How do you keep yourself focused on your goals?

Here is a 4-step process to focus on your goals…

1. Select a Category

Every week, allocate time combined with specific actions for a goal in each category. By balancing each area, we’ll be on our way to elevating our overall quality of life.

Select from the following:

• Health
• Work
• Relationships
• Community
• Spiritual

For now, let’s start with Health as our area of focus.

2. Choose an Activity

Now that we’ve chosen a category, we need to decide what action we will complete. Since we’re focusing on Health as an example, let’s choose walking as the activity.

You can substitute any health-related activity like running, cycling, and swimming, but let the action dominate your mind instead of the results you want from that activity.

Instead, if you lead with getting healthy or in fantastic shape, these unmet results often remind you of times when it didn’t go well. (We’re here to take action, not dwell on the times when we let ourselves down.)

The power starts from being intentional by combining a goal category with a specific activity.

3. Set a Timed Interval

Time is our greatest ally and tool for action. We will use it well by setting a timed interval around the activity — 15, 30, 60 minutes.

If you haven’t exercised for a while, use short intervals. Even less than 15 works well. We tend to overcompensate for not taking action by punishing ourselves with too much effort.

It’s the time when you haven’t exercised in two years, but promise yourself you’ll work out for two hours. It’s not that you can’t do it, but trying to make up for lost time or going overboard right out of the gates isn’t sustainable.

We can’t maintain extremes for very long. We get burned out, tired, or think we’re just not cut out for it, which is why we quit.

Instead, select the least scary interval — 5, 10, 15 minutes — that you can commit. Make it insanely doable. Let’s start with 10 minutes.

Avoid defining your health goal, like getting a sexier body or losing 50 pounds. Remember, that’s the result you want, which can act as a double-edged sword. For now, it’s simply a walk for 10 minutes.

Keep it simple — it’s not about a particular length of time or reaching the goal now. You’ll know your interval is the right starting point if it will get you to take action without excuse.

4. Set an Interval Frequency

The final step is to set the interval frequency or how many times you’ll complete the activity during the week.

The same rule applies to setting timed intervals — don’t go overkill by promising yourself that you will work out 2 hours every day.

Start with 1 to 3 times a week, and stick with this frequency. You can set specific days to complete the activity, like Mondays or Wednesdays, but the number of days per week is usually better, as things can come up.

What’s more important than completing the specific task every Monday or Wednesday is that you do the activity during the week for the agreed-upon sessions.

If you decide to go to a fitness class and miss it because you have to stay late for work, don’t wait until next week for the class. Instead, complete a health-related activity to hit your interval frequency target.

Improving Your Weekly Schedule

Anyone familiar with the Eisenhower Matrix knows it’s a fantastic way to prioritize tasks, classifying them on a scale of importance and urgency.

But most folks use it for big goals or work challenges and are still unsure how to balance short and long-term goals with their schedules.

Here’s the process again:

1. Select a Category
2. Choose an Activity
3. Set a Timed Interval
4. Set an Interval Frequency

Now, apply this simple process to each 360 Productivity category.

By using this system, we can monitor our progress at the end of the week by how frequently we honor time. When seven days have passed, we can answer a simple question — did we complete our intervals when we planned? Yes or no? This data is helpful because we can then ask why or why not.

During an interval, we don’t place much emphasis on what happens. Even if we didn’t finish everything we hoped, it’s ok. Every day is different.

Maybe you walked a half-mile today but two miles on Wednesday for the same interval. What happened? Although checking in and giving yourself feedback is essential, labeling these results better or worse is missing the point.

What about the fact that we took action on those days? What did you learn? Maybe your timed interval is too long, or your frequency is too often.

Staying Focused on Your Goals

Results happen when we accumulate a progression of intervals over time. That’s why frequency is one of our most powerful tools. Add frequency. And more frequency.

What happens to us can be more profound — our beliefs change. New behaviors generate new beliefs as we reinforce them over time. Each time we complete an interval, we whisper new beliefs to our subconscious.

Frequent actions are the seeds to grow new associations. As we get closer to reaching our goals, they’re not the giants they used to be.

They’re smaller, almost laughable. We know we can do more because we’ve proven it to ourselves.

When we reach a goal, an enthusiastic what’s next will be your response.

#goals #goalsetting #mindset #motivation

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You’re only one goal away…