How to Take Action
24. Are You an Abstainer or a Moderator?
There are two kinds of habit strategies:
Abstaining, and moderating.
Find out which habit strategy suits your personality in this episode.
23. How I Organise My Life
I’m the most organised person I know – but it hasn’t always been that way.
The more organised I got, the faster I started hitting my goals.
That’s why in this episode, I detail how I keep everything planned and organised to take action.
22. Intentional Discomfort
If you’re willing to feel uncomfortable, you can have anything you want.
Anything.
Discover the power of intentional discomfort in this episode.
21. Creating New Beliefs
The beliefs that got you here aren’t going to get you to your next goal.
You have to create new ones.
This practice will change your life.
In this episode, I’m sharing how to deliberately turn thoughts from unfathomable ideas, to deeply held beliefs.
20. The Simple Plan
Are you overcomplicating your plan with 100 things to do?
Or maybe you don’t have a plan at all, and you’re flying by the seat of your pants?
In this episode, I'm sharing the easy steps to creating a simple plan for your goal.
19. Big Money Goals
Talking about money can be scary.
But I’m on a mission to talk about it a LOT more.
So, in this episode, I'm sharing the exact dollar amount I want to make and why you should set big money goals too.
18. When Everything is Going Wrong
Everything going wrong isn’t a sign to give up.
It’s just a test to see how bad you want it.
In this episode, I’m sharing a story about how I overcame everything going wrong – and how you can too.
17. Essentialism
Essentialism is one of my favourite topics.
It’s like minimalism, but for life.
Not like, getting rid of all the stuff you have. But getting rid of all the fluff you don’t need to do.
Find out how to add essentialism to your action taking toolbox in this episode.
16. Time Management
Here’s the thing about time: it can’t really be managed.
Time management is actually about mind management.
Learn how to manage your mind in this episode, so you can take back control of your time.
15. How to Solve Any Problem
Got 99 problems and they're all a struggle?
I’m sharing my framework for how to solve any problem – and it’s not what you think.
Dive into this episode for a whole new perspective (that doesn’t involve a pros & cons list).
14. How to Make a Decision
I used to agonise about decision making – until I learned some fundamental truths about decisions.
By the end of this episode, you'll learn how to become a fast decision maker – and make any decision that’s on your mind.
13. What's Your Motivation Style? (Four Tendencies)
How is it that some people can get themselves to go to the gym without a gym buddy, while other people need constant accountability?
In this episode, I discuss Gretchen Rubin's framework for what motivates people.
It categorises individuals into one of four tendencies: Questioner, Obliger, Upholder and Rebel.
Listen to this episode to find which one you are, and how you can use it to motivate yourself to take action.
12. Imposter Syndrome
Feeling under-qualified for your goal?
Great! You’re exactly where you should be.
In this episode, I share how to overcome imposter syndrome (without doing a million self-worth affirmations in the mirror).
11. The Art of Pouncing
Waiting until the right time is dangerous.
I know, because I’ve done it.
In this episode, I’m sharing how I very intentionally found love – at a breakfast bar.
10. Mini Big Vision
What if you could start living your biggest vision, right now?
If your vision feels too big and too far away, then this episode is for you.
9. Last Chance Mentality
Today is the day to change the future.
What if you showed up like today was the last chance you had to hit your goal?
Learn more about last chance mentality in this episode.
8. Minimum Viable Action
I used to be a total perfectionist, until I discovered there’s an easier way to get things done.
Just like a company creates minimum viable product – a version of their product that works just well enough to offer to their first customers – there is also minimum viable action:
Action that does nothing more – and nothing less – than you need it to do.
Listen to this episode to learn how to take action easier.
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Hey, it's Sarah Arnold-Hall, and you're listening to How to Take Action.
I am the queen of making things harder than they need to be, and if you are like this too, then you're gonna love today's episode because I'm gonna talk about how to get yourself to do stuff a much easier way.
So I've got an idea that I'm gonna share with you. When an entrepreneur creates a product for a startup, they are required to create what is called a Minimum Viable Product, an MVP. And that essentially means that they're creating like a prototype, a thing that they can get out into the world just to test it. Because instead of creating like the entire product straight away, the Minimum Viable Product is the minimum version that needs to happen. Like it's got none of the bells and whistles. It's just got like the absolute necessary pieces to test the idea and see if it works in the world. So I'm thinking about something like Facebook, which initially started out as something completely different from what it is right now, and they just put out this version and just tested it and put it out to the world like immediately and just waited for feedback to see what would happen. And then they adjusted it from there.
