Don't have time to read? Listen to the audio post here:
Hello my friend,
I write my posts following this mantra: "You teach best what you needed most".
And I can undoubtedly call myself the best at not finishing.
But I am not alone.
Did you know that 92% of New Year Resolutions fail, and only 8% succeed?
I bet you’re one of those 92%, just like me, that’s why you’re here..
Well, that won’t be the case anymore.
Why?
Cuz I’ve finally managed to join those 8% on the other side, and..
I’m taking you with me!
Believe me when I tell you.. The feeling over there, is a breath of fresh air.
And after reading this post, you too my friend will be able to say:
"I am a Finisher".
So how exactly am I gonna do that?
I am taking you on a journey from the moment you start thinking about a goal till the moment you shout out loud the most beautiful word in the English language.
No it’s not "I love you", it’s DONE!
In our journey, we’ll be having 8 stops.
Each stop is inspired by a strategy from the book that helped me the most to finally Finish my goals, and soon, will be helping you too.
The book is called “Finish: Give Yourself The Gift of Done”, by the amazing and hilarious author Jon Acuff.
Below is the book Finish through my eyes..
(PS. The structure of this post is completely different from the book. Yet it was inspired by the book's strategies. Here you'll find my ideas blended with the author's, and I would highly recommend you still go and read the book)
Stop 3: Resource Allocation
You're scheduling the time to work on your goal..
Strategy 3: Choose What to Bomb
Unfortunately, we have limited amount of time, energy, attention, and money.
When you say yes to something you are always saying no to something else.
But it’s really hard to internalize this concept..
So here’s how I see it now:
When you wanna say yes to something (i.e. your new goal), you HAVE to say no to something else you're already doing.
We can never add stuff to our current days, we can only replace or restructure.
To give time to something new, you take it from something else.
This realization shocked me.
Yes, I was shocked to realize that I only have 24 hour slots every single day.
I was shocked to realize that I am already filling them with stuff.
And that I most probably won’t be granted additional slots any time soon.
Tomorrow you're gonna have the same amount of time, energy, and attention that you had today, yesterday, and the day before.
And guess what happened on those days? You did not work on your goal.
So if you’re serious about introducing a change in your life,
you have to actually CHANGE something.
So smart? In other words,
you have to choose the price you are going to pay to achieve your goal.
Paying that yes price is so hard, but we pay it anyway,
so we might as well make a conscious choice of what to pay.
For example: If we don't pay from our social media time,
we might end up paying from our sleep time or our family time.
Knowing that though, there are still a few other ways where you can create some extra time in your day, like:
1) Simplifying some tasks
Or choosing to do the bare minimum to keep the thing going.
Ex: Cooking easier meals.
2) Batching some tasks
Doing similar tasks in one go, instead of switching back and forth between different tasks that need different settings and different states of mind.
Ex: Meal Prepping/Errands/Laundry
3) Automating some tasks
Having checklists and systems
Ex: A grocery shopping list to be ordered every week
4) Delegating Some tasks
You don't have to do it all by yourself
Ex: Ask a family member to help in one of your tasks
How I deal with this right now:
-> Schedule Schedule Schedule
If it's not scheduled, is it really there?
Scheduling is amazing.
It is very unlikely for us to miss a scheduled appointment.
The decision is already made.
And the slot is already convenient and free.
Kindly find my scheduling steps below:
1. I choose one main focus goal at a time.
2. I assign it a sacred place in my calendar.
3. I make sure it doesn't affect other areas of my life that I truly value.
(i.e. My sleep, My GYM happy hour, My healthy meal prepping time, etc..)
Then my new goal takes the highest priority in my life until it's done.
Anything else that gets compromised, is happily compromised.
If it's writing early in the morning,
I will have to miss anything fun that can happen after 10 PM or before 9 AM.
If it's sticking to a diet,
I am leaving the outing early to do grocery shopping and meal prepping.
I am okay with anti-diet comments, as well as missing out on some pleasurable food at dinner parties, cuz I consciously made the choice.
My focus goal is more important to me at the moment.
That doesn’t mean I stop doing everything else.
It just means that if you're gonna compete with my focus goal, you're always gonna lose.
In the book, the author gives some examples of people skipping workouts or living in an untidy house for a while, as the price for their goal.
I.. completely disagree.
Pick a smaller goal if you need to.
One that won't kill the rest of your life until it's done.
Else you'd always be running around fixing what every finished goal had destroyed.
And then we're back to square one, asking: Have we really finished then? And at what cost?
Action Time:
This is the stop where you:
1) Decide on the price you are willing to pay for your goal.
2) Block a time in your calendar to work on your goal every single day.
3)If you don't have enough time in your day already, decide on how you'll create some extra time.
Paid the price and scheduled the appointment? Now you're ready to start working.
Our next stop is called: The Journey To Your Goal
I am so Happy you've reached this far, and I am looking forward to see you in the next post!
Sign up to keep you posted;) No spam promise.
Have A Happy Day:)