How to Crush Your Goals for 2020 with a New Mindset?
A plan is just the tip of an iceberg.
You have to create a new mindset to crush your goals for 2020. In this blog post I will show you how.
Focus on Less
Running a freelance business is extremely difficult when everything seems to be important. Can you relate to this? Everything. Every single day.
The bad news is if you don’t prioritise your life someone else will. Your clients, your friends, your family.
But there’s a solution for this. In just 4 simple steps you can eliminate the clutter and start to focus on what really matters.
Give yourself permission to stop saying yes to everyone
Just accept that you can’t please everyone; Pleasing game can be very dangerous. If you want to be everything for everyone you can end up being nothing to no one.
Make a list of essential parts of your business
Take time to analyse and make a list of essential parts of your business. The key is: it must be short. Just few items. Focus on what’s essential – what’s the core of your business.
How to do it? There’s a simple yet very effective way to identify what’s really matters in your business. Have you ever heard about the Pareto Principle? It says that only 20% of all your efforts contributes to the 80% of your results.
What does it mean? The key is to focus only on crucial parts of what you do. In your business you can identify those crucial parts by revenue. Create a list of the clients who generate the most of the revenue in your business.
Make a list of non-essential parts of your business
Now make a list of non-essential parts of your business. As you can imagine it’s the rest, the 80%.
It can be an annoying client you always wanted to get rid of or tedious day-to-day tasks you are fed up doing. Those are the parts of your business generating the most effort, but not that much revenue. Let’s be honest. Sometimes they generate barely any revenue, but for many reasons you haven’t let them go.
There are many reasons why people don’t let go things that are blocking them. Sometimes it’s fear. They are afraid of changes, because change brings unknown future. Uncertainty is something we tend to avoid subconsciously (If you want to learn how to handle changes in your life read this article).
Second reason why people are afraid of change is because change requires strength and courage. People simply think they are not strong enough to make a change, to decide to let go. The thing is: if you really want to move forward you have to be willing to push through some really rough times (let’s be honest – it will come and it’s better to be prepared) to finally get what you really deserve.
Regardless of the reason it blocks your energy and time. Give yourself permission to let go and free that energy. You will notice relief immediately.
Remove everything what’s on the non-essential list
The last step is to remove everything what’s on the non-essential list. Those are your obstacles you must eliminate once and for all. Don’t hesitate. Without removing them you will not move forward. It’s all about making a conscious choice: either you will let go of the obstacles and embrace new energy in your life or you will continue to struggle.
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Don’t hold back
Have you ever been in the situation when you’ve set up a plan and was fully motivated to change something in your life and then… crickets. Real life comes into play. Your plan isn’t that important to you as you thought. Nothing changes and eventually you end up where you started – exactly in the same position.
Let’s think about it for a while. Why does it happen? Sure, the real life is and always will be out there. The thing is what you do about it.
The power of supportive thoughts
Are your thoughts supportive enough to master the new plan? Or do you listen to your old little voice. Because here’s the thing: to change something, you also must change. Someone has had that it is the definition of insanity to do things always in the same way and to expect different results.
So, what can you do about it?
The key is to have the right mindset. And that’s exactly what we are doing in this post. One part of this new mindset is to be aware of your old little voice. Unfortunately, your little voice will tend to stay with you for ever unless you identify it and change it.
How to do it? I’ve addressed this topic in the 7 Weeks Productivity Experience.
Celebrate every success
One of my favourite ways you can do this is to handle your successes properly. It’s as important as the way you handle failures. It is vital to celebrate every success. Why is it, you might ask?
If you don’t acknowledge your own success it will be harder to see any progress in fulfilling your plan. There’s always something to do, something to start with. In this environment it is crucial to take a step aside and give yourself a while to review and celebrate little milestones you’ve accomplished.
Whenever you achieve success you have to anchor it into your body by a gesture or something you will say to yourself. The aim is to change your state of mind later in case you will experience intimidation or things get rough in your life.
Repeating this gesture and recalling your past successes will help you overcome the moments of intimidation.
Brag like a pro!
Another technique I like is bragging. Yes, yes I know how it might sound like… But it is a powerful hack to change the state of your mind and boost your positive energy instantly.
So how to use bragging? First think something you’ve done recently. It doesn’t have to be anything big. Now it’s time to brag: tell about it as loud as you can. Yelling is allowed! Exaggerate, make an outrageous rant about it. Become a legend to yourself! Do it for at least 60 seconds.
It will make you feel good about yourself and rise your positive energy. Another great thing about bragging is that it will stop you from warring about others judging you.
Practicing those techniques will help you don't let your inner chatter take over and make you play small any more.
You’re a big deal
I believe you’re a big deal and that’s why I encourage you to be aware how your inner voice is dealing with you. Is it supporting you or rather makes you stay in you comfort zone.
