Better than a resolution.

Have you ever set a goal or resolution, only to completely forget about it?

(Like the time I set a goal to run a half marathon, only to get distracted… Later, a friend asked me over lunch whether I “finished my half.” I thought he was talking about dessert!)

One of the most valuable things I learned in 2017 was the difference between making resolutions (which is a lot like wishful thinking) and creating s system of daily habits that lead toward the outcome that you want.

What does that mean?

It means that if you have a desired outcome (I’ll use myself as an example… I’d like to make enough money to finally pay off my student loans this year) break the big task up into smaller bits and figure out what task you have to do every day to reach that goal.

I get most of my business through my email newsletters. So I will discipline myself to continue to write an email every day and find out what offers will be more attractive to the people on my list.

I haven’t set a dollar amount to the goal. I can’t control that… I can just control what I do with my time every day.

If you’ve set some goals for yourself this year, I encourage you to try this approach.

Sean Kaye explains the idea of working backward to achieve your goals in this Monster Mice podcast interview.