!

This is something I’ve talked about before when I reference goal setting, if we don’t set goals we’ll never achieve them (check out some of the older posts about goal setting, goal achieving, and sticking to your goals). I told him that it’s great that he knows where he wants to go. But what has he done to get there?

His answer was “not much” which he eventually changed to “nothing” after a little poking and prodding. I told him that wasn’t anything to be ashamed of, but if he really wanted this dream to come true he had to start somewhere. He had to get moving and get 1% on the way to his goal!

Starting Small (last)

Sometimes we look at enormous goals like writing a book, running a marathon, or building a company and we become paralyzed by the magnanimity of it. After we know where we want to go with our business (or our goals in general) we can break them down into small segments, it doesn’t have to be as daunting of a task as it looks.

After we have our end goal it is time to take the big picture and break it down into smaller, more achievable segments. For some, this is very clear cut and we know exactly what we need to do. If you want to start a website your first step will probably be buying domain name. If you are in the physical space and you need clients, you probably want to start prospecting as soon as possible.

Whenever we break these massive goals down, we are able to think about them in terms of percentages complete. 100% being finished or maybe if we’re in the middle of them, they’re 50% complete. Either way, it helps us measure where we are in relation to the end goal.

The first rung on this ladder is 1. The second is 2. The third is 3. Yes, this seems simple, and it is. But remember, simple isn’t always easy! We cannot achieve 2% if we never achieve 1%. I advised my friend to identify his 1% and achieve it as fast as possible.

If we can equate 1 day to 1%, we’ll be way more than 100% to our goals by the time a year has passed. The beauty of this theory is that there are 365 days in a year. We all have the same amount of hours in a day and days in a year, what we do with them is what separates us.

Every Day (middle)

That’s great Mike, but I already have a business. So what?

Are you working towards your end goal by at least 1% each day? Are you knocking off those little segments of your end goal that you chunked off when you started? Or are you just running around like a chicken with your head cut off reacting to perceived fires in the workplace?

I know I’ve been caught up in vanity metrics, wasting time, and overall spinning my wheels. But I have also had those days when I know I moved closer to my goals.

Staying focused on the bigger picture and knocking off 1% every day is the only way to long-term success. We have all heard about success hacks and shortcuts. But those are the exceptions, not rules. Plus, I guarantee there are backstories much more lengthy than the press ever hears when it comes to these companies and their growth.

1% Realized

As we left lunch, I repeated myself and reminded my friend to find that 1% today and get started as soon as he could. As soon as I left I drove past CSU where we played football together and saw another former teammate of ours that is in the exact industry my buddy wants to enter. He was one of the people we talked about over lunch, someone my friend should reach out to.

I immediately texted him and told him to swing by the school and reconnect. Minutes later I got a text back, he’d already achieved that 1% for the day. Momentum has to start somewhere, he just needed a little push to get going. It wasn’t rocket science, he just need to take that first step.

—

What do you want to accomplish that seems too massive to take in? Leave me a comment below about what your 1% looks like, I’d love to hear from you!

Have a great week!

—

Want posts sent directly to your email?

Fill out the simple form below and check your email to confirm!

The Most Effective Ways to Stick to Your Goals (3/3)

It’s no secret that I set goals and I’m big advocate of you doing so as well. I wrote a series on goal-setting and starting in November and I used my blog to create public accountability for my personal goals just last week.

It hadn’t occurred to me to talk about struggle of how to stick to your goals day-in and day-out, but that’s what I’m going to dive into today. Please take into account, this is what works best for me. You may need a little more or a little less, it depends on you. My objective today is to share what I do, how I do it, and to get you think about how you can accomplish your goals.

Your Personal Journey

Goals are personal, and everyone has aspirations for different things in their lives. That being said, the path to accomplishing your personal goals is a personal journey. It has to be something you are passionate about and you have to want it. There will be sacrifice and there will be times when it’s much easier to give up. But if it’s truly worth that pain and anguish, the taste of victory when you cross it off your list will be one of the sweetest things you’ve tasted in your life.

If you do not feel alive when you talk about accomplishing your goals, they may not be that important to you. If you don’t get a little bit nervous when you tell someone about them, you probably aren’t setting the bar high enough for yourself. If these feelings don’t ring a bell, take a look at these two posts about goal setting to help get this journey started in the right direction.

What organizational skills do you need to reach goals?

