Success in life is about progress not perfection, understand the difference.
As I’m sure you all know, life seems to be getting more and more complicated. Between running a business, kids, trying to stay fit, aging parents, looking after the house and trying to save a bit of money along the way, it’s not an easy battle! Many entrepreneurs think about the idea of creating a “simpler life”, but most are not even sure where to begin.
I feel very fortunate to be able to participate in Dan Sullivan’s Strategic Coach Program. This is an amazing program built for growth minded entrepreneurs to assist them in building self-managing companies. There are a number of breakthroughs I have experienced through participating in their sessions. One of these breakthroughs was experienced after I read Dan’s book, Learning How to Avoid the Gap. This book depicts the undermining strategy for building lifetime happiness through taking a different look at the measurement of progress in life.
There are a number of things that we measure in our lives. Some of these include: physical appearance, wealth, intelligence, relationships, possessions, etc. Many of us have a vision or an ideal around what life would be like if we were more confident in any of these areas. Personally, I have fought with my weight for a number of years and often think about how I would feel at the perfect weight. These visions are often the inspiration for goals. In my case, to eat healthier or to exercise more frequently. The excitement then begins!
Most significant goals take time to accomplish. When developing goals, most of us start with a review our current situation. We then figure out what our target is and what success looks like. We begin moving forward with an action plan and making progress. We then typically hit a few road blocks and progress slows down. This is often the point when we review progress compare it to the desired end result. In my personal example above, let’s say my goal is to drop my weight from 220 to 200 pounds. I’m one month into my new healthier regime and I’ve lost 4 pounds. Only 16 more to go! I then begin thinking about how tough it was to lose the first 4 pounds? How am I going to be able to do this for the next 6 months? What about my upcoming vacation? How am I going to stay on track at an all-inclusive resort? The conversation then goes on and on. This often leads to unhappiness, a lack of confidence and may result in you even abandoning the goal itself. Dan Sullivan calls this type of thinking “getting stuck in the GAP”.
If we take a different approach to measurement, we can often change the feelings and confidence around progress. Let’s say we focus all of our progress measurement against our starting point. We know that getting to 200 pounds (loss of 20) is our end goal but let’s try to forget about that for a moment. Our starting point was 220 and now we are at 216! This is something to be celebrated. Think about all the new health habits you have changed to get there. Think about how many times you have exercised in the last month. The point is that this style of measurement is much more fulfilling. It helps build much more confidence and is much more likely to keep you focused on the eventual achievement of your end goal.
Throughout life we will set thousands of goals. Some as small as getting to work on time to goals as large as paying off our mortgage or having enough money to retire comfortably. The sooner you begin measuring progress from your starting point vs. the end result, the sooner you will begin building confidence and will become happier in life.
In the event you need additional assistance in simplifying your life, we also offer our Simple Life Vision Session. This is a free, 90 minute, one-on-one session where we help you come up with your own Simple Life Vision and a starting point for an action plan to achieve it. Please feel free to visit our website for any further information. www.simpleplanprogram.com
We appreciate your interest and hope this information was of value to you. If you happened to miss our Top 10 list, please let us know and we will be sure to send you a copy. Have a fantastic day and always remember to keep things simple!
BIO
Mark Landers is the creator of The Simple Plan Program and has been helping entrepreneurs simplify their lives for over 10 years.
