Frustrated with your Success Strategy? Here's Help.

You have a goal. You have your success strategy. You start on day one to implement it. You work hard on each tactic of your success strategy. Day in, day out, you stay focused. But at the end the day, week, month, you feel frustrated. You wish you had more accomplished. Sound Familiar? Well help is here…

Well you're not alone. I often feel this way myself. There is so much I want to accomplish, oftentimes my expectations exceed what is possible in a given day. Hence, frustration.

I often use the analogy of climbing Mt. Everest. (you can see how I view my list of goals!) It's like Mt. Everest represents the attainment of all my goals fully completed. Everyday I set out trekking towards the peak and at the end of every day I'm still looking up at that peak and I say to myself "I'm not there yet." And so I feel unsatisfied, a sense of failure even! My focus is wrong! Let me tell you how I discovered the secret to eliminating this frustration.

I was describing this to my dad the other day and he said "If it was easy everyone would be doing it." We can take that another step and say If Success Was Easy Everyone Would Be Doing It. Wow!
This had a big impact on me.

This taught me three important success strategies that have helped me feel great and drop the frustration feelings.

The first lesson is this:

1) Keep An Eye on the Peak, But at the End of Each Day Review & Celebrate How Far You've Come! At the end of each day all I was looking at was how far I had yet to go. Of course I was feeling frustrated. Now what I do is keep a quick record of all I accomplished each day. I try to review it at night and even close my eyes to relax as I do this. Then I say to myself, "Good Job. You made great progress today!" If you can, share your success with someone. If I didn't make progress then I ask myself what I learned and what I can do better tomorrow. What are the most important things I can do tomorrow towards my top goals.

2) Take Heart, Difficult Goals + Perseverance = Uncommon Success. Because your goals are difficult, much of the competition will drop out. That means that if you can hang in there and keep plugging away each day, you will succeed. And imagine what will happen if you can add some skill to the mix. You'll be a total success!

3) Plan Your Day To Stay on Track. This is simple, but a lot of times we don't write it down because we say "I know what I need to do." Well if you write down a simple to-do list each day you will have a guide that will keep you from getting sidelined during the day. Keep it in front of you all day. Whenever you find yourself losing focus, refer to it. Plan according to what will get you the most progress today on your most important goals. Do the toughest things first when you have the most energy! Do the easier things later in the day when your energy is lagging.

So implement your success strategy everyday, review & celebrate your progress, keep plugging everyday, and plan your day! May success and a sense of accomplishment be yours!

Recommended Reading: Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen.

Write Your Novel Online

Have you been thinking about writing a novel?

Are you fed up with watching it spin around in your mind like so much laundry?

Well, me too! And I've come up with a solution. It's not something entirely new. NaNoWriMo and crew thought of it first a la NaNoBlogMo on Blogger.com.

The idea is to write your novel online.

Now I'm not talking about buying some kind of fancy shmancy software package that will help you design your plot and characters. (I'm sure those are great, but somehow I think most of that stuff falls into the category called "Procrastination.") I'm talking about something much more organic than that. I'm talking about writing yourself an email everyday that furthers your novel or really any writing project you may have - memoir, screenplay, essay, you name it.

Here's where I had my epiphany moment. I've been emailing a lot lately, getting back in touch with a few old and some new friends. I probably spend a good hour, or maybe even two thinking about and composing these emails.

Then I read an article by Anna Quindlen called "Write for Your Life." Basically she talks about the lost art of letter writing and tells the story found in the new movie "Freedom Writers." In the story young "at risk" youths are saved by a teacher who encourages them to start a journal. This started me thinking about all my emailing lately and how I miss the long hand written letters I used to write. But mostly it made me think about how I could combine my love for letter writing with reaching my goal of writing a novel.

When I found out that you can post to your blog via email, BANG! The idea struck!

Why don't I write myself an email each day with a little more of my story (aka my novel)! I can pretend the audience is whoever will provide the best motivation.

So I have set up a blog just for this purpose.

You should too! Get writing!

Boldness Has Genius

Are you sick of your own procrastiation? Does your motivation need a shot in the arm? Read this famous quote:

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back-- Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now." - Goethe or was it someone else who said this?

Regardless of who said this, here are your instructions for success today:

1)Read this Goethe Quote and memorize this part: Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now!

2) What is the difficult thing you've been postponing?

3) Decide what you can do today to move things along on your goal. JUST ONE.
Examples: make a call, schedule an appointment, prioritize the parts of the project, delegate a task, get out of your chair and talk to colleague you need info from, break off an engagement, tell someone you've changed plans, go walking, do 10 pushup & 10 situps, smile, laugh.

4) Do it!

5) Repeat.

6) 15 minutes before quitting time, close up shop and enjoy the rest of your day/evening. Acknowlege your success to yourself or with a friend, no matter how small it may seem. Celebrating success will perpetuate success.

(optional)
7) Repeat tomorrow.

May the force be with you!