And so off the back of this idea of having a Minimum Viable Product , I've come up with this idea of the Minimum Viable Action and what a Minimum Viable Action is it's an action that does the job, does nothing more, nothing less, than the job it needs to do.
And I think the minimum viable action can have a lot of different names. So the other day when I was writing emails, I was calling this the Minimum Viable Email. For some reason, when I go to write emails, my brain is like, it needs to be perfect. We've gotta get this absolutely right. It needs to like convey everything. And I start to question myself like, should I put dear or hi or should I have sincerely or best or thanks on the end? And you know, do I need to have paragraphs and how many exclamation marks do I need to put? Should I have this exclamation mark there? Should I, should it be more of a formal tone? And it's like you start to get obsessed or I start to get obsessed, I should say, with like creating this final product almost when really a Minimum Viable Email would do it, it to, to get the result that I want. I don't need to worry about whether it's is dear or hi. What matters is I'm the question that I'm asking or the conversation that I'm having, and so I've been making myself do Mini Viable Emails, which is really just emails that do the job they ask the question, they say the thing, they're still polite and nice, but they don't need to be stressed over.
So I came up with a four step process for writing a Minimum Viable Email, and it looks like this: one, you write the first thoughts that come to your mind. Two, you do not edit. Three, you press send. Four, you save a million hours of your life and the person receiving it doesn't even notice a difference. So the Minimum Viable Email is just one example of where this might show up in your life, but you could also do the Minimum Viable facebook Post or a Minimum Viable Podcast.
I just created a Minimum Viable Podcast about regret. It is like, I don't know how long it's gonna be once I've edited it, but like a minute, two minutes long, and it's a podcast episode and I know some people create 40 minute podcast episodes, which is fantastic and amazing, but they don't have to be that long. What is the key, what is the point? I need to get the idea across the, the, the thing that I'm talking about. So the Minimum Viable Actions for that is just show up, record it, publish it, that's it. And it can be two minutes, it can be one. It could be one second if I wanted it to be, if I could get the idea across in that amount of time. And so I wanna offer that. You don't have to do that too. You can be on a quest like me for the Minimum Viable Αction that's gonna get you the results.
Think about how many decades of your life could you save if you just started taking Minimum Viable Actions. Where are you making your life harder than it needs to be? Where are you over complicating it? Where are you making things ridiculous? When they actually could just be a thing, when you could just send the email, when you could just pick up the phone and make the phone call instead of turning it into a giant drama of perfectionism and creating everything up to like the ultimate final result. What if you didn't need to do that? What if you could just do stuff and create.
Another example was when I realized that I didn't have to, this is gonna sound so silly for anyone who does, who doesn't spend their time posting online, but for me, I always thought I had to have a photo because on Instagram you can't post without a photo. Like it makes you put up a photo cause the whole platform is about putting up photos. But Facebook doesn't make you do that. But I had gotten in the habit of always putting up a photo with my posts on Facebook. And then it crossed my mind. I was like, wait a second. I could just treat Facebook like it's Twitter. And just write in the, in the box and then just post it like we used to in the old days. We could just make a status. When I first joined Facebook, that's what everybody did. We just made statuses and oh my goodness, my statuses are so embarrassing. Sometimes Facebook comes up with those memories, and my ones are like, I'm like, delete, delete, delete, delete. What was I saying? What was I thinking?
But the point is, I kind of wanna go back to how we used to do that in the sense of just treating the online space like it was something you could just post, instead of needing to have this perfect creation. Which I think a lot of people feel the pressure to do now, especially since so many people use social media as their job. Like there's content creators out there. Their content, they're getting paid directly for their content, which is not me, by the way. I've never had, I've never taken payment for any of the content that I create, like I don't have any ads or anything on any of my content, but because so many people do, and there's so much professional content out there now, it can really feel like you have to create this perfect content.
Another example is, let's just say your goal is to meditate. You don't have to meditate for an hour every day. When I meditated for 365 days in a row, some of the days I was just counting like deliberate breaths. If I just sat there, closed my eyes and breathed in and out, I would count this because it was continuing the habit on. I mean, I wouldn't count it if I was just breathing throughout the day. That's not really meditating. But if I was deliberately meditating for just a few moments, that's meditating, right? That's still getting more benefit than if I wasn't doing it at all.