Use the proven techniques to master your inner voice. Don’t hold back any more.
If you want to learn more about mastering your little voice I recommend this book.
Set your boundaries with non-negotiables
What comes together with a proper handling your little voice are non-negotiables.
These are your core values, your anchors when the real life comes into play. Chances are that without clearly defined non-negotiables you will find yourself in your comfort zone sooner than you think.
Know your commitments
You have to know what are your commitments – what are you willing to do and what are you not willing to do and why.
It can be as simple as: “I am no longer working over hours” or “I am spending more time with my children on weekends instead of working”.
It’s all about setting boundaries. If you clearly define them it will support you in your way towards the goals you’ve set for yourself. It will also make the world around you more predictable.
Imagine every time when you are about to get distracted you have something that reminds you what are your core values and helps you stay in integrity with yourself. With this in place it’s way easier to say no to distractions.
How to define your non-negotiables?
Talk with friends, family your partner – ask them what is important for them when it comes to you and how you show up; It will help you learn what they value the most, what are their needs so that you can address them later in the process.
Think about what’s important for you; this is the point where your values and needs meet those of your friends and family. If there are some common points they are the best candidates for your non-negotiables. But first of all, it’s about you. Think about all the things you either want to experience (but have not made it for whatever reason it may be) or don’t want to experience, because it is something that do not support you on the way to crush your goals for 2020.
Make a list – sort of a brain dump. Write down everything you have identified in the points 1 and 2
Narrow the list down to only few points that are super important to you
Now it’s time to implement your non-negotiables:
Communicate to others what your non-negotiables are. Let them know what are you willing and not willing to do
Learn to say “no”. As I said before, you can’t please everyone. These are your boundaries, your core values you choose to stick with. This is when staying in integrity with yourself comes into play
Avoid people who don’t respect your non-negotiables.
Who do you need to be to crush your goals?
The last point on our way to a new mindset is going to be a major one.
Let’s think about what you have so far.
You have a plan for 2020 – this is your strategy, objectives, your actions you’ve planned for this year
You also know how to realise this plan – you know how to focus on less and eliminate distractions; you know how to master your inner voice in order to become unstoppable; you also know how to define your non-negotiables, so that you have clear boundaries
The last thing we have to consider is the question: Who do you need to be to crush your goals for 2020? How not to abandon your shiny plan for 2020 within the first two weeks of January? How to stick with your plans and resolutions for 2020?
All those questions are crucial and there’s a simple answer to all of them.
Lead yourself to success in 2020
You have to be a leader. In this case: not for others, but for yourself. It’s a major mindset shift, but it’s necessary to do what you want to do in 2020: crush your goals for this year and make it your best year ever.
Think about this for a while. Who is going to lead you to success in 2020?
If you want to succeed you have to be a leader to yourself. You have to lead yourself to where you want to be and who you want to be.
This is extremely important, because if you are not leading yourself you have nothing but chaos and you are constantly arguing with yourself not knowing what to do and which direction to go.
How to be a good leader for yourself?
There are 6 basic elements:
Objective
That’s your plan for 2020.
Resources
You have to ask yourself two questions. First: what do I have to achieve the goals. Take a look on everything you have: time, knowledge, contacts etc.
Second: what do I need to succeed in 2020? The key is to be aware what you don’t have and use the resources that are available out there: other people’s time, other people’s labour, other people’s contacts etc. You don’t have to do everything on your own. If there’s someone who can help you, use their resources.
Obstacles
Do you have a backup plan? As a good leader you should always foresee obstacles and problems before they arise. That’s why you need to think about potential problems when you build your plan for 2020. If you haven’t done it yet it’s the best time to do it.
Think about what can go wrong and prepare a backup plan. What can you do to overcome obstacles and move forward.
Feedback
To be a better leader you should constantly monitor your performance. Why is it so important?
Without a proper feedback you simply cannot measure the progress. You have to ask yourself what’s working and what’s not working. This knowledge is very important to identify weak spots in the plan or in the execution. Which leads us to the next point which is:
Continuous Adjustment
You have to take adjustments into account and make them a part of your plan. Because when something is not working in your plan you have to change it.
Obviously, it’s not the point to change the whole plan every time things get rough. But keep in mind that there’s no need to waste your energy on something that’s not working any more. You should always have in mind a room for change.
Celebration of success
It is extremely important. I’ve told you before how precious it is to anchor and celebrate every success. It not only helps you master your little voice, but also sets you for more. Celebrating every success will recharge your energy and make you prepared for bigger challenges.
Now take your plan and every project you want to realise this year. Think about those points and be a leader to yourself.
No more hesitation, broken promises. No more ending up with nothing but mediocrity and disappointment at the end of the year.
Take care and have the best year ever
Mariusz from the Time Continuum App