In the early days of my personal development journey and working with a life coach, one of the things that stayed with me from the first time I heard it was “The Payoff is worth anything you have to go through.” When I look at every goal that I’ve accomplished and the somewhat hellish road to getting to some of them, I realize that the pay off has always been completely worth it. If you are committed to achieving a goal, then the payoff will absolutely be worth anything you have to go through to get there.
Do One Thing Every Day: If all you do is one thing every single day to accomplish a goal, then you will do 365 things every year to reach that goal. One thing every day is much more powerful than it appears. As I’ve said before, focus on what you can do today. The one thing you do today will impact tomorrow. The one thing you do tomorrow will impact the next and eventually those 365 things will impact your life. Let’s look at some concrete examples:
- Blogging: Write one post a day and eventually you have 365 pieces of content. You don’t have to publish every single one and not all of them have to be masterpieces. I have an archive of posts that you never see. I wrote 3 posts before I came up with the idea for this one. Every day you invest will make you a better blogger and eventually there will be a payoff in terms of subscribers, money, connections, etc.
- Fitness/Health: If you exercise every single day you will eventually move on to good health. A few months back a guest post was written here about the fact when you surf the hardest part is standing up on your board. It took me going 15 times before I could even stand. As far as the payoff, if you read this blog, it should be obvious to you
. - Money/Wealth: People who have money are not necessarily smarter or more brilliant than you are. They just know one thing. Something done every day and done consistently will have a payoff. The best example of this is compound interest. If you just keep putting money into an account that generates compound interest for long enough, you’ll wake up one morning and be living off the interest.
Step on the Gas Pedal: Momentum is an incredibly powerful thing and once you are up and going, I think you should step on the gas pedal. When you catch a wave, you are continually making adjustments in order to achieve the longest ride possible. The front of the board is like a gas pedal and if you move your foot forward the slightest bit you’ll not only have a better ride, you’ll prolong it. Success doesn’t have to end and neither does the roll you are on. When you are hitting on all cylinders up your effort and step on it. Every now and then the naysayers, dream zappers and police will try to pull you over. FU#$# EM.
Keep Going/Focus on Process, not Outcome: If there’s one thing that keeps people from getting to their goals is that they stop. They don’t see results so they figure that it’s not worth it to keep going. Back to our principle of compound interest, you don’t see results that are dramatic in the short term, but keep going and eventually you’ll have amassed a good amount of wealth. If you just keep going, then it’s damn near inevitable that you will achieve your goal.
Wipe out Gracefully: Inevitably you are going to fu#$# up along the way. That’s just a part of life. I find that I’ll often saying something out loud that ends up sounding ridiculous, but done with a smile I can recover gracefully. You have to learn to deal with the ups and downs. By doing so gracefully, it won’t be so hard to keep going.
Celebrate Success big or small: Even the smallest success if cause for celebration. When you hit your first 100 subscribers, have a shot, drink a beer, or whatever strikes your fancy. Chris Brogan made mention earlier this week of small victories. Small victories are the seeds for the big ones. So reward yourself and you’ll always find it easier to keep going.
To Wrap it Up
- Take One Step
- Forge Ahead
- Don’t worry about results, they’ll be there eventually
- Celebrate even the smallest victory
@Robby: Thanks for stopping. I've been in the same boat as you with the screw ups. After a while you realize that there is no point in dwelling on them. You can't change what has already happened, but you can actually change what might happen in the future. Always pleased if anything I write helps people get on the right path.
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