Speaker 1: 0:00 Hey there, welcome to Productivity Hacks, your go-to podcast for purposeful productivity. I’m Jasmine, your host, executive coach and fellow business owner, and my mission is to help mums who are growing both a business and a family find simple solutions to calm the chaos. Each week, I’ll bring you short, actionable episodes packed with tips you can implement right away to boost your productivity, create balance that works for you and your family, and protect your boundaries. So let’s dive in. Hey guys, this episode today focuses on achieving your goals, and it will be an overview, because I could talk about each part of this for hours, I’m sure. So this will be lots of quick info, lots of it you’ll have heard before. None of this is rocket science, but the magic happens when we decide one or maximum two things to action now, today, asap. Speaker 1: 1:01 The growth is in the baby steps. I read a quote yesterday from somebody who said you can climb a mountain with baby steps, and I just loved it. It’s so true. So, whatever your goal is in your business, whatever that mountain looks like to you, whether it’s getting your social strategy sorted, growing your client base, or even your five year six figure plan, whatever your mountain is today, you can climb it by taking baby steps. What doesn’t help us is standing still. The problem is when the mountain looks big, when it doesn’t look achievable, when you’re looking at the summit and feeling overwhelmed, rather than that next baby step forward, we get paralysed, we don’t move because it all feels too much, and sometimes we even take a step backward. We don’t move because we can’t see the best route. Speaker 1: 1:55 So the first thing is where are you going? If you don’t know your destination, you don’t know your mountain, you don’t know the things that you need to do to get there, you won’t be able to figure out your baby steps. You won’t figure out the quickest route, the safest route or the route which will mean that you arrive at the peak flourishing and not completely spent. There are different routes to your goal, but if you don’t know where you’re going, you cannot even begin to plot your way. So how do you know that the work you’re working so hard at is actually taking you in the direction you want to go? So my first challenge to you is to know where. Where are you going? This could be short term or long term. Where do you want your work to be by the end of the year? Or what is your five-year mountain. If you’re not sure what your mountain is or think that it may have changed, mind us all the time, then I strongly recommend spending some time working this through no-transcript. So when you know where you’re going now, you need to remind yourself why are you going there? Simon Sinek, author of Start With why, says when we know why we do what we do, everything falls into place. When we don’t, we have to push things into place. So where you’re going, your goal, your mountain peak, is a great goal to follow, but why you’re doing it keeps you going towards that peak. When the rain comes, when the summit is obscured by a cloud, when we think we’ve reached the top but it is just a false summit, and then the next stage looms. Speaker 1: 3:35 I had this recently when I walked one of the Yorkshire Three Peaks in the summer. We wanted to tackle Ingleborough as I climbed the other two. The way we decided to walk it, however, meant that we walked up something called Little Ingleborough first, and it was not little. I was feeling so demotivated. We’d planned the route, I knew it was coming, but the reality was that smaller peak was really really, really tough, and I then felt worried about the main peak, could I even do it? I pushed myself on, I took moments to stop and take in the view and I did really, really, really tiny steps. For a long time I stopped worrying about the big peak and I remembered why I wanted to climb Ingleborough that day. The reality was that the main peak was nothing compared to that incline and I actually enjoyed the rest of the walk to the summit. There are a lot of lessons that I learned as I walked up Ingleborough with your mountain. Speaker 1: 4:34 When it’s hard, when the climb feels too much, or when you fall down, when a great idea falls flat, when you have a bad day, when you feel like giving up, your why keeps you taking those baby steps forward. So have you ever written down your why? I was once coaching somebody and we started to explore why she wanted to do something. Her goal was actually the same one that she’d had for years and she’d made great progress years ago but had slipped back. Things were really different now in her life and what motivated her back then didn’t motivate her now. So we explored why why is that goal still important for her? And after the session she reflected and said it was like she grabbed a big Y-spade and just started to dig, dig, dig. She dug down about why that mountain was her goal, why that was important, and then why that was important. Speaker 1: 5:32 So my challenge for you is to grab this wise bird here it is, take it and have a dig, think why is this goal important to me? Why is this mountain where I want to go? Then ask yourself why is that important and why is that and why is that? Continue asking yourself, why, at least five times to dig down and find that real, why, when you find this, this will keep you taking those baby steps, even when the wind and the rain comes and even when you stumble. So number three is what. We’re down to the nitty gritty. Now You’ve got the where, where are you going, where’s your mountain? And the why why do you want to go there? But now we’ve got the what. So you need to plan your route. Speaker 1: 6:21 Depending on the scale of the goal, this may look really different. If your goal is a five-year one, then it may be important to split this into several milestones along the way, lots of smaller goals to take you to the summit. So what would be some milestones along the way to your goal? What would success look like after each year or six months, when you have a milestone or a goal which is for the next six months. Break it down even further. What would success look like in just one month? What are the steps that you need to take next month? And then from that, what about the next week? And how about today? Speaker 1: 6:53 The more you break your goal down into small, easy to action tasks, the more your route becomes clear and the easier it is to take a baby step. So write down your mountain, your where, write down your why, why you want to climb that mountain, and write down the what, all the big milestones and the smaller ones along the way. So say, your goal is to increase your email list of your perfect clients from nought to a thousand and you’re aiming for that in a year. What are some milestones along the way? When do you want 500? 250? 50? 10? What do you need to do to get to that first milestone? Don’t be scared by the thousand looming in the distance. Just focus on that first small goal, the first 10 subscribers or even the first one. Speaker 1: 7:40 Write a list of things you want to do and in what order. This list can be on a board in your office, a note on your phone, a scrap of paper lingering on your desk, a colour coordinated spreadsheet, whatever works for you. In a future episode I’ll go over more tactics for planning your time, organising your week to be the most productive, but for now, just write them down somewhere. I once worked with someone who had a real aversion for lists. She hated anything linear and normal. So we explored how her mind works. I got to know her world and between us we came up with systems for her that worked. Instead of a list to remember things, she has a picture of planets with post-it notes and it works for her. So you’ve got your where, you’ve got your why, and you have your what her. So you’ve got your where, you’ve got your why, and you have your what. And finally, without this last one, the mountain is not going to get climbed. And that is when You’ve got your list. Speaker 1: 8:30 Now, and the question is, when are you going to do those things? Look at your diary, your calendar, and plan it in. Take some time now to put things in your diary, decide when you’re going to do these things, so you have your where, your why, your what and your when. Now doing the work can be where most of us fall off a cliff. You’ve planned well around other commitments. You know you’ve got the time to do what you want to do. Now you need the discipline to stick to it. Speaker 1: 8:56 We all work really differently and what works for me may not work for you. Just like with my client earlier, try different things and see what sticks. Experiment, read around, get some advice or help from someone. When you’ve defined your where, why, what and when. Then being productive more easily slots everything into place. You know what you should be doing now. You just need to stick to it. Speaker 1: 9:20 In future episodes I’ll share some of my top tips for sticking to your plan. That was a quick fire dive into setting and achieving your goals, into climbing that mountain with baby steps. I really hope it’s been helpful and I’d love to know what is your mountain you’re climbing, how is the climb going and what has been the most helpful thing today. Please get in touch on my socials on Facebook and Instagram, Jasmine Clark Coach, and let me know what else you want to see on this podcast. Have a great day. That’s it for today. Thank you for tuning into the Productivity Hacks podcast with me, jasmine. What is your action point today. Write it down and make time to do it. If you like what you’ve heard, follow this podcast to get notifications of the weekly episodes and please, please, share it with your friends.