TUNE IN: APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | PANDORA | AMAZON MUSIC
Y’all, fall is upon us. I mean seriously, the end of the year is coming in hot. Can you even believe how fast this year has flown by? If you’re anything like me then you started this year super ambitious with a giant to-do list and you were working on setting all your goals and figuring out how you were going to crush those goals. Now, maybe a few weeks or months into the new year, you’d already lost sight of all of that or maybe here you are absolutely crushing it, smashing those goals and going above and beyond what you hoped to accomplish this year.
I have some great tips that I’m going to share with you today, four tips actually, that are going to help you follow through with what you want to do whether it is those New Year’s goals from last year, the goals that are in front of you right now, the short-term goals or long-term goals, the things you want to get done around the house. Maybe it’s organization things, even things like putting those dang photos into photo albums or taking your digital photos and creating photo books, that type of stuff, stuff that you actually want to follow through and get done. Stuff that you have really good intentions about and you keep saying to yourself, I really want to get that done someday. Maybe you’ve even started a project but then other things have come along and you’ve laid it down and you’ve got shiny object syndrome or you’re a little bit squirrel brained and you’ve got this project started and that project started and nothing is finished.
Sis, I’m here to help you today with these four tips that are going to help you finish what you start. So, let’s jump right on in.
The Power of 3
Tip #1 is break it down and utilize the power of three. If you’ve been hanging out with me for very long, then you know that I have this thing about the number three. And I think for me it’s a spiritual thing with the Trinity. There’s just something really special about the number 3. Things in my life tend to happen in threes, I have three kids…it’s just this thing for me. So, I like to utilize the power of three. Maybe you’ve heard me talk about the Big Three before.
So, here’s the deal. Every new year, I only set three goals. And guess what happens 90% of the time? I crush all three goals. Sometimes it doesn’t happen but the vast majority of the time, I crush all three goals. Why? Because three is not overwhelming. Three is simplified. Like I can do three things, I can tackle and accomplish, start to finish, three things. So that’s what I do every new year.
But you can carry out this theme, the power of three, so much deeper than just that. You can take your goals or your tasks and break those big ones down into three smaller steps. And if you have a giant thing that you’re trying to get done, then maybe you’re going to break it down even smaller into three smaller baby steps. So, you kind of have this map almost when you write it down on a piece of paper, this big thing you want to get done and then you draw three lines and you break it down into three steps. And then you can draw three more lines out of each one of those and break it down and break it down and break it down. And then each and every day, you’re doing three things, taking three steps forward towards that giant thing that you want to accomplish.
I hope that makes sense. Because breaking things down and utilizing the power of three is really going to help you accomplish the things that you want to accomplish. It’s going to help you follow through and finish what you start and hit your end goal.
Set a Deadline and Make it Happen
Once in a while, I get in this state of procrastination. I don’t know if you ever get like that, but procrastination is sometimes a thing for me. It’s kind of funny because sometimes I actually tend to work better under pressure, which is exactly why I utilize tip number two of setting a deadline and making it happen.
An example that I want to give you is the Faith Fueled Breakthrough course that I created and launched. When I started down that journey and started working with a business coach, one of the first things she said to me is, “Katie, you’ve got to set a deadline for yourself. Set a launch date and then you’re gonna make it happen.” And oh my goodness, she was absolutely spot on. That’s exactly what I did, I set a deadline. And guess what? By that deadline, I had the Faith Fueled Breakthrough course created and launched right on time, right on the deadline that I had set. I made it happen and the same thing will happen for you, Sis.
Another thing that I set deadlines around is gatherings or inviting people over to our home. It’s funny because that deadline or that date on the calendar actually gets things done around the house. My kids and I pitch in and we all get the house cleaned up, we get the yard cleaned up and those things get done because we set a deadline.
Another example is when my family and I were moving into our new house, my son Chase, his birthday was coming up and so we had decided well in advance, that we were going to have Chase’s birthday party in the new house. The house was not quite finished when we set that deadline and we were absolutely under the gun trying to make it happen. But we set a deadline for Chase’s birthday party and when push came to shove, and I gotta be honest, we were scrambling a little bit at the very, very end but because we’d set a deadline and got it on the calendar and told everyone we’re having the birthday party the new house, guess what? We were moved in before the birthday party. In fact, we actually moved into our new house on Chase’s birthday. So that’s kind of special and one way that we celebrated having that deadline.
Tell the World What You Want to Accomplish
Tip #3 is to tell the world what you’re wanting to accomplish, what you’re going to accomplish, what you’re starting, and what you’re going to finish. So, prime example here of how impactful and how much accountability works and how it can set you up for success, again was for me the Faith Fueled Breakthrough program launch. I announced it on social media, I announced it on the podcast well before it was done. In fact, I’m pretty sure I even announced the release date and just all the exciting news about the program before I even started creating it. Again, this was another tip from my business coach, and you just see this being successful over and over again.
Support and accountability are absolutely huge. When you’re telling people and you’re telling the world I’m going to do this thing, they’re going to gently hold you accountable. They’re going to be expecting this thing to be finished. If you’re telling your friends, your girlfriend, your husband, your family, about this thing that’s on your heart that you want to do, that you want to start and finish, and they’re gently holding you accountable, chances are you are going to follow through and finish that thing. Accountability is one of the number one ways to help you guarantee that you’re going to finish what you start, that you’re going to actually follow through with what it is that you want to do.
Eat the Frog
I love this one. There’s a book by Brian Tracy and it’s called “Eat That Frog”. And so that’s exactly where this whole thing comes from. It’s all about doing the thing that you really don’t want to do. Let’s be real…nobody wants to eat a literal frog, right? It’s the thing that no one would want to do. And the whole point is doing that thing first. Doing the hard thing first, doing the thing around your goal or whatever it is that you’ve started doing that you don’t want to do. Doing that thing first.
This has served me really well in my own life because I actually use this concept all the time even as far as things around the house. For me, it’s folding laundry. I don’t know why but I’m always procrastinating and not wanting to fold the laundry. So, it’s like if I don’t want to do the next thing that I need to do like folding the laundry, then I can spend hours procrastinating and avoiding that task and then consequently nothing else gets done either. Nothing else that I need to get finished around the house gets done either because I’m so busy procrastinating and wasting time doing meaningless little tasks to avoid folding the darn laundry. So, it’s this whole thing of eating the frog. It’s like I don’t want to fold the laundry right now, but I need to go fold the laundry. I need to go eat the frog so that I can move on to other important things that I want and need to get done.
This concept is true for both small tasks around the house and those big tasks that are lingering on your to-do list or those big goals that you’ve set or those projects that you’ve started that you really want to finish, but you’re stuck because now you’re at a point where there’s something involved in the process and you don’t want to do the darn thing. Sis, it’s time to eat the frog. You might want to write that one down and post it up on your bathroom mirror, on your refrigerator, or inside your kitchen cabinet doors. Eat the frog, do the darn thing.
At the beginning of this I was talking about utilizing the power of three and that tip kind of goes hand in hand with this one because it’s all about taking those three things, those big three, and eating the frog. Doing the thing on that list of three that you want to do the least and doing it first. It’s all about eating the frog and getting that thing done, so that you can progress forward, so that you can finish what you started. And sweet friend, I know that you want that in your life. I know that you’ve had things that you started that you really want to finish, right? I know you do. I do. I know that you do too.
The place where you’re stuck at, go do that thing. You can do it. You were created to do hard things and you are capable of doing the thing that you don’t want to do so that you can be unstuck, so that you can move forward and finish what you started.
Wow. You have really opened my eyes. I have been struggling with this forever. It really heloed to see this from a differant perspective.