In line with my bonus goal of making all of my goals FUN, I’m going to my third spin class in 3 days today.

If you had told me 3 months ago that I would be getting super into cycling, I’d think you were CRAZY.

I’ve never been good at biking, but it turns out that spin class is amaaaazing.

The one I go to has a giant screen at the front, and it shows a virtual reality cycling track in made-up worlds, and goes to the beat of electronic music. The lights are off, there’s an instructor yelling motivational quotes and the best bit – you get to choose how much resistance you put on your bike.

It is SO fun, and I can’t wait to go again.

Today, I joined a gym (again).

On March 1st, 2020, I joined a gym in Brighton, UK. We all know what happened in March 2020 (if you’re reading this like, waaaay in the future and have forgotten – the COVID-19 Pandemic hit enough of the world for a global lockdown). So the gym closed (although, more to the point, I moved back to New Zealand a few days before lockdown).

But something else happened around then. I developed what I thought was chronic shoulder and back injury, but turned out to be something called TMS, which is SO curable. You can read all about my journey here.

I’ve never felt so blessed to have the movement of my body.

I did a 40-minute spin class today that 3 months ago would have had me on the floor in terrible pain 10 minutes in. I completed it without any issue AND did an aerobics class an hour later.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might know that each week, I rate myself on eight different areas of my life and then work on how to improve each area. Health & Fitness has been a solid 8/10 since I healed my chronic pain, and now I want to push it to a 10. I’ve always resisted going to the gym because I never really know what to do, but recently I found a gym with some fun classes (and it’s only a 7-minute walk from my house, which helps a lot!).

I’ve already found a gym buddy on my first day, and I’ve got high hopes.

Of course, the classic issue with the gym is that most people don’t go as much as they say they want to.

We all think “this year will be different.” But don’t actually change anything to ensure that it is.

So I’m taking on the identity of someone who goes to the gym.

Someone who LOVES to exercise.

It’s who I AM now.

You’ve got a BIG goal. You know what you want. 

But you haven’t taken the action to get it… yet.

So many of you have told me that fear, anxiety and lack of motivation hold you back from taking consistent action towards your goals.

I hear you so deeply because THIS WAS ME.

My own brain used to always be in the way of me getting what I wanted.

I was the queen of having two super motivated days and then falling off the wagon again.

Until I learned the skill of taking action and started hitting my goals every time.

(And I say skill, because taking consistent action really is a skill, and I can teach it to you.)

I’m holding a How To Take ACTION Masterclass this weekend on Zoom.

You don’t want to miss it.

Email me at sarah@saraharnoldhall.com if you want in.

It might sound counter-intuitive, but the most effective way to hit an impossible goal isn’t to view it like a marathon.

It’s much better to view it as a series of short sprints and rests.

Sprinters don’t experience burnout the way marathoners do.

Sprinters don’t need days and days to recover the way marathoners do.

Sprinters don’t struggle with focus, the way marathoners do.

It’s particularly important with impossible goals because they might be lengthy and could take weeks, months or years to achieve.

Sprinters run FAST.

Marathoners run HARD.

So if you’ve been hard on yourself recently for not being as focused or productive as you’d like to be – it might be because you’re treating your goals like a marathon.

Instead try this: Sprint, then rest.

Here’s what that could look like in action:

• 25 minutes of work, followed by a 5 minute break (the pomodoro technique). Repeat.

• A 7 day mindset journaling challenge.

• 4 coaching calls with an hour break in between each (rather than 4 back-to-back calls with the rest of the day off).

• Giving 100% effort to a task for a quarter of the time.

How could you break your impossible goal down into sprints and rests?

This evening I found out that our brains can’t distinguish between working and not working when we’re on our phones. So that means, even if we take a break from work to scroll through social media or watch a video or read an article, our brains still think we’re working.

Think about that: how many hours does your brain think you work?

Woah.

No wonder we’re a society of burnt out people.

Extra fun fact: researchers (don’t ask me where from, go ask Celeste Headlee) found that our brain is constantly aware and on high alert just for having a smart phone in our field of vision.

It’s not tech that is causing us damage though.

It’s our obsession with using it all the time.

The message today: do something that doesn’t involve tech!

What if you just did one thing towards your goal today?

ONE.

You could make one phone call.

Or write one sentence.

Or send one email.

Or ask one person for help.

You could think about doing it.

But what if you actually did it?

You’d be one action closer.

And it could be the thing that changes everything.

The phone call could connect you to the exact person you need.

The sentence could be a stroke of genius.

The email could land you the ideal client.

The ask could turn into an opportunity of a lifetime.

Just ONE action today could be the difference between achieving your biggest goals now or waiting another 10 years.

Pick any action. It doesn’t have to be the one you’ve been dreading.

It could be the easiest, tiniest action in the world – and it could still change everything.

Don’t wait.

Getting things done is 1% action, and 99% avoiding the temptation to do something else instead.

Mastering focus is the ultlimate work of productivity.

A question I’ve been asking myself recently is “What would make this more effortless?”

Some of the answers I’ve come up with:

• Doing the task from the comfort of my bed.

• Drinking a hot cup of tea while I do the task.

