In order to accomplish your goals, in both life and business, you need to be laser focused, committed and prepared to put in a lot of effort.
For many business owners, the prospect of even setting goals, let alone meeting them, is enough to send them running to the hills! Having to be self-disciplined, uber organised and challenged out of comfort zone after comfort zone can be positively stress inducing.
If you’ve ever looked up to super successful goal-getters in awe, you might be of the opinion that they’ve compromised in some way, had to go through high levels of stress, or that they’ve had to miss out on life because they’ve been relentless in their mission.
You may even tell yourself that you wouldn’t be able to achieve such levels of greatness and think that goal achievement is only for other people, who are outstandingly extraordinary and immune to stress. Whereas your own demands of life, work, family and home seem to take priority over enjoyment and adding goals into the mix just seems like another thing to add to your ever-increasing to-do list…definitely not something which you’d associate with being calmer.
But there IS a calmer way you can accomplish your goals.
Finding Harmony
Harmony equals calm and calm equals harmony, but what if your life is anything but harmonious and calm?!
The truth is life is the same for everybody. There are ups and there are most certainly downs. Sometimes you might feel as though you just want to curl up in a duvet for a while, just to gain your equilibrium and sense of calm back.
But how can you stay calm and accomplish your business goals if life has so many difficulties? The amazing thing is that you get to choose how long you stay in the down position.
Living in harmony means living intentionally, no matter how hard it is. When life gets stressful, you still choose to show up, even if that showing up just means doing one small little thing…one miniscule chip out of your goals…because one miniscule accomplishment is still moving forward.
[It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.]
Confucius
By finding harmony and living intentionally, you’ll be chipping away at your goals, rather than letting them grow into big scary, stressful targets that you just want to run away from.
7 Calmer Ways You Can Accomplish Your Goals
Remember that…
1: The little things matter
Even during those times when life is anything but harmonious, there’s no reason why you cannot set aside five minutes to work on your goals.
For example, if you want to write a book, you can write a paragraph in five minutes. You can edit it later on but you can’t edit a blank page. Or if you want to start your own business, you can write down one paragraph or several notes of a business plan in five minutes.
By the end of the month, all those five minutes will turn into something bigger, giving a compound effect. Just knowing that you are always taking calm, controlled action, no matter how small, helps you stay positive and feel empowered.
2: Time is abundant
How many times do you say you don’t have enough time, or that there aren’t enough hours in the day? Is this really the truth?
Your negative self-talk about time scarcity will only put additional stress on you and will push you further away from accomplishing your goals.
We all have the same 24 hours in a day and we can choose how we see that. Rather than feeling stressed and thinking that time is slipping away, think instead about how much time you can spend working on your calm goal accomplishment.
3: Slowly, slowly catchy monkey
Being goal oriented is good, up to a point, but some entrepreneurs become so set on their goals that it becomes obsessive; often at detriment to other aspects of their life. This compulsive need to achieve goals quickly, or to overwork, is unsustainable in the long term and could lead to burnout
Goals are a big part of being in business, but they are not the only part of being in business. Work on achieving goals at your own pace, honouring the process and enjoying the journey along the way.
4: Your pen is your guide
There’s no better, faster or calmer way to achieve a goal then to put it down on paper. This simple act helps you to make your goals more tangible and real.
Use your pen and paper to guide you as you journal mindfully about your daily activities working on your business goals. Writing about your setbacks and challenges will help you problem-solve in a calm, creative manner and progress more effectivity toward goal achievement.
Plus, what a great excuse to treat yourself to a new notebook?
5: You can break it up
Big goals and projects can feel overwhelming and unreachable. When a goal looks like a mountain, it will continue to feel that way until you break it up into smaller stones.
For example, one of your goals might be to rent an office to work from. You could choose to see this as a scary, mountainous goal, or you can choose to see this as a series of stepping stones to goal accomplishment.
Time block 15 minutes per day to work on how you can make your goal a reality. Work out how much it will cost, how many products or services you need to sell each month in order to pay the rent and what you’ll need for your office set up. Time yourself so you don’t exceed the 15 minutes and in less than a month you will have a solid plan of action.
6: Accountability means action
Finding an accountability partner you trust and respect will do wonders for your goal accomplishment; and theirs.
An accountability partner will cheer you on, motivate and inspire you, keep you calm when you’re losing your head and be there to gently nudge you in the right direction. Don’t go on this entrepreneurial rollercoaster alone.
Find support and accountability partners in Facebook groups, at networking events, or online forums.
7: Self-care is a priority
If you really want to be a goal-getting calmer entrepreneur, you’re going to need self-discipline to commit to daily success habits and this includes allocating time to self-care.
Make self-care part of your daily routine; nourish your body with healthy food, drink enough water, get plenty of sleep, practice meditation for personal and spiritual development, read and nurture your soul with things that make you happy.
Self-care is one of the best ways you can live a happier, more fulfilled life where you approach your goals with energy, enthusiasm and focus.
Finally, keep ‘calm’ at the forefront of your mind every day. Approach everything in your business with a sense of calm and you’ll soon reap the rewards of goal accomplishment.