Consistency is boring, here's how to keep it up & stay inspired
With so many shiny opportunities around us, it can be hard to find the balance between staying focused on our priorities and making room for next level, innovative ideas.
In my previous posts, we've talked about how to stay focused on your primary objectives. If something doesn't fit under your top 3 goals, it needs to be put on an "on hold for now" list.
Otherwise, you'll end up spread thin across various projects and ultimately go nowhere. This wastes valuable time and energy that could be spent on initiatives that take you to the next level, whether it be increasing your status, multiplying your income, growing you impact, building bonds of trusts in relationships, etc.
Aaron Burden
This may sound boring and too rigid of a system. Most of the time, that is just what you need: a system with simple rules that keeps you focused on the activities and habits that will actually get you the results you ultimately want. However, at times, it will be too rigid.
Once you've built new habits, once you've mastered or completed your high priority goals, it will be time for more "spice" in your to-do list. Of course, once you accomplish your goals, you'd need to establish new goals and habits to focus on, and you'd follow the same rigid system.
But if you've been TOO focused on your main priorities, you may not know what those next level opportunities could be when it comes time for your next set of goals.
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Some of your new goals will come from the challenges found while working on your previous goals. If your previous goal was to get 10 coaching clients, you may find that you'd produce better results for them if you had 10 ONGOING clients instead of 10 one-session clients. Or you may find that you could focus on your 10 clients better if you had a more automatic way of booking new ones.
So your new goal would be to create a program to bring in 10 ongoing clients. Or it would be to invest in a Facebook ad funnel so you can focus on your current clients while you draw in new ones more passively in the background.
These are wonderful next level goals. But it doesn't add that flair of creativity or innovation that is important to entrepreneurship too. So, a balance needs to be created between following your top 3 goals almost exclusively, and allowing in new ideas for next level goals that blow your clients away.
To find that balance, you must follow 3 rules (yes, more rules):
1. Eat your frogs first.
I learned this productivity tip a decade and a half ago, if not longer, and it is one of my favorites to date. Brian Tracy basically says, if you HAD to eat a frog by the end of the day, you should eat it first thing.
If you procrastinate and wait till the end of the day, your entire day will be ruined. You will be stressed about eating your frog the entire time.
But if you eat it first thing, it's over and done with. You can move on and enjoy the rest of your day (assuming you don't get sick from eating that frog!)
If you have to eat two frogs, he says, eat the bigger, uglier one first.
Suzanne D Williams
This is all to say that every day, the first things you should focus on are the top 1-2 priorities on your to-do list. If you don't know what the top 1-2 priorities are, take a look at your to do list.
The items that you've been putting off the longest, or the ones that you least want to do, those are likely your top priorities. They're the ugly hairy things you don't want to do. Do them first so you can enjoy the rest of your day.
So, every day, look at your top 3 goals for the year. Look at the top activities under those goals. Pick 1 activity, or 2 at most. Do those first thing.
Only when have completed those priorities can you do other activities like look at shiny new opportunities.
2. Find your dead time.
Dead time is the time that often goes to waste. It's the time we spend commuting, traveling, waiting at doctor's offices, working out, etc.
During this dead time, nourish your brain. Listen to audio books and podcasts on business related topics or on any topics that foster new ideas.
Go to networking events that are centered around meals, like luncheons. You have to eat anyways, why not use that time to talk to some interesting people and exchange exciting ideas and "food for thought" (pun intended)?
When meeting friends, do the same thing. Center your meetings around meals or mutual hobbies. Ask them if they've read or done anything new and exciting. Share what you've done as well.
The idea is to:
Use the times in your schedule that don't take away from the time you should be spending on your priorities
Expose yourself to ideas and concepts, without getting attached to them now so that you can use them LATER
3. Add to your "later" list.
Step 1 was about making sure you get what needs doing, done first. Don't focus on shiny opportunities before you've knocked out your top 1-2 items for the day. You will only be hurting yourself if you do otherwise.
Step 2 is where you expose yourself to shiny new ideas that you can hold onto for later.
Step 3 is about adding your new ideas from step 2 to your LATER list. Not your NOW list.
If an opportunity is time dependent, as in you can only get in on it now, don't do it if it doesn't move you forward on your top 1-3 goals. Have the strength to stay focused on what matters.
If a new opportunity is something that can be done later, then save it on your "Later" list so you can decide in your next round of goal-setting if it is a priority for you.
This will enhance your goal-setting sessions because you will have goal ideas that come from the lessons learned from your previous goals, and ideas that come from the interesting concepts you came across from listening to podcasts and networking.
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Where do you get your inspiration from and how do you balance it with your more "mundane" to do list?