Attaining lasting wealth is a conscious decision – and so is choosing mediocrity. The roots of success and failure are found in numerous small decisions that you make each and every day about how you are spending your precious energy and time. Are the steps you are taking today moving you in the right direction?
Making a decision on a long-term goal is relatively straightforward. It is a matter of committing yourself to a mission of achieving a six figure income or losing weight. The challenge lies in all of the many choices that follow on after the euphoria of that initial decision has been made. It can be hard to maintain a consistent focus on your North Star day in and day out if you are not able to identify an intrinsic motivation for the goal that you have set for yourself.
It is very easy to justify exceptions for almost every scenario. You tell yourself that you are not going to drink sugary soda or other junk food– except that you are at the movies and really enjoy having a big soda drink to wash down with your butter popcorn.
You tell yourself that you are going to exercise each day – but then again, you had quite a tough time at the office today and need to just take it easy this evening. You tell yourself that you are going to watch your personal spending – but you are also in need of some retail therapy to make yourself feel better.
You can tell yourself whatever story you want, but justifications won’t move you any closer toward your goals. You must ask yourself if your daily decisions are aligning with the words you have told yourself about how you are going to live your life and attain your goals.
Are the steps that you are taking each day bringing you closer to the goals and vision for yourself that you have outlined in your dreams?
Or are you falling into the tired rut that all too many of us become mired in or going through the motions without a thought as to how we are affecting our long-term growth and development? Without a system or team in place to help you keep yourself accountable, it is all too easy to fall into lazy habits and base your decision making around what makes you feel comfortable immediately – rather than on what will provide you with the greatest satisfaction possible over time.
Research has consistently demonstrated that the singular trait shared by top performers across numerous disciplines is decisiveness.
This does not mean that the most successful rush impulsively into choices that are not well considered. Rather they spend considerable time in properly assessing and tracking goals associated with their choices so that they can make the best possible choices about the situations they face. Here are some strategies you can employ to make better decisions about how to maximize your time – and stick with the guidelines that you have set for yourself.
Hold yourself accountable. Check in with yourself at the end of each day for a moment of honest reflection. How did you measure up today compared to what objectives you had set for yourself at the beginning of the day? Did you take shortcuts that diluted the effect of your exercise? Did you stick it out to make those extra sales calls that you had pledged you would soldier through?
There is no need to beat yourself up, but it is critical that you are examining your daily performance with a discerning eye so that you can identify where you may need to make some course corrections to make your plans a reality.
Put pen to paper. Don’t be content to relegate your goals to your head. There is something that induces discipline from articulating what you want to accomplish on paper. Write detailed lists outlining your plans for weekly, monthly, and annual intervals – even longer if you can maintain focus on longer-term goals. By keeping a written or electronic record of what you are aiming to achieve, you will be able to more easily determine how your short-term decisions are lining up with your plan.
You don’t have to broadcast your plan to the world on the internet or hang it up in a public space – you can just keep it in a drawer for you to reference alone. Simply knowing that you took the time and that it is there can help you stay motivated.
Think through all of the options. Another component to write down are the best and worst case scenarios that can result from the various options that you have available to you. Many hard-working people get overly stymied and unable to take action due to anxiety about the multitude of choices available to them. You can help to prevent yourself from falling into this trap by thinking through what exactly would take place if you adopted various courses.
For example, you might list out the positive and negative repercussions that would result from leaving a stable job to hang up your own shingle as an entrepreneur. By preparing lists of what to expect when you pursue various alternatives, you will give yourself a road map to navigate challenges you may have not considered otherwise.
Force yourself to prioritize. The fact is that it is challenging for anyone, man or woman, to “have it all” in terms of achieving the fullest success in our professional and personal lives. What parts of your schedule and life can be abbreviated? What areas of your life could stand to have more attention and focus? A surefire method for streamlining your “to do” list is to think through how you would numerically order your tasks and activities by priority and importance.
If you can only tackle a few given objectives in any day, it makes the most sense to make sure that you are knocking off the ones that you are most determined to see completed. Make sure that you are absolutely certain which of your daily activities are from your list of priorities and which someone else’s priorities are for your time.
Maintain flexibility. Only zealots and fanatics refuse to ever change their mind despite shifting evidence. You may find that in time your priorities have changed and you need to recalibrate the approach you have taken. Perhaps your foray into project management is not the best course for your professional development and you should be investing more time into improving your sales abilities. Recognizing that your goals have changed and you need to shift gears is not a sign of weakness – it is a demonstration of strength. It signifies that you have the mental confidence to admit when you need to shift your thinking.
Be decisive – but don’t rush into changes too swiftly either. A good method for verifying that you have not merely gotten cold feet is to spend a bit of time reflecting – why have you decided to change your desired outcome?
Everyone’s decision making process will vary based upon their personal style and preference, but the important thing is to maintain a robust system to help you make the very best decisions possible – and then stick to a reasonable road map that sets you up for success in meeting your objectives. What strategies have you used in keeping yourself honest and on track in meeting your goals?
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