In 2008 Michel Phelps made record books with the number of gold medals he left the Olympic Games with.
What can we learn from his visualization process and how can we apply that to our own businesses?
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Goal setting & contradicting advice
Since it’s the beginning of a new year, the topic that I’m seeing everywhere is goal setting.
And I’m seeing a lot of contradicting advice.
Some people say you should set BIG goals and you’re wasting your time if you don’t.
But other people say setting BIG goals paves the way to failure and you should set small, easily achievable goals instead.
So, what are you supposed to do?
That’s what the topic of this week’s Wednesday Live with Evie was.
In the video below I share:
Specifically, I share:
- Why they say to set BIG goals
- Why they say to NOT set big goals, but smaller more achievable ones instead
- What you should actually do
Wednesday LIVE with Evie #49
Here’s what I share:
- Why they say to set BIG goals (3:00)
- Big goals can motivate and excite you
- They can give you space to dream
- They can force you to try new and different things, to stretch yourself
- When you set a big goal you might be more willing to change behavior or start a new habit
- With small goals, you might lose interest or dismiss your accomplishments
- Why they say to NOT set big goals, but smaller achievable ones instead (4:00)
- When you hit a bump in the road with BIG goals you might lose momentum and motivation
- Because BIG goals can be beyond our reach, if someone fails at reaching that goal, they might feel like they failed and give up and their motivation and productivity may decline
- From Psychology Today in April 2017 (4:40)
- “People who disengage from seemingly impossible goals are mentally healthier than those who stay entrapped .”
In other words, it’s unhealthy to stay committed to a BIG goal that is impossible - “…decisions made on the basis of false predicted happiness are likely to turn out to fail to maximize eventual experienced happiness.”
In other words, don’t create BIG goals based on being happier, you’ll be disappointed.
- “People who disengage from seemingly impossible goals are mentally healthier than those who stay entrapped .”
- Smaller achievable goals are easier to accomplish and can give us the satisfaction of seeing progress made and keep us motivated
- Obstacles feel less impossible to work through
- What you should actually do (8:00)
- First, know that we’re all wired differently
- Know what works for you, what motivates you?
- Are you motivated by big hairy audacious goals?
- Or do those intimidate you? And do you prefer to focus on the things you can accomplish in the shorter term
- How do you work? What’s been motivating to you in the past?
- Having big goals?
- Or do you focus on the smaller accomplishments?
- What I do (10:30)
- I tend to set smaller attainable goals while keeping a bigger goal in mind
- So, I have the big goal that I want to accomplish, and I’ve broken it down into smaller steps that I focus on.
- If you’re a bigger goal type of person (11:15)
- Your BIG goal is probably more well defined and has more details
- I still recommend breaking it down into smaller pieces
- But it will be more motivating to you to keep the bigger goal in mind as you do the smaller pieces
- Take Your Productivity to a New Level (14:00)
Steps to procrastinate less
Over the past two weeks I’ve completed over a dozen informal, short interviews with women entrepreneurs about productivity.
I’m still looking at the information, but one thing that came up quite a bit was time management and prioritization.
I want to look at something this week that is embedded in both of those topics: procrastination.
Specifically, we’ll look at why we procrastinate and steps to take to procrastinate significantly less.
Wednesday LIVE with Evie #48
We talked about
- Common reasons we procrastinate
- Why self-care is so important
- Productive and Unproductive procrastination – what they both look like and what to do about them
One thing to do before you set your goals
Let’s talk about one thing to do before you set your goals.
No, this isn’t about reviewing the past year.
It’s about becoming clear about the things you currently have going on in your business.
It the all-important brain dump.
Normally, once the brain dump is done, I hear one of two things:
- It’s so overwhelming to see it all written out like this!
- It’s so empowering to have all of that out of my head and to see what actually needs to be done!
So, I’ll cover how to move from the first response to the second one.
And it won’t take very long to cover this!
Wednesday LIVE with Evie #47
In the LIVE:
- Why it’s important to do the braindump before you set your goals
- How to do a successful brain dump (some areas to think about)
- The difference between it being overwhelming and empowering
How far you’ve come (vs How far you have to go)
Welcome to December!
What is December made up of for you?
Is it a fun time of family, food, and joy?
Is it a time to slow down, review, and take a break?
Or, as I hear from so many people, is it a super busy time of business and family?
I hear many people talk about how they’re trying to get their business wrapped up for the year, their free time is consumed with holiday decorating and gift buying and trips away to see family (which is fun and sometimes stressful).
(And check out this video on self-care – it includes things that you might not think about like drinking water and grabbing some alone time if you’re an introvert networking and things that you might think about like massages)
And I know in the past, this is the time of the year where I might avoid goal setting because it means I’ll look at what didn’t go well, where I failed, and I’ll think about just how far I’ve yet to go.
So, for this week’s Wednesday LIVE with Evie we talk about How far you’ve come (vs How far you have to go).