3 Tools for Sticking With Your Goals

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Do you ever find yourself failing to keep the goals you set for yourself?

I sure do.

Here are 3 mental tools I've been applying lately to keep myself on track.

In today’s issue:

• 3 mental frameworks for getting unstuck

• That’s it

1. Ask yourself the Ideal Question

Whenever you're feeling unmotivated, lazy, worn out, or even just unsure of what to do next, ask yourself this question:

What would my ideal self do?

Then do it.

Sounds simple, but it is SHOCKINGLY useful for getting yourself to take the types of actions you want to do but lack motivation for. At least it has been for me.

Pro tip: You can mix it up a bit by asking what an expert in that area would do.

For example, with financial goals, 'What would a millionaire do?'

Or fitness, 'What would a fit person do?'

Maybe even 'What would Jesus do?' Hey that has a nice ring to it. Someone should put that on some bracelets.

2. Reduce down to the highest priority task

Often it's not a lack of options that keep us from taking action, it's too many options.

Like having 17 flavors of Cheerios in the cereal aisle, having a lot of seemingly good options can cause us to freeze up in indecision, inaction, and wasted efforts on too many things.

If you want results, pick one single action and focus on it. Ignore everything else.

A common metaphor for this is going an inch wide and a mile deep rather than an inch deep and a mile wide. The best results come from going deep on one thing.

If you've found yourself floundering a little bit, eliminate more of the habits/behaviors that you're trying to perform. Pick the most impactful one, then go all-in on it, ignoring the rest. 

This is just like how we pay off debt with the debt snowball. Same concept.

(Side note, I have yet to find a flavor of Cheerios that isn't incredible. Whoever it is that's inventing the new flavors, you're an American treasure.)

3. Clean your room

No literally. 

Clean up your room, your desk, your kitchen, or whatever your nearby environment is. 

Not only does this give you momentum for doing productive things, it gives you a calm space to allow yourself to focus in (for instance if you're trying to budget but keep getting distracted).

I cleaned off my desk last night, and today I was able to knock out two reports that I've been pecking away at for a week. Our environments are powerful things, put yourself in the right one when you want to take new actions.

Keep growing,

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