Ever feel like you’re getting mixed messages?! I can’t move on Instagram for sickly motivational posts like “don’t forget to look back and see how far you’ve come”, quickly superseded on the same account by telling you to “keep looking forward” and then the next day the same person telling you not to forget to be present in the moment. WHAT THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO BE DOING WITH MY EYES?!
Unfortunately, the truth is, it’s a juggling act. I wish I could tell you two outta three of these suggestions were total BS and give you one thing to focus on. But that would be a lie. And just with everything else, there’s no easy way to cheat the passage of time and the accomplishment of success.
What I CAN do for you, is tell you how to deal with the past, the present and the future in the context of goalsmashing (<—- remember that’s principle 1 kids!) and success. I’m going to keep it easy and devote a little blog post to each one – let’s think of it like a really cool, abridged version of Scrooge…you will soon be visited by three spirits…
KEEP THINKING ABOUT THE BIGGER PICTURE
I’m going to start, as I always do, the “wrong” way up. Let’s start with the ghost of years yet to come…but be less morbid and creepy about it because this is not a blog about getting you to let your office workers have Christmas Day off to spend with their families. Although if you’re not doing that you’re a stone cold horrid person who needs to log off my blog immediately.
When we talk about Principle 1, GoalSMASHING, I encourage my clients to dream big. I tell them not to think about what they’re capable of right now with the resources they have, but to think about what it is they’d REALLY like to accomplish in life. Usually this becomes less about self and more about what legacy you want to leave or what impact you want to have on others. For example I want to inspire as many people as possible to take control of their health and use it to achieve their goals and reap the rewards of their success. I want as many people as possible to experience success without compromise. There are some physical goals within that, but that’s the overall aim. When I speak to my clients, this is where we start. But why?
Because we need to think about emotions and feelings. We need to spark some sort of fire. If your goal doesn’t light you up, it’s not your goal, it’s someone else’s. YOUR goal, YOUR dream has to make YOU feel alive. You’ll know it when you find it. Sometimes it takes a while to find out what this is, but once you get there, it’s impossible to run out of motivation. You might need to work on focus, discipline and consistency (in the words of one of my clients and sponsor the Aesthetic Entrepreneurs), but the motivation exists there until you get where it is your dream is taking you.
It’s important to keep thinking about the future because this is what helps you to get on with the shitty stuff, the boring stuff, the stuff you don’t want to do. It’s the thing that keeps you going when you’re drained financially, physically, emotionally, whether you goal is a business, family or personal one.
People often liken our interaction with time to driving. The future is where you’re trying to get to. You can’t always see it, but you know there’s one awesome party waiting for you when you get there! So whatever roadworks, diversions, traffic jams, accidents or random acts of God get in your way on the journey, you have to remember why you set off in the first place.
Make sure whatever your goal is, it’s about a brighter future for you. Really connect with it. If it’s boring, if it doesn’t excite you, if you can’t jump out of bed and declare “I AM EXCITED BECAUSE IT IS MONDAY AND THIS IS ANOTHER DAY TO WORK ON MY JOURNEY AND TAKE A STEP CLOSER TO MY GOAL!”, then it isn’t your goal, it isn’t your future. Do better.