This blog post will be part of my eBook and then eventually my real book. What better way to get started on a big project like this than break it down into little tasks and challenge yourself to write part of a chapter every week? I had always been interested in writing and wanted to write a book but never knew what to write about. There was no clear image of my goal until recently. Rather than thinking “Nah, I’m never going to do that” when I first thought about writing a book, I kept checking in on my goal asking, “how about now?” until I had what felt like a really solid idea to run with. The same should happen with any goal you have, whether it be personal or professional, affect only you or your entire company. You (or your organization) may not be ready now, but you will be!
A lot of goals get set to the back-burner and forgotten about. Maybe a few years later you come back to that goal and think “well if I haven’t done it by now, I probably won’t do it.” You might! You just haven’t given yourself the chance to do it yet!
Currently, I have a task list (goal list, if you will) that has 102 items on it for all of the things that I want to do for my coaching business (as of now – that list is ever-growing). If you don’t think that’s an overwhelming and daunting number of items to accomplish, please call me so we can talk. And yet I’m not as overcome as I might be because I am 100% confident that one day I will accomplish all of those, which will bring about success in my larger goals that those are all pieces of. In order to complete some of my tasks, others must be completed first. So, when I’m reviewing my list at a regular interval to see what I’ve done and what’s next for me to take on, I’m always asking myself “how about now?” for each item that is left. If I’m not ready to start a task yet, what do I need to do to get ready? It’s likely that one or two of the entries in my list are prerequisites for the one I’m looking at. If there’s something I need to do first that isn’t on the list, I add it. Simple as that. (Quick shout out to Google Sheets for having all the space I could ever need to hold my ever-growing list of goals.)
What about the items that you never seem to get to? During your regular review of your objectives, reevaluate to see whether that item is even needed or not. Don’t cross it off your list because you don’t think you’re going to get to it. If it’s important, make it a priority to get it done. Block time off on your calendar to start it or put out an object (or stack of objects) you need for the task so you see it all the time and it reminds you of what you want to do.
You probably aren’t going to be ready or able to take on all your goals at once. Start with the ones you’re ready for now and work towards preparing yourself for the next tasks you wish to accomplish. Keep in mind that it doesn’t matter what the goal is. Maybe you want to incorporate a new culture into your company or finally put together those Harry Potter Legos you have in your basement. The part that matters is how it makes you feel once you’ve accomplished that goal. We only live once, so do what makes you happy.