Everyone gets glimpses of motivation, and like clutching a pile of sand, it slips through the little spaces until you’re left with nothing. The idea of building a motivational process is to limit the loss of “sand” or at least make the downs less frequent. There are a ton of motivational speeches and quotes that can inspire, but have you ever noticed these inspirational sparks burn out quickly? My goal for this post is to help set up actionable steps to develop a cycle that you continually refresh to accomplish more! Fair warning, it won’t be super easy and some things you might think are silly, but if you’re willing to drop that notion and buckle down, you will advance yourself academically, athletically, financially, emotionally, or another area you want to progress in. Fortunately, these processes I’m going to talk about are not complex, and if you want to change, it’ll come easier than you think.
One process that I have found to be extremely useful for keeping me on track is creating 100 Day Goals. This was inspired by a passage I read in Legacy by James Kerr. Side note: This book is fantastic! It comes from the reference point of New Zealand’s Rugby team, the All Blacks, which has been one of the most successful organizations ever. The 100 Day Goals is a process that works like this; you make 10 goals that you aim to accomplish in 100 days. Pretty straight forward. Everyone has seen the acronym; S.M.A.R.T. goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Based), unfortunately, this can overwhelm some people when they try to make goals. The purpose of 100 day goals is to make the goal 3 words or less, which makes you keep it short and simple. So think of 10 things you’d like to accomplish in the next 100 days, keep them short. Write it down. Seriously. Write it down right now, on paper, or a whiteboard, not on your phone. Don’t finish reading this until you have written them down. Now, make sure wherever you have written them is somewhere visible that you will see every day. I think this is crucial because you’ll want to cross them off, be honest with yourself and make sure you are doing things to move towards being able to knock down the list. Some examples I use or have used for my 100 Day goals; New certification, read a book (this is a staple, every single time), add $$$ to the savings account, add to professional network, learn something new, reconnect with someone, etc. This should help you get started on your list. If you are having trouble you need to reflect more about your daily life and things you can and want to improve on. What I like about this system is it’s similar to new year’s resolutions except that nobody completes them because the timeline to complete those resolutions is too long. Additionally, you will do this 3 times a year, making more progress than if you did accomplish your resolutions.
I touched on the main reason why those new years resolutions never pan out, the timeline is too long. This next process is similar to the 100 day goals system but on a smaller scale. This technique looks at the day to day goals. I got this right from Andy Frisella’s podcast MFCEO Project episode 107 (check out his Instagram). I listened to the whole episode and this was my interpretation of the things talked about. Creating a Power List to WIN THE DAY. I loved this idea and paused the episode to get started. You create a list (same thing WRITE IT DOWN…notice a theme?), this list will include 3-5 critical tasks to complete that day. However many you choose, keep it the same each day, 3 or 5 tasks. Notice how they are not goals. They are tasks. Things that you have absolute control over to accomplish. Pick tasks that are a problem to you or that will lead you to cross off something on your 100 day goals list (yeah, you can do both). You build your list, 3-5 tasks long. Your job is to cross off those tasks by the end of the day if you do you WIN the day, put a ‘W’ at the bottom of that list. If you are unable to cross off those tasks put an ‘L’, this gives you some accountability. The goal is to have more W’s than L’s every week. First, you win the day, then the week, then the month, then the year. To reiterate on how to build this list. The tasks should be choice goals, not outcome-based. If you’re a salesman, and you want to make a certain amount of money with a client, your critical task may be ‘call that client’. While you may not make that money you had a goal too on that first call, but you just opened the door and moved closer to making that money. Once you create a set of tasks and you can repeat them automatically, swap them out for a new critical task. Lastly, one of my favorite takeaways from this episode; Impossible beliefs yield “impossible” goals. Big actions + Big goals = Big results. Your choice: Think small stay small or dream big and live big.
What you need to understand is this, motivation comes from confidence. Confidence comes from consistently progressing. You learn you get better, and confidence grows. You must do the work. Once you start doing the work, the belief comes. When you ask someone about Muhammad Ali, they’ll tell you two things; he was an incredible boxer, and he was overflowing with confidence. Success and confidence go hand in hand and that’s no coincidence. Take these systems and put them into use, and don’t be surprised when things start to change for the better. Let me know how it goes!
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