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In just six months, I have managed to achieve a lot of things in my life, major changes that probably should have taken years to accomplish. Here are just a few: I started a small business that is likely to support me entirely within the next six months, created a blog that is syndicated to two other sites and hit 3,000 unique visitors within two months of founding, lost 20 lbs, reduced my debt and was nominated employee of the month at my company.
A lot of people ask me how I do it; how do I keep up with it all? After all, a full-time job, a part-time job, a company to run and an advice site to publish take up a lot of time and energy.
I will share with you my simple productivity method. I say that it is simple, because it is. However, it is not easy. There is a vast difference. I guarantee that using this method will change your life if employed daily.
Put one foot in front of the other. Take one step at time.
Perhaps I should elaborate. See, first you take a step. If your goal is to start your own business, that step might be to obtain a tax ID as a sole proprietor. If your goal is to lose weight, you switch out your breakfast burrito with an apple and a smoothie. If your goal is to start a website, you purchase the domain and hosting.
Then, you ask yourself, what’s the next step? Then you take it.
You write a business plan. You start running every other day. You sketch ideas for your website homepage.
Rinse. Repeat.
Everyday, you wake up and you ask yourself, what’s the next step? Then you take it.
What’s the catch? There’s no catch. You just have to really want it. There’s no half-ass way to obtain anything worth having. You just wake up and you start doing. You don’t make excuses; you don’t spend a lot of time wondering what the first step is. Don’t worry if you jump into the middle first – you’ll find your way to the beginning quickly.
This is how I started my business, launched my website, became great at my job, got into racing shape, and began dating again. I haven’t done it perfectly, but luckily no one is grading me. And if I had waited to do it perfectly, it wouldn’t have gotten done.
The most important thing is to make sure that your Why is strong enough. Why do you want to start a business, lose weight or start a website? If your reasons are flimsy, your results will be too. If you want to start a business because your buddy is, that’s not a good reason. But if you want to start a business because you believe you have a great product or service the world needs, then that’s something to hold on to. If you want to lose weight because your boyfriend or girlfriend said you were fat, you’ll probably stay the same. But if you want to lose weight because you’ve decided it’s high time you got healthy, then you’ll probably make it.
The reason your Why needs to be strong is because there will be days when your resolve will fail you, when you wake up and say, f*ck the next step, let’s sleep in. You have to keep going, one foot in front of the other.
Some days you may feel like it’s too much, there’s too much to do, too many steps before you get where you want to be. That’s OK. You just have to take one step. Not two, not tomorrow or in a month, but one step today.
One day, you’ll look up and you’ll be amazed at how far you’ve come. One step at a time.
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Comments
05.12.08
Good read. Recently, i've pulled myself out of a rut and have a lot of goals over the next six months that I'd like to see accomplished.
Your article is yet another inspiration to get me going. Cheers
05.12.08
You're absolutely right about all of this, and it's very similar to my approach. My first step every morning is writing it all down. I really enjoy getting to cross stuff off a list.
So your next step is to take me to a Hooks game isn't it?
Best wishes Holly.
05.12.08
Just a restatement on the old question: How do you eat an elephant?
Answer: One bite at a time.
05.23.08
I'm late reading your post and I must say this was great! It is simple. As I have always said to keep me motivated, "nothing is rocket science, when you know what you want." Thanks!
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