• Breaking it down into smaller more manageable steps.

• Eliminating unnecessary extra steps.

• Listening to music or a podcast at the same time.

• Asking myself if the task really needs to be done at all.

What do you do to create effortlessness in your life? Let me know in the comments!

This weekend, I’m taking time to just be.

No work (I’m scheduling this post in advance), nothing to do.

Just listening, noticing what I might have missed while I’ve been in GO mode.

Watch this space.

You know that thing on your to-do list you’ve been meaning to do for ages, but you just keep putting it off?

99% of the time, it’s because of this one thing:

The items on your to-do list aren’t actually actions – they’re end results.

TO DO:

Generate leads

Write book

Do livestream

Your brain is confused. “What does that even mean bro?”

Right now, as you’re sitting on the couch scrolling through Tiger King memes, “Generate leads” sounds about as doable as “Fly rocket to Mars.”

Your brain needs you to translate “Generate leads” or “Write book” or “Do livestream” into something it can actually DO.

• Instead of “Generate leads”
  > “Write “lawn mowing services” on a Word doc, print it off, walk to supermarket, pin up on bulletin board with my phone number attached.”

• Instead of “Write book”

  > “Open notes app on phone. Write a bullet point list of the main sequence of events.”

• Instead of “Do livestream”
  > “Brush hair, choose a quote I like, log onto Facebook, press “go live”, add a puppy dog filter, and talk about what the quote means to me – just for 30 seconds.”

Give your brain something it already knows how to do.

Tiny, bite-sized, could-do-it-in-your-sleep, action steps.

Make it doable

Discipline is choosing between what you want now, and what you want most. – Abraham Lincoln

I heard this quote and immediately knew it was going to stick in my head.

Choosing what we want MOST over what we want NOW is one of the biggest keys to success.

Doing the thing we said we’d do, not the thing we feel like doing in the moment is how we get what we want – it’s how we hit all of our goals.

What I want most, is to give more value to my audience on Facebook and Instagram. But what I want now, is to avoid writing, thinking and putting my work out into the world.

So I’ve given myself a challenge this week: I’m going to create/write/work at 6am every morning, before I start my coaching calls around 8 or 9am.

The goal is to wake up, write, publish, and then start my day from there.

Getting the essential work done first.

Wish me discipline!

I’ve been spending a lot of time over the last few days diving into my coaching materials and tools, thinking about my clients, what they need, and how I can serve them best.

Each year, I re-certify as a High Performance Coach with the High Performance Institute to make sure I’m up to date and coaching at the highest level.

And every time, I find another amazing tool or perspective that I didn’t see the first round. I want more of this in my life so I’ve decided to craft time out weekly to review all my coach training.

What do you do to hone your craft? Let me know in the comments!

One of the things I do with my High Performance Coaching Clients is to figure out where they’re at across all areas of their lives – and then give them tools to increase their satisfaction in each area.

Many of my clients choose to focus on just one area (most commonly career or health), but some of them don’t have one specific goal, they have a general desire to become a high performer across all areas of life.

Recently, I’ve been tracking my own life satisfaction across eight different areas. I’m starting to notice patterns (like how my career satisfaction and financial satisfaction – unsurprisingly – go hand in hand).

I’m not tracking it on any particular day, just when I feel like checking in. I also keep notes of why I feel like each area is a certain score, and how to improve it.

The best part about it is that I get a chance to ask myself what I’d like to see in each area, everytime I track it. Then – and this is the most important part – I actually schedule time for improvement into my calendar (this week, I’m booking into a Pilates class because I can see my physical health stagnating across time).

Have you ever tracked your overall life satisfaction before? Let me know in the comments what you discovered!

I’ve been talking a lot recently about calendaring my time, so I wanted to share what that looks like on my calendar. The answer: messy and that’s okay.

My calendar doesn’t always look tidy. Not every moment in my day is planned out, but if you’ve read my previous posts, you’ll know that I don’t have a to-do list anymore – everything I need to do gets put on the calendar. Most days, something gets moved around, but it’s SUCH a relief to know that there’s a time planned for everything.

For example, I knew I was going to buy a cake for my friend Georgia’s birthday at 9am on Wednesday, so I could afford to relax on Monday at 10am because I knew everything was going to get done.

If you aim for every day, you’ll do it most days.

If you aim for most days, you’ll only do it sometimes.

Do it daily, and the discipline is on – but the pressure is off.

You’ve already decided. It’s getting done.

Now you just have to go through the motions.

(Which is so much easier than going through the emotions.)

Instead of questioning – “Is today one of the days? Does today count? Do weekends count? Ah, I’ll just do extra tomorrow.”

You just do it.

It always gets done.

You always move forward.

I never think “Should I write on my blog today?” 

Because that decision has already been made, and the answer is yes. Always.

And now I’ve got 668 posts in a row under my belt.

Even if all you can manage is one minute a day – it adds up.

Imagine if you talked to one new potential client each day.

That’s 365 potential clients a year.

Whatever you want to do – decide to do it daily.

It will change everything.

Lesson from today: Take messy action.

It’s SO much better than taking no action at all.