So I think it's really key to start thinking. How we can get ourselves to just do the Minimun Viable Thing that moves us forward, that gets us a result, that actually gets us going in the right direction that we need to go in without all the fluff, without making it so hard for ourselves.
Derek Sivers, who is an entrepreneur and a writer, talks about how the goal is not to write more. The actual goal of writing is to just get the idea across, and so he has this whole idea around getting all your ideas out onto a page and then distilling it down to only like the most important key words, highlighting those, deleting the rest, and almost having an outline and then just publishing that outline. His books are actually just like a bunch of tweets, practically, like a bunch of tweets that make sense and all fit together but, there's no more fluff than needs to be there.
He is a master of the Minimum Viable Action, and I think there's so much freedom in this idea of the Minimum Viable Action. Like today, when I was doing my hair getting ready for this episode, I was thinking like, oh, I'm gonna have to create an episode and blah, blah, blah. And I had all these thoughts and I was thinking, oh, do I have to do it now? Do I, oh, could I do it later? Maybe I can squeeze it later in my day. And then, I realized, no, like I'm making this harder than it needs to be. All I have to do is sit down in front of the camera and the microphone and press record and actually create something that matters that can impact people. And I was like, oh, I can do that. It might take me five minutes, it might take me 20 minutes. It doesn't matter how long it takes, I just have to create the Minimum Viable Podcast that's gonna go out there and help someone, because that's really my goal, ultimately is just to help with this podcast, I wanna help people take action. So I'm like, that's all I have to do. Why am I trying to make it into this perfect podcastness? It doesn't need to be. It can just be a Minimum Viable Podcast.
Minimum Viable Dinner is one of my favourite things to do ever. I can't stand cooking at all. I really hate it. . So if it's my turn to cook, I am making us Minimum Viable Dinner what do we need to have? What do we need to get in our diets? What is important? How can I make this as easy as possible and as yummy as possible? And like the least amount of effort required? How can I do the Minimum Viable Dinner that I can make? I think that's a good one.
I would love to hear what Minimum Viable Actions you are taking in your life. So if you're watching on YouTube, then definitely leave me a comment about what your minimum viable action is that you like to take or that you're going to start taking, cause I think it could make a huge difference. It's making a big difference in my life.
So, That is your challenge for this week. Take some Minimum Viable Action and I will talk to you in the next episode.
Hey, if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, you're gonna love being coached by me. We're gonna solve your specific action taking struggles so you can hit any goal you set.
Just go to saraharnoldhall.com to sign up.
7. Quick Decision Making Hack
Got a decision to make?
Afraid of regret?
Listen to this mini episode for a quick hack.
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Hey, it's Sarah Arnold-Hall, and you're listening to How to Take Action.
This is gonna be a mini episode, which I think is funny because my episodes are kind of mini anyway. I know some people do like 40 minute episodes, but I can't talk for that long, nonstop. I definitely don't plan my podcast to be that long. So we'll see how long this one goes for today, but I think it's just gonna be a mini one about regret.
Because so often we are not taking action because we're afraid of what we're going to regret.
Something that really helps me make decisions is that there are two different kinds of regrets. Psychologists have kind of distilled that there's hot regret and there's cold regret. And hot regret means regretting something that you did do. So you took an action and now you regret doing it. And cold regret is regretting something that you didn't do.
So you didn't, you decided not to do something and you regret it. You wish you had done it. Psychologists say that cold regret is gonna mess you up way more. Cold regret is going to be far more horrible to experience than hot regret. So doing something that you regret, making a mistake or thinking that you shouldn't have done something, that doesn't actually stay with you for that long. You can get over it. You know, you made a mistake, but not doing something missing out on an opportunity when you know that you could have had it, that sits with people for much longer, and I think that that's so key when you make decisions. So I just wanted to put this out as a little juicy decision making help today.
Whatever decision you're trying to make right now, put it through the hot regret, cold regret question, and ask yourself, am I more likely to regret doing this or not doing this?
It's probably that you're gonna regret not doing it. That's the most likely thing. That's what psychologists are saying, but maybe not.
Just ask yourself right now. Are you more likely to regret doing it or not doing it?
All right. That is today's mini episode, and I will talk to you next week.
