Personal development experts lament that few people have goals, whereas I find everyone has goals. Most merely lack a process to use them DAILY.
The not-so-secret to crushing big goals is to every day crush small goals.
A big business starts as a small business. You lose 30lbs by first losing 1lb. A book gets written one word at a time. All goals are the same way.
The problem is, if you focus too much on the big picture you lose sight of the steps you must be taking, but if you focus too much on the minutia, you lose sight of the vision.
You want an approach that enables you to move fluidly between your big picture vision and the actions that are every day moving you forward.
Here’s a four-step process for doing this every day:
1. Step into the vision. Put on your dreaming cap and think big. You don’t need to get specific, just imagine the vision for what you want. It might be ten years out or at the end of the month, just a get vision for where you are headed.
2. Ask “Why?” Powerful motivation comes through a powerful why. You would find the strength to lift a Ford F-150 if your kid was trapped underneath and all goals are driven the same way. Really feel why your goal matters to you.
3. Define today’s goal. A book on writing tells you to forget about writing a book and write for five hours today. Whatever your vision, define the goal that today is moving you forward. My client says “One great meeting builds to one great business.”
4. Make it real. Close your eyes for a few moments and get a picture of your vision. Now see how today’s goal is moving you forward and feel what it is like to have achieved today’s goal. Then tomorrow’s and the day after, and after that, all the way to feeling yourself looking back having achieved your vision.
How does it feel? Really, how does it feel to have achieved this goal that matters so much to you? Really feel it. I mean it. Really feel it. No, really celebrate it!
Now forget about it, and simply become absorbed in what you are doing today knowing you are on your way.