If we wait until we’re ready, we’ll be waiting the rest of our lives.”
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What are you waiting for when it comes to moving forward on your goals?
Maybe you aren’t afraid to move forward on your goals. Maybe you do have the confidence you need to try new things, to create new products or get in front of new people. But maybe you’re waiting for something before you get started on taking the steps to reach your goals. If you don’t get started, you’re not going to get to the finish line.
So, what exactly are you waiting for?
Direction
Sometimes we have these great ideas and goals, but they seem so big that we don’t know where or how to get started. They can feel overwhelming and cause people to shut down before they ever even get started. You can’t move forward if you don’t start by putting one foot in front of the other or, in our case, one action in front of the other.
To drive to the grocery store, you have to know what direction to go from your home, which streets to drive on, where to turn and which grocery store you’re going to so you reach your desired destination.
We can create direction with our own goals very easily by breaking them down into easy steps. If you’re goal is to run a half marathon, you don’t get off the couch after not running for 3 years, leave your house and randomly start running for 13.1 miles. You buy the right shoes and clothing, you start walking, you graduate to jogging and you start increasing your miles and time out running.
Think about your goal and write down each step you need to take. You can always make adjustments along the way. Remember, if you’re training for a half marathon and get a leg pain, you slow down for a little while and then start running again when you can. Don’t be discouraged if you have to make adjustments to your goals and the steps you’re taking.
Enough Time
I can talk about time management and focus management all day long. Having enough time can be a challenge, but it’s not impossible. You have to be realistic about making your steps reasonable and carve out the time to work on them. This may mean looking for places to save time like not watching TV for two hours every night.
It also means being realistic about your time and what you can accomplish. You probably can’t write a book in one day, but you can write a chapter or even just a few paragraphs every day. This doesn’t have to be a race to the finish line. Remember the tortoise and the hare and who came out on top.
Enough Energy
Busy people expend a lot of energy. Are you expending your energy in so many places that it isn’t leaving enough to work on your goals? You may have to get serious and realistic about where you place the focus for your energy. Are you attending too many meetings? Going out and doing too much volunteering or socializing? Are you doing too much for others at your own expense?
You may find you can cut something to create more time and energy for the things that are really important to you. You can’t do it all, nor should you. And remember to work at the time of day that you naturally have the most energy.
Knowledge
Having enough knowledge can easily hold us back and make us feel overwhelmed and insecure. If you want to create YouTube videos for your business, but you have no idea how to do that, it can stop you in your tracks.
And we know that aquiring knowledge takes time. You can take small chunks of time to acquire a little bit of knowledge at a time. You don’t have to read a whole book on a topic in one day; you can just read a chapter or even one page per day.
You can pay someone or ask someone to teach you or you can pay someone to do it for you. Someone who knows what they are doing and it comes easily to them and they can do it faster than you can.
We aren’t born knowing how to do everything. Especially as technology changes and new products and apps come out all the time. But if gaining knowledge on a skill is going to help you meet your goals and help you move your business forward, then it’s well-worth your time and energy.
Action Steps
Evaluate what is holding you back. What are you waiting for?
Write down a strategy to deal with it.
