So often I see really intelligent and inspiring introverted women entrepreneurs struggling to make progress because they are dealing with internal challenges like procrastination, overwhelm, & self-doubt.
This is often because they are beating themselves up internally for not being to START things let alone complete them.
They think there’s something wrong with them and that they are destined to a life of stagnancy.
This isn’t true!
I have the benefit of being on the outside looking in. These women are actually stuck because they’ve been focusing on the big picture and thinking about all that has to be done… all that MUST be done RIGHT NOW in order to create this vision they see as if this vision is supposed to just spring forth from nothing.
This is also not true!
Truth is…
You have to break these big visions down into short term and mid-term goals. Then break those goals down into milestones. Then break those milestones into daily tasks and habits. Then track them!
In order to start getting things done and making progress you have to stop looking at the big picture and focus on daily tasks and habits.
Here are 5 Steps to help you start making progress
Take a step back and evaluate
Review Your 1 Major Goal
Break the Goal Down in Projects
Plan out your Tasks Daily
Create Accountability
Let’s dive in a little deeper to help you get going again!
Step 1: Take a step (or 2) back and evaluate
Ask yourself some specific questions:
What am I doing right now in my life? Get specific. (This can be in the whole thing or a specific area like health, wealth, or relationships)
Is this truly moving me towards my goal for the month?
We ask these questions to create a level of self-awareness. Getting clear on where you are and where you are starting and what’s creating overwhelm is the first step to removing it from your life.
You’ll want to take about 30 mins in a quiet space (away from the computer and other gadgets) with a journal and start answering these questions. On to the next step: Reviewing your goal
Step 2: Review Your 1 Major Goal for the Month
There are a lot of distractions we are facing in life. There’s external distractions like family, work, social media. There’s internal distractions like self doubt, ruminating thoughts, and anxiety. And there are environmental distractions like noise, crowds, smells, and more. All of these can distract you from your main focus for the month and before you know it its the end of the month and you’ve made little to no progress.
During this time of evaluation ask yourself these questions:
Is what you’re doing (from step 1) actually going to help you accomplish your goal?
Are you making actual progress or is it simply busy work that makes you feel productive but isn’t really moving the needle?
How do you know if it’s busy work? Simple it’s something that’s not moving you towards your mission for the month. It probably falls into the “urgent, not important” category which means that it’s not really a priority or a best use of your time and energy. Things that move you towards your goals are usually labeled “Not Urgent, Important”. These are things you schedule in your planner and do when the time comes.
After you get clear on whether what you are doing is truly moving you forward it’s time to move on to Step 3: Break the Goal Down
Step 3: Break the Goal Down
This is where I see so many women (& people as a whole) get tripped up. They have a beautiful massive vision but haven’t broken it down and wonder why it is they procrastinate. The problem is that they are focusing on the big picture and that overwhelms the creative brain for sure. We have to break it down into pieces, milestones, stages, or phases.
So review that goal and ask:
Have you broken this goal down into milestones, stages, or phases?
Are you on track to reach this goal this month?
If this goal is broken down then you’ll know if you are making progress. It is hard to make progress with a big picture goal because it’s a yes or no question at that point whereas with milestones its smaller steps and the question shifts to “Have I made progress?” and is no longer “Is the vision real yet?”
That second question can lead to self-doubt and being hard on yourself. This hardness makes us shrink and lose faith in our ability. The first question offers grace and progress.
Now that you’ve broken your goals down it’s time to move on to step 4: Plan your action tasks daily.
Step 4: Plan your action tasks daily
A lot people never reach this part because they are stuck somewhere between steps 1 and 2. So if you’ve made it this far you are already making progress!! Yes!! Kudos!
Breaking your goal down into daily action tasks and habits is the real SECRET to making progress.
Doing this will allow you to plan your actions and create new habits that eventually go on autopilot.
Which means at first it might not seem like you’re making any progress at first but if you keep at it momentum builds and the compound effect takes over.
Ever tried to stop a train that’s going at 55mph? It’s nearly impossible. It takes a HUGE amount of effort to stop that train.
The challenge is a lot of people never actually “hit their stride”. The start and stop and start and stop. While this is better than having never started, it’ll never beat slow and consistent forward movement.
So the questions to ask yourself here are:
Have you actually broken your milestone goals into daily tasks and habits?
Have you actually schedule a date and time to do these specific things?
If you haven’t done these things then you most likely won’t reach your vision any time soon, if ever because we make time for the things we prioritize and if it’s not planned in some way (maybe just a block of time for when you’ll work on it) it’s not likely to happen.
Now that you’ve planned your daily tasks and started building new habits it’s time to move on to step 5: creating accountability.
Step 5: Creating accountability
There’s something special about accountability. Especially EXTERNAL/public accountability.
There are 3 ways to create personal accountability.
Those 3 ways are:
Using a habit tracker of some sort
Having an accountability partner or support group
Having a coach or mentor
The habit tracker is something that you can create or purchase and it’ll allow you simply check off if you’ve completed your habit task that day. It takes about 66 days for a habit to ease into autopilot mode. This is personal accountability.
Having an accountability partner or support group is the first step to removing the accountability from you and making it public. This is basically POSITIVE peer pressure lol. This exists because it works.
The 3rd and also really powerful accountability is having a coach or mentor hold you accountable. This is something you usually pay for. It’s like a personal trainer for you life.
Having any or all of these types of accountability in your life is bound to help you really start getting things done and bringing your vision to life.
So let’s recap!
What’s really stopping you from getting things done so you can make progress is OVERWHELM. Overwhelm happens when you focus on the big picture mission/vision/goal and can’t really see the forest for the trees. By taking a few steps back and going through these steps you’ll begin making progress in no time!
Take a step back and evaluate
Review your 1 major goal
Break the goal down
Plan the daily tasks and habits
Create accountability
So tell us in the comments below: Where were you stuck when getting things done? Has this helped you get moving again?
until next time
with
Coach Brittany
