Ep 183 The #1 Strategy For Any Goal

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Episode Notes:

Today I want to discuss the most important piece of strategy you need in every single goal you have.  This topic came up as we are closing down our fiscal year this week and I thought it would be fun to discuss the strategic “must have” that  I know works more than any other – and will help you accomplish any goal.  Not many people tell you this – especially in the world of corporate thinking.  In fact – it might seem crazy to some – but I’m ok with embracing my crazy if it means I create the most amazing life I possibly can and share it with you to do the same.  Listen today to learn more.

In This Episode:

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Episode Transcript:

You are listening to the it’s your time podcast and I’m your host certified life coach Michelle Arnold Bourque, and today’s episode, I’m discussing the most important strategy you need for any goal. Welcome to the it’s your time Podcast, the podcast where busy professionals like you get the practical solutions and support you need to gain control of your schedule. So you can strive to be the best in your career, but without the stress and overwhelm. If you’re looking to increase your energy and decrease your stress, you are in the right place. Hello, hello, hello, welcome back to the podcast friends. How are you doing today? Hopefully amazing. And as you know, if not, that is okay, too. We hold space for all of it here, we have signed up for that which we call the human experience, right 5050 We take the good and the bad. And speaking of 5050. Today, I want to talk to you about the most important strategy that you need for any goal. And a lot of times as we’re on our way towards any goal, we are feeling the 5050 Right. So today, I want to talk to you again, about the most important piece of strategy that you need for any goal. And I was thinking about this because we are closing down our fiscal year this week. And I thought it would be fun to discuss the strategic must have that I know works more than most others. And it will help you accomplish any of your goals. And not many people will tell you this, especially in the world of corporate thinking. In fact, it might seem a little crazy to some but I’m okay with embracing my crazy and sharing it with you if it means I create the most amazing life I possibly can. And you do the same. Now, let’s just start by defining strategy, a general plan or set of plans intended to achieve something especially over a long period of time. And when we started the quarter, I just kept telling the team we are going to make this number, I had to believe it, they had to believe it. And this is the number one strategy that I want to share with you today. You have to believe in any goal you are setting out to accomplish. Did you hear me the number one strategy for any goal is that you have to believe in the goal that you are setting out to accomplish. And the most important reason for this is that more often than not, the actions you think will get you there to begin with always end up changing. And I will tell you, I just started reading the book Extreme Ownership, how US Navy SEALs lead and win, which by the way, I’m totally digging it so far. And regarding the importance of belief, the author says once I understood and believed, I then passed the understanding and belief on clearly and succinctly to my troops so that they believed in themselves. And when they understood why they would commit to the mission, persevere through the inevitable changes and store and accomplish the task set before us. And then he goes on to say if a leader does not believe he or she will not take the risks required to overcome the inevitable challenges necessary to win and actions and words reflect belief with a clear confidence and self assuredness. That is not possible when belief is in doubt. And I’ll use an example from our quarterly sales focus. Each week, I will send out an Excel sheet to the team on how we are tracking and where we are headed with the pipeline. And at the start of the quarter. I thought we might even close everything down before the last week and yet here we are, we have a couple of stragglers and some of the things that I planned for April business are now into May. And we have to figure out how to still get to our number. Here is what you need to know. It’s at this point and every timeline have a goal that you keep believing. This is the crucial point at which you must still believe because our brain wants to doubt and find the negativity and all of the reasons Here’s why it won’t work. But think about it. When you doubt, worry, maybe feel helpless. Guess what you do? Not much, right? If we are sitting in doubt, and worry, and feeling helpless, oftentimes we are not taking action, we must override the doubt and get to the feeling of having the goal done. And then find new action steps to take from that emotion. So you want to work from the emotion of having the goal already accomplished. You must feel things like commitment, determination, motivation, passion, whatever it is for you, that keeps you going. And on the topic of commitment, I want you to consider a goal that you have in mind. And then I want you to consider if you know what your level of commitment is, it’s also so important because it plays right in line with your level of belief. And the way you stay committed, is by having a compelling reason. And it has to be compelling. Again, when challenges arise, you want to make sure your reason for staying committed is greater than the reasons to quit. And I used this example a couple years ago, and my sister is always horrified if I repeat it. But it really drives the point home, there were a handful of us a couple years ago who signed up for a half marathon know, in full transparency, I may or may not have pushed most of them to sign up and come the day of I was the only one who actually ran it. In fact, I was the only one who actually went to it. Everyone else had