One thing I know for certain. You’re going to go where you focus most.
I want to tell you a little story about when I learned to ride trials bikes. These are motorbikes with no seat, they’ve got fat tyres and you go off-road, through mud, fields and it’s brilliant fun. We got to learn the basics in the field, it was pouring rain and freezing cold. After a while it was time to go into the forest, we had to ride down this hill onto a narrow path, and then cross one of those cattle grids and into the woods. Now as I was riding down, I notice this ditch on the side of the gate. I couldn’t stop looking at it and I started saying “don’t fall now, don’t fall now, don’t fall now”. Guess what, I went into the ditch. The instructor said to me that’s called “target fixation”.
Your energy flows where your focus goes.
For me, it was straight into a ditch. Which for the record was so deep I was completely submerged and the blokes were laughing so hard no one could help me get the motorbike out of the hole. So my intention for you my fellow goal digger is to get fixated on a target - on the right target and go for it.
Get your goal. Write it down, break it down and then take it down!
Where are you now?
It’s always a good place to look at where you are now. Your “actual” reality or your blue dot on the map if you like. Think back to some goals you might have set in the past. There’s a reason I want to talk about this and why I’ve introduced the idea of target fixation with my very glamorous story!
You see, let’s say you started out on earning £50,000 a year. You set a goal to make £150k but the year that followed setting that goal, you only made £98,000. You’ve got a gap there, a £52,000 gap. The thing is, if you focus on the £52k gap you will feel like you have failed. BUT if you focus on the fact that you’ve nearly doubled your income instead, it won’t feel like a failure at all.
When we set goals, often it’s a just a number that we pull out. So be mindful of the target you are fixated on, of course, I want you to reach your goals but don’t focus on the wrong thing or you won’t feel positive and quite possibly you won’t feel like setting goals again.
I want you to focus on PROGRESS and ask better questions when you review your goals.
What progress did I make?
What did I learn?
The goal you set now that you don’t hit sometimes takes a little longer than expected, that’s ok you’re making progress.
I find when you really want something and you make it important enough you will create time to work on it, you’ll put in place the boundaries to give you space to have success. Give yourself some consequences too, and if you can, a coach or find an accountability partner.
Goal Setting
When you’re setting goals (and by the way I like to have goal cards), you must write down what you want or how much and by when. It has got to be something measurable in time and space. In other words, I don’t want you to have a goal that’s vague, such as “I want to have a six-figure business”.
Instead, your goal should be “I will make £100,000 by August 2022”.
You can measure that in space and time.
Breakthrough goals
I feel that it’s important for me to talk about a breakthrough goal. I like to “stack” goals, let me explain if you would go with me for a moment. A breakthrough goal is something that will change your life. Maybe it’s to get your accounting degree, to double your income, to create a million-dollar business. This overarching goal will drive you, light you up and be a long term goal. So what I mean by stacking goals is having a bunch of quarterly, monthly, and even weekly goals that all stack up, and their summation lead to the big goal.
If you want to earn a million dollars, well you need to have some quarterly goals such as completing my Clients Like Clockwork and monthly revenue goals to build and build and build towards your breakthrough goal.
Goal setting is so personal and you have to find what works for you. My ‘breakthrough’ goals for example are on a vision board, it’s something I look at every day when I sit down to my Trello board. You do you and do whatever drives you, lights you up, go with it. And go with what feels good.
Get your goals into your physiology
Here’s a gem I want to share with you. When you have your goal, let’s say for example you want to earn £10,000 per month, I want you to get a chalk pen, post-it note, whatever, and put that goal on your bathroom mirror or on your laptop, in front of your desk. Somewhere visible where you can see it, read it out loud and become fixated on it.
You might even want to take a picture of the goal and make it the screen saver on your phone. If it’s £10,000 you want to make the change the pin number on your phone, the password on your laptop to 10,000.
I want you to get that goal into your physiology, just like the muddy ditch I fell into, I want you to experience complete and utter target fixation.
By the way, if you’re ready to make the next six months the best six months ever - come and join my Get Your Sh** Together Challenge. Over five days we’ll get you doing more, getting more results and feeling less overwhelm and more at the helm of your business. If you’re stuck, not sure what to do next or focus on next, this challenge is for you!
Don't keep me waiting!
