#036 The Secret to Making Goals Easier to Achieve

What is the secret to making goals easier to achieve? Turn your goals into Daily Habits!

In this episode, we explore how to make achieving goals a habit by drawing inspiration from James Clear’s 'Atomic Habits' and a recent Mel Robbins' podcast where she mentioned that when you write down your goals, you are halfway to achieving them.

When you write down your goal and put it somewhere where you can see it every day it is a reminder, this keeps it front and center in your mind, causing your brain to act on that. Your brain encodes the goal.

Melissa emphasizes the importance of implementation intention and borrowing successful strategies from others. Using the example of earning $100,000 a year in a wedding business, the episode outlines steps such as writing down goals, understanding your unique value, and consistently showing up daily, even when it's challenging.

Practical examples and strategies are provided to help listeners turn their business dreams into achievable goals. Join us for insights and upcoming interviews with successful professionals.

James Clear, Atomic Habits: Implementation Intention 

00:00 Introduction to Achieving Goals
00:06 Influences and Inspirations
00:44 Defining and Setting Goals
02:38 The Power of Writing Down Goals
03:43 Borrowing Success and Steps to Achieve Goals
06:59 Implementation Intention: The Missing Link
09:16 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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Transcript

Today we're gonna talk about goals and how to turn achieving them into a habit. 

Welcome everyone. Somehow I merged a few of my favorite influences in today's podcast. One of my absolute favorite books of all time is James Clear's Atomic Habits. And one of my favorite podcasts to listen to regularly is Mel Robbins. And my last, and one of my goals here with this podcast is to inspire my listeners and viewers to take action, to achieve the business that they want.

I know firsthand, and I'm sure you do too, creating a business that you love that pays you well and is sustainable is no easy task. There's a little secret called implementation intention, and it is a game changer for achieving goals. We've talked about goals a bit in the last weeks of the year. And at the root of these goals is a decision that you make as a business owner, a goal comes into existence. When you decide what you want for your business, this isn't you dreaming of something you want for your business, [00:01:00] not a pie in the sky possibility, but something that you actually want for your business, something that you create a goal for that you work towards. 

In chapter four of Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about a missing link to achieving goals, and it's called implementation intention. This fascinates me, but more on that later. I just wanted to drop that expression in here as we start. 

For this podcast episode, I'm going to use the example of earning 100, 000 a year in your wedding business as the goal.

 It is one I hear a lot, but you can sub in your own goal. I'm just using the 100k example as my example.

The goal may start with a dream of making this dollar amount, but for it to actually become reality, it needs to pass through the goal stage. That is when you take this seriously and hatch a plan of how you're going to achieve it.

And when will you know you've achieved it when you have sales that hit your bank account to the tune of a hundred thousand dollars, remember goals need to be measurable so that we can gauge what's [00:02:00] working and what's not working and know if you've achieved what you set out to achieve.

I listened to a podcast of Mel Robbins back in January that discussed, I think it was six steps to getting anything done or achieving anything you want. Something like that. And it stuck with me. I don't remember line by line, but the overarching reason it stuck with me is because I work with many of you that have goals for your business, but when it comes time to execute the steps needed to achieve a goal and doing it consistently, this is where many of us fall short of getting what we set out to achieve. We might be motivated to achieve this outcome, but somehow the goal remains elusive. But Mel mentioned that when you write down your goals, you are halfway to achieving them.

That seems a little crazy, doesn't it? That something so quick and even as simple as taking a minute to write down a goal can have so much impact. But what she also said was that when you write your goal down, you are telling your brain what is important to you. So [00:03:00] write down your goal and put it somewhere where you can see it every day.

This isn't the first time I've heard this and it will not be the last, I'm sure. But it is a reminder of the power of visualization, seeing that goal written out, seeing a post it on your laptop day after day, keeps it front and center in your mind, which means your brain acts on that. Your brain encodes the goal.

So when you say you want to make 100, 000 a year in your wedding business, then you write that down and you read it to yourself every day. Your brain is basically prioritizing this goal above all sorts of other things that go in and out of your brain every day.

And by prioritizing it, things start to happen. And here's something else I want to throw in here. I think I may have mentioned this in past episodes, but if you need to borrow someone else's success for your success, for example, I know how to make a hundred thousand dollars a year in my wedding business because I've been doing it consistently for years.

