On Wanting the Results Without the Work
or The Danger of Living In the Future
I have a morning routine. At least I do on my good days, when I’m being intentional.
I wake up, shower, drink a cup of bulletproof-style coffee, then pull out my Self Journal and plan my day out.
If you’ve never seen a Self Journal, I recommend you go read my post about why I love it. I’ve tried a variety of different methods for daily planning and I keep coming back to it.
Anyways, in the Self Journal, there’s a section where you write out three long-term goals everyday. I love this because it really keeps me focused on my most important long-term goals.
For the past 4–5 months, my three goals have been:
- Ironman (as in, finish one)
- Course (referring to the online course about podcasting I’m working on)
- 170lbs (Currently at 176 lbs, down from 195 in January 2016)
Good goals, right? Yep. But something changed this morning. For some reason, I wrote down activities instead of goals.
- Write
- Exercise
- Eat Healthy
As I stared at this deviation, it hit me. Focusing on the goal or outcome is good and fine, but you have to identify what action will lead to that outcome.
Of course, I’ve known this for awhile. You’re smart too, you knew this. But for some reason, seeing the action next to the result written out on a page changed something.
So try this: write down your goal, but then write down what you can do today to get a step closer. Do that thing everyday, reach the goal.
