I learnt a brutal lesson yesterday but I’m glad I got it out of the way on day one.
The lesson was that I need to make my goals more achievable, and 10 hours per day isn’t really achievable. Through talking to my partner in the evening, it became clear that I set myself big, massive unachievable goals which I think will turn my life around, and then when I inevitably fail, I talk negatively to myself about how weak and pathetic I am.
The cycle then continues to repeat itself as I set another list of massive goals which I believe are achievable, but then I ultimately fail again. The cycle just keeps repeating itself but the end result is that my output is inconsistent, and my self-esteem just erodes.
The negative self-talk then leads to lower self-esteem, and increases the likelihood that I won’t be able to stick to the next target that I set myself.
So I’m adjusting my targets for the next 180 days to be:
- 8 hours per day
- 1 LinkedIn post per day
- Under 5 emails per day
When setting goals like this, there is a balancing act between setting the goals so that they’re achievable and don’t erode my self-esteem, but then also wanting to set them big enough so that they move the needle.
If I do 8 hours 7 days per week, that’s 56 hours per week at a minimum. I haven’t done 56 hours per week in a long time so doing that consistently will no doubt give me a decent business in 6 months/180 days which is my goal.
Therefore, today is day one of trying to execute on this new strategy. I am a little bit nervous that it’s not going to be enough to move the needle fast enough, but if I can just get the ball rolling on this and then see the progress in a few weeks if I can stick to it.
Another problem with the bigger goals that I was setting myself was that during the day, once it became obvious that I couldn’t achieve it, I just clocked off completely because it was marked as a failure. If the expectations are lowered, and I just need to get to 8 hours, it might make me more likely to log back in and just do the extra bits of work that is required to get me here.
This morning I feel like the penny has dropped and I just need to stack these good habits to get the result from them. I also started re-listening to The Compound Effect last night which is my favourite book of all time and aligns with this principle.