So if you have a goal of [00:04:00] making a hundred thousand dollars, but haven't yet borrow that confidence from me or someone else that you know that has done that. If I've done it, you can do it. Someone has done it, which means it can be done. And then borrow what my steps are, follow what other wedding professionals have done to make 100, 000 in their business.

This is exactly why I have this podcast, because I want to demonstrate to you that it can be done. And by having other wedding pros on as often as I can that also have done it and then they explain what has worked and not worked for them, you get to borrow these steps, take them, use them, use their success at achieving this goal as incentive for you to be able to do the same thing.

 You'll borrow these steps, but make them your own. Like, what did I do to make a hundred thousand dollars plus for years? Just borrow my steps. My basic steps are first, understand who you are and what you offer. Why are you uniquely you and while you're at it, make sure you know your why.

[00:05:00] Second, understand who your ideal client is. If your message aligns with what they're looking for, it is a match made in heaven, but a misaligned message or trying to be everything to everyone just will not work. But if you understand what you're best at, who your clients are, and what they want, then the next steps are creating messaging that demonstrates why you are the only choice, the authority, the expert, , the go to in your wedding niche.

Armed with messaging and understanding, you can now create a website, socials, pricing, and everything else you need to make that 100, 000 a year.

And most importantly, you have to start doing what you already know you need to do. Too many of us hide and avoid what it is we know we need to do. The result? We don't achieve the goal because we don't put ourselves out there the way we need to.

Whether your goal is to make the 100, 000 this year, or start a photography business, or be on the preferred vendors list at the amazing resort. You love to [00:06:00] work at how do we get this goal kick started and making progress towards success.

If you are anything like me, you just wish it would magically happen without all the effort and doing all the hard stuff. Why can't it just be easy? I don't want to network or introduce myself or meet new people. I want to stay home in the comfort of my home and not put myself out there. I don't want to do the hard, uncomfortable stuff.

The stuff I know will actually work, but it puts me way out of my comfort zone, 

but if I could share one secret to us being in this game for three decades, it's that we show up every single day, even when we don't want to.

There's days we barely move the needle forward and there's days that there are big leaps and bounds. There's days, maybe I want to cry. And there's days I'm exuberant, but the key is showing up even when you don't want to. And that is truthfully the secretest of secret sauces.

This is a long game and you need to show up consistently to achieve your goals. Mel Robbins [00:07:00] mentions in her podcast that it is, quote, doing the reps, Which reminds me of James Clear and Atomic Habits where he talks about achieving your goals and how having intention rather than motivation is what makes goals more achievable.

James Clear quotes a study. I'll link to it in the show notes because it's fascinating. This study demonstrates that being intentional is what helps you achieve your goals. The missing link, he writes, is implementation intention that I mentioned earlier. Which is a plan you make beforehand about when and where to act.

That is, how you intend to implement a particular habit. Here's a quote from chapter 4 of Atomic Habits. Quote, motivation is short lived and doesn't lead to consistent action. If you want to achieve your goals, then you need a plan for exactly when And how you're going to execute on them.

So how does an implementation intention show up for your business? For example, I will insert the thing you need to do here and [00:08:00] name the time and the place. For example, I will go to an industry networking get together at 8pm on March 20th at such and such location.

 I will create a content calendar for this week's Instagram post on Sunday night by 7 p. m. Seven posts ready to go for the week.

I will do a cash flow report for my business at the end of this month, so on February 1st, I will look at the money that came in and out of my business for the month of January and create a report that will help me understand money in my business. 

I guess what I'm trying to point out is that successfully achieving your goals is a habit, it's a daily habit, one that you can make oh so much easier by first, defining your goal,

second, writing it down so that your brain keeps reminding you of it so that you continue to work towards it. Third, remember others have gone before you. Borrow their confidence and [00:09:00] their plan, and fourth, use implementation intention. Decide what you need to do to move your goal forward and make a plan with what you want to do and when you will do it. You will be amazed at how fast your goal gets accomplished. 

I have to admit that there is nothing special about Keith and I creating these photo businesses. We just showed up every day, year after year when it was tough and when it was easy. There's no magic bullet to having a successful wedding business. It's like diet and exercise. Anyway, thank you for being here.

I truly appreciate it. I have some fun interviews coming up over the next few weeks. So please make sure you join us.

Thank you so much. And I'll see you next time.