This month I have been focusing on breaking out of the cycle of uncertainty and procrastination that has been exasperating us this year by designing an ambitious goal for 2021. Goal setting will provide your brain direction, something much needed to jumpstart ourselves out of this holding pattern we have been experiencing. As soon as you’ve written down your specific ambitious goal, fear, doubt, and shame will inevitably come up.
Your brain will want to knock you down with thoughts like, “How are you going to do that?” I start writing down all the doubtful thoughts, all the disbelief thoughts. I know that they’re supposed to be there, that it is a normal part of the process, and I just write them all down.
Then, I go to the place where the goal is already accomplished. I do a little process with myself where I go into the future, and it’s already done. Then I look back on the thoughts that I just wrote down, and I address them from a place of the goal being completed. It’s a very powerful process, and I highly encourage you to do it.
Once you’ve arrived in your mind at this place where that goal is already accomplished, then you do the ACTION plan backwards. That’s the how. I like to tell myself how I accomplished it.
Brainstorm all of the things you could possibly do to accomplish your ambitious goal. Generate at least 25 results you will attempt. This is not an activity list, this is a results list. What is the result you will attempt to get specifically, and how will you attempt to get it?
Be very careful not to give in to confusion, overwhelm, or “I don’t know” energy. These are things you are going to do and at times fail at achieving the result, so don’t let your brain use fear of failing as an excuse not to take ACTION. After you have brainstormed all of your ideas for ACTIONS, pick the ACTIONS you are committed to taking for the first 3 months of 2021, even though these attempts could end in “failure” to achieve their intended result.
Your daily steps should be things that you could do and ACTIONS you can take to move forward. You might not get your desired result with the ACTION, then you can adjust and keep taking different ACTION towards your ambitious goal. So ask yourself what is that first next step.
If you just keep taking your next best ACTION, the next thing that you know how to do, the next thing that you know how to figure out, all of those tiny little steps are what lead to the ultimate big step. That is really how you get there. One step at a time. Even though you trip and even though you fall, you get up and you take another step. All those little steps are what build up to that ambitious goal.
Failing well means not quitting or making excuses. Fall down. Get up. Fall down. Get up.
You might have some wins. Mostly, you will have learning. Let the learning be fun. No doubt you will grow and expand by attempting the ambitious. Remember that you are willing to fail because you want to do whatever it takes to work toward your goal.
One of the reasons why you want to have that big goal out in front of you is because you want to have a reason to endure the failures. You want to have a reason to keep going when the results and the evidence aren’t there.
It's very rare that you are going to set an ambitious goal and only have wins all the way to it.
I also want to make sure that you don’t use your ambitious goal as an excuse to feel bad about yourself, as an excuse to feel immobilized because you don’t know what to do next. What you do next is what’s in front of you. What is the next logical step based on what you did yesterday?
Do you know what doesn’t create the results you want? Quitting, giving up, saying that it doesn’t work. That does not get you the results you want at all. Saying that your ambitious goal is impossible and then stop taking ACTION will never get you there. What gets you there is continuously taking the next best ACTION.
Set a big ambitious goal for yourself. Think from that goal, get excited about it, create a vision and then do the little task that is in front of you today. That is how you will get there.
Get your free copy of the Designing an Ambitious Goal Guide here:
My goal is to empower expats all over the world to create the life they’ve always wanted. You can run on autopilot and keep getting through this week, month, year or life. Or you can deliberately choose to maximize your potential and create an extraordinary life.
Please take advantage of this free download so you can stop waiting for things to change and start designing the life of your dreams one ambitious goal at a time.