Eight weeks ago I set some goals for myself. They were baby steps to build up some strength and, if it so happened, to maybe lose a couple of pounds, although that wasn't my primary goal. The other day I stumbled on that plan, for which I only met my workout goals for about the first week. Reasons and excuses had continually popped up until eight weeks later when I found I had not progressed at all.
At first upon this discovery, I was frustrated with myself; however, realizing that my frustration was doing nothing to help me reach my goals, I funneled it into thinking about solutions. The truth is that I wanted to be at the place where I could look back to 8 weeks prior and see the progress I had made. To be able to do that, the actions must happen and the progress measured. Measuring strength progress is fairly easy: how many repetitions of a specific exercise can I do with proper form? On the other hand, measuring progress for other things, such as building businesses, is often more difficult to track.
As I considered the solutions I could use for success, a few questions presented themselves to me. First, "Where do I want to be in 8 weeks?" Or rather, "Eight weeks from now, when I look back to today, what progress do I want to be able to see?" Building strength and building businesses both take time for results, but once you start seeing those results, motivation from those results carries you through to continue to stay on task. It's that initial getting on task that feels difficult. Once I had set my goals, I thought of a few more questions to help keep me focused on that 8-week mark. Two involved business building, looking towards making those businesses profitable. Considering that I tend to focus more on building knowledge than performing actions, I had to make sure that my guidance questions focused on the actions taken. Thus, the two questions are: "what profit-inducing activity can I do today," and "what can I do to save money today?" Finally, the last question focused on my fitness goal: "what muscle-building activity can I do today?"
These questions can keep me focused on the daily activities and consistency needed to reach those goals. In eight weeks, I plan to look back to this week and be able to say, "Wow! Look at the progress I've made!"
So now it's your turn. Where would you like to see yourself in eight weeks? What daily activities can you do to help you get there? How will you remind yourself daily to be consistent in those small actions to a substantial result down the line?