Recently I Wrote My 6-Month Goals Down..They Were Ridiculous
Just recently, I wrote my 6-month goals down..
(This article was written in May of 2018, so just take that into consideration)
They included things like this..
- Average 50,000 views per month to my Wordpress blog.
- Have 2,000 YouTube subscribers.
- Cultivate 10,000 Facebook likes.
- Have 10,000 email subscribers.
Sh*t like that.
There’s a lot of ambitious stuff in there, but the two most lofty goals I have, I believe, is that 50k page views per month goal and the 10,000 Facebook likes goal.
I think I’ll hit everything else with relative ease, but those two are sort of ridiculous.
To hit 50k monthly views to my blog, I have to write better content, get better at Pinterest, and learn SEO.
To hit 10,000 FB likes I have to learn how to make better videos — there’s a LOT to unpack with that one, too.
There’s 10,000 Things I Need To Be An Expert In To Reach My Goals
It’s cool to have goals. It really is. What’s not cool is giving ourselves too many of them.
Hitting a goal requires a good deal of learning along the way.
That’s the reason we haven’t hit our goals in the first place, we just don’t know how to get there.
So learning needs to happen.
But then a really big problem comes up. The sort of problem that Matthew Kent and I have sparred over before (love that guy)..
The problem is you gotta learn it.
And this is where it all goes to hell, honestly.
Learning New Sh*t Is Incredibly Debilitating
I’m writing this on a beach in Bali — I have no idea why I’m cursing so much. It’s extremely peaceful here. Anyway, I’ll run with it.
Learning new things is hard. Failure happens when we try to learn new things. Lots of failure.
And after weeks/months of not hitting our goals, we start to feel like the ONLY thing we CAN do is fail.
Like we’ll never get there.
But this is a crazy way of thinking.
The Problem Isn’t Failure, The Problem Is Patience
I always feel like I can NEVER get enough work done. I can never answer enough emails or write enough blog posts or shoot enough footage or make enough videos.
My views aren’t good enough. My subscriber rate isn’t good enough. My headlines aren’t good enough. Always, this is how I feel.
I feel like I must be stupid or something.
“You have to DO more!” I tell myself.
But in reality I’m doing nothing wrong. Not a damn thing.
The reality is I just need to deploy patience, like Gary Vaynerchuk says.
You’re Not Where You Want To Be Because Of Time, Not Competence
I think my biggest weakness is I’m terrible at waiting. I want what I want and I want it NOW.
When I don’t get it now that creates disappointment — and that disappointment turns into stress.
I honestly believe I’m going to hit all the goals I set for myself.
I just won’t hit them tomorrow.
And I need to learn that that’s okay.
This Time Is Going To Pass No Matter What
I interviewed Dorie Clark a few months ago and she told me that she always hears bellyaching from people when she tells them they need to work 4 straight years to see any results from blogging.
She said, “They don’t realize that that time is going to pass no matter what!”
Yes, we need to pay bills and our lifespans don’t exactly go on forever and it’s hard to give up years of our life to something that may or may not pay off..
But make no mistake that it’s not paying off almost solely because of time, not because of your competence as a creator.
I need to learn things like SEO, how to create better videos, etc. etc.
If I keep working 40–50 hour weeks creating content, you can’t tell me that I WOULDN’T be much better at SEO or creating videos after 52 straight weeks of 40–50 hour sets honing my craft.
But I want it now.
Nothing steals joy faster than expectations, let me tell you.
So I’m going to learn to be patient. I’m going to enjoy my time and trust that proficiency will come later.
It’s okay to not be amazing yet.
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