reasons why they weren’t going to be able to do it. Some may even have thought that they didn’t think they could do it, to which my response is, you absolutely can do it, you just didn’t want to and that is totally fine. Just own it, right? It’s so much more powerful. To just own, that you really didn’t want to do it. Because here’s how I know you could do it. And I want you to think about this with your goals. If I was going to chop your kid’s pinky finger off, if you didn’t do whatever that goal is, my guess is, you would at least start walking, for example for the half marathon, right? Think about it, you want the reason to be really compelling. And we tell ourselves, we can’t do things in life. It’s just simply not true. There are lies that we tell ourselves, because if I took your kid or for me if somebody took my dog, or let’s look on the opposite side of the spectrum, right 5050 If I said I was going to pay you $10 million, pretty sure you’d figure out what the strategic steps were to take in order to accomplish the goal. So think about your reason why you want the goal. And here’s a little trick to kind of get super clear on it. You come up with your first reason. So for example, maybe I’m starting my coaching business, because I want to help people. And that sounds lovely, right? But like, really why? So ask yourself a second time? Why is that important? Well, really, why is I want to make sure that especially females are standing more in their power and doing more of what they want to do, as opposed to running around and killing themselves helping everybody else. And again, maybe that sounds very lovely. Ask yourself again, why is that important? And when you get that reason, that is going to be so much stronger than, Oh, I want to help people. You see where that is. So ask yourself why then why is that important? Then why is that important? At least three levels of why? Because once you have your compelling reason, it changes everything. And when you combine the two, your belief and your compelling reasons. So your commitment and your belief, your brain will begin to consider new ideas, new strategic options and be open to altering the original plan. Now, most fiscal years are assumed to be coming at about the halfway mark. So I want you to think about what was your goal at the start of the year? Was it something along the lines of when presidents club or all stars or whatever your award winning goals are at your company? Where do you stand and hitting that? Because there is still plenty of time to get it done? If you believe it. Most folks have it backwards and think you have to achieve it to believe Have it false. The truth is, you have to believe it to achieve it. You also, by the way, do not have to know all of the steps ahead of time. Now, of course, you want to start with a plan, you have some ideas, they do not have to be perfect. And you don’t have to know all of the steps. There’s another book that I read a few years ago, called the answer to how is yes, basically, you need to get started, you start saying yes to opportunities. And the way you figure out the next step is by actually taking action, and taking more action and taking more action and taking yet again, more action. It keeps you in the momentum, and it leads you to your goal. But the number one thing that you need in order to begin your strategic outline, put it on your business plan, or at least know it for yourself. It starts with your mindset. When you believe in your goal, no matter what you will continue to try new things to get there. And on the opposite side, if you don’t believe you will not take the extra steps to do all of the things because you think it doesn’t matter. I’m not going to hit it anyways, beyond to yourself when you hear yourself telling yourself that it’s a lot of talking to yourself. It’s right up my alley. Sidenote, sometimes I think the voices in my brain should actually pay rent. And then I would for sure be rich, right? But I choke and yet I’m not, it’s so important to know what you are thinking about. And to think about what you are thinking about. Here’s another helpful hint that I want to share. Think about your goal. And get curious as to what your level of belief is. And ask yourself why you don’t already have that goal accomplished. Now, you might have a list of things, obstacles, problems, whatever you want to call them. That’s brilliant. We want that we want a list of the obstacles because your next step is to build awareness around those items. With a caveat, you have to again, be honest to yourself, don’t believe the reasons like the problems that you are serving up are actually truth. They are simply thoughts, which is amazing and perfect, because then you can get curious, get curious about what could be possible. If you found the solution for each of those obstacles. Again, take the time to think about having the goal accomplished. Just sit for two minutes, and the belief of that, and then start taking action on those solutions from the power of your belief. And when you get to work on believing I am telling you, everything changes, you will come up with what corporate might seem to consider the most important strategic steps and plans that they have seen unlike any other time before. But you will know what really helped was your mindset and your thinking overall. That’s what makes the difference. Okay, friends, if you need help with finally reaching that goal that you have just not quite been able to get to. I want to help. I love working with my clients when they hit the highest sales numbers that they’ve ever had or they learn to leave work at work and start implementing healthier habits in their lives. It would be my privilege to help you as well. So if you’re interested, go to www.michellebourquecoaching.com/connect. That’s where you can go ahead sign up for a no cost call and learn more about it. Okay, that’s what I have for you today. Let’s circle back next week but for now, make it a great day. Take care

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