Today, I want to share with you one of my favorite activities that I do with my students - but I think it could help anyone!
We start off by asking ourselves what our purpose is. What drives us every day? What goal burns in our bellies every morning? What do we think about before going to sleep at night?
Once we’ve identified it, we think about how much we want it. Mark it out on a scale from 1 to 10. For some people, that purpose might be starting the business they’ve always dreamed of. For others, it might be learning a new skill, buying their own home, or making time for personal relationships.
Whatever it is, identifying it is the first step to achieving it. What comes next? The plan.
Let’s look at an example in action. Let’s say your goal is to start the brick-and-mortar store you’ve dreamed of opening since you were a teenager. Achieving your goal requires a definite plan if it’s going to succeed.
Write each step down, working backwards from your end goal. General points that are too broad need to be broken down into actionable steps. For example, ‘open up shop’ is far too broad. You need to break this down into smaller steps, like ‘open a bank account’, ‘find premises’, and so on. If you look at any point on the paper and feel like you don’t know where to start, you need to narrow it down further.
The next step is to bring in support from the people around you. You already have some of your greatest assets in your friends and family. You should never underestimate how much their support can help you. From coming with you to visit potential locations to testing our products with you, their advice will be invaluable.
With their help and your own resilience, close your mind tightly against all negative and discouraging influences - including yourself. Often, we can be our own worst enemy, especially when it’s about going after something we truly care about.
Finally, find yourself an ally: someone you can count on, who is there to encourage you every step of the way. They are there to shout down the negative voice in your head when it gets too loud and pick you up when an obstacle knocks you down.
Once you have a strong plan in place and a resilient network around you, you’ll be ready to withstand anything! Let me know what goal you want to build towards in the comments.