With any goals I set, I think about them in terms of ‘the big picture’ first and then I work my way down to the details. We all have grandiose pictures of ourselves on top of mountains with ice forming on our faces screaming at the world below, “I DID IT!” But very rarely do we think about the baby steps it takes to get to that summit.

After a specific goal is set with a deadline, I begin to work backwards. Let’s take my goal of finishing a marathon for example. I was injured in the weeks leading up to the event and by the time I was healthy enough to start training, I only had 8 weeks to prepare. With the help of my girlfriend and my brother, I was able to put together a training schedule that tied up 12-15 hours of every week leading up to the race.

This is extreme for most goals in terms of time, but the important thing is that I had a plan. I had a plan that required me to work towards that goal just a little bit each day. When we set our goals, if we only plan on ‘getting around to them’ once a week or once a month, we don’t really want to get them done. On the other hand, if we put a little bit of effort towards them each day (like running/cross-training/stretching each day) a couple things happen.

We are constantly reminded of them and they stay in front of us like a carrot
We are less likely to give up on them because we have dedicated something ‘every day’ to them, instead of 1/2 a lazy Sunday

How do you stay motivated? Especially for long-term goals?

I have talked about public accountability before, but I can’t stress it enough for me. I don’t like to let the people around me down and I do not lie to people. So when something comes out of my mouth am going to stick by it. But maybe you don’t operate like that, maybe you don’t want the world to know. Just tell a few people that you know will keep you accountable.

Maybe it’s a parent or a best friend or someone you know won’t let you get away with cheating, that will call you out. I have lots of friends like that and I actively seek them out when I’m looking to take on something huge, it helps when they’re there to encourage me and not let me give up. If you don’t know anyone, contact me and I’ll keep you accountable. I know how powerful it is to have someone push you and I’m more than willing to help!

Motivation is also intrinsic. But, we all need reminders of why we started. I love the Expo Marker on the mirror trick, other people will use visuals as well. My friend Markus used to write something motivational on his ceiling so when he laid in bed he’d see it and know that he couldn’t just lay there any be lazy. Some people that are aiming to lose weight put their worst picture or their starting picture on the refrigerator so they see it each time they go to eat. Whatever your visual is, find one. Then take it and put it in a place where you know you cannot avoid it:

your car
your refrigerator
your bathroom mirror
your lock screen on your phone
your desktop/laptop background

And then the hardest part comes – DO NOT COMPROMISE! Remind yourself of why you started. Remind yourself how inspired you felt when you wrote that goal down. Remind yourself of how bad you felt when you wanted to turn things around. Remind yourself of how good it felt the last time you accomplished a goal.

Find that intrinsic motivation and dig deep. Anything worth accomplishing is not going to be easy, you’ll have to develop some mental strength, but you can do it! The more you push through, the more confidence you build and it’s a snowball effect. Keep setting goals and pushing on to the next big thing.

How do you maintain balance without a goal taking over your life?

This part is tough, especially for those of us that are ambitious achievers and those of us that are competitive, we don’t like to put other things ahead of our goals. I’m all of those, so I know how difficult it can be. First off, set your priorities before you take the journey towards these goals. Try to think about what you’re willing to sacrifice (food, a movie night, etc.) and what you aren’t willing to sacrifice (time with family, your health, etc.) Know that your goals don’t define you, that they’re only part of you. An accomplished goal won’t make or break you, but the journey will help shape your character.

Second, give yourself a realistic time frame. This starts in the goal setting phase, but works into how we plan out our goals. If I were to run another marathon, I’d give myself more than 8 weeks to train because of how rushed and overwhelmed I felt while training for the last one. If I had 12 or 16 weeks, I wouldn’t have had to been so pressured to forgo as much as I did in the weeks leading up the race.

Finally, try to give yourself varying experiences for your goals. If you only set financial goals, you’ll become obsessed with money. If you only set physical goals, you’ll spend all your time at the gym and neglect your friends and family. Set different goals for different phases of your life and you’ll be happier and more eager to attack the next goals instead of burning out on work or the gym.

The idea for this post came from a good friend, Becca Cook, that gave me some great feedback the last time I talked about goals and goal setting. When I asked for feedback on what my readers would enjoy, she immediately asked me more about long-term goals. Thank you for the inspiration Becca, hope this helps you to accomplish some of those outstanding goals!

—

I’m serious about the accountability thing, I will help push you! What are some of your goals? How can you apply some of these principles to your life or organization?

Thanks for reading, have a great day!

Older Posts

Newer Posts