Hey, if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, you're gonna love being coached by me. We're gonna solve your specific action taking struggles so you can hit any goal you set.
Just go to saraharnoldhall.com to sign up.
6. Forget Productivity, Do This Instead
Are you always doing things, but never moving forward?
There are 100 ways to be more productive.
But sometimes, trying to be more productive can actually block you from hitting your goals.
Listen to this episode to find out what to focus on instead.
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Hey, it's Sarah Arnold-Hall, and you're listening to How to Take Action.
I wanna talk about productivity today, but I wanna talk about it in a way that's a little bit different than you might have heard before, because there are a lot of books and podcasts, and a lot of information out there about productivity and everyone has their own way of going about it and how to make you the most productive version of you ever.
But I think sometimes we miss the point. I just wanna illustrate this by sharing with you some examples of how sometimes being productive is actually keeping you stuck where you are, because of the nature of productivity.
Productivity is about getting things done and getting them done efficiently, right? But just getting stuff done doesn't mean that you're gonna hit your goal. Achieving a bunch of things is not enough to constitute like our actual results in the world.
So for example, you can put out a hundred loads of washing in a day, and be making dinner for everyone, and have made your bed, and done a bunch of organizing at home, and still not be any closer to your goal, because you have just been productive on the spot. Like a little hamster wheel is what I'm imagining. You're like running really fast and you've got heaps of reps in, but you are just staying exactly where you are.
And that's why I don't like to think of productivity as the main, most important thing you want to develop as a skill. I like to think of progression as the skill that is more important to develop.
So taking action alone just to take action isn't effective unless it actually progresses you forward. So I wanna talk about how to progress today because it is not enough to just take action. You have to take action that creates a result, and that is how I think about the difference. So productivity to me is taking a lot of action and progression is taking action that gets you a forward moving result, something that moves the needle, something that actually pushes you closer to where you want to be.
It is the difference between me right now filming this episode and actually uploading it so that you can hear it or watch it. I can be as productive as I want creating stuff, but if I don't actually turn it into something, I'm not seeing a result.
I was working with one of my clients the other day on, they wanted to hire somebody, and so they were like, yeah, this is great. I'm gonna go and write the job description. We had this conversation throughout this of like whether writing a job description is actually progressing because it's an important step in the process, but if you just write the job description, you're no closer to actually having that person hired if you don't do anything with that job description. Writing the job description and then posting it online for somebody to see that would be progress. But just writing it and keeping it on your laptop or your computer and not doing anything with it, that's not progression because it's just sitting there.
So you have to actually do something that creates a result, even if it's a tiny, small result, you really want your actions to feel progressive. Writing the job description today and then posting it tomorrow is progress. But it's only progress tomorrow when you post it. Think about all the things that you might have done that took a lot of effort, a lot of action, but then nothing ever happened from them. Books that sat on your computer, ideas that you wrote down, that you never took any action on. Really what I'm saying is you can start running all of your ideas and your actions through a filter, instead of, am I being productive? Am I progressing forward? Am I actually, is this action actually gonna help me move forward? Or how could I turn this action that I'm doing today into a progressive action rather than just a productive action?
This is gonna sound so silly, but I wanna give you an example from Shrek, Shrek Four. So, if you've seen Shrek and I have this huge argument in my family about whether Shrek one is better or Shrek two is better. Uh, we don't even talk really about Shrek three and Shrek four, cuz not as many people have seen it. But definitely I am in the boat that Shrek two is better than Shrek one. So hit me up if you think that Shrek two is also better than Shrek one. I still think Shrek one's a great movie. I just think Shrek two, like hardly any sequels are as good as the first one. And I think that this one deserves an award cause I think it's better. So in Shrek Four. It's the one with Rumpelstiltskin. If you have seen it. If you haven't, it's kind of cute. I would recommend watching it. Rumpelstiltskin comes and in exchange for getting Shrek the life that he wants, Rumpelstiltskin asks if he can take a day from Shreks life, like that's what he wants in return, I'll give you what you want, but I'm gonna take one day of your life away. And he ends up taking Shrek the day Shrek was born away.
This idea of taking a day away from your life always stuck with me and I, after watching that movie, it like, it's so silly, but it's been something that I've thought about a lot and asking myself, if today was erased from existence, would it make a difference? What did I do today? That would mean that if today was a race from existence, it would actually matter and affect the future. So if I just do productive work, which is I put on lots of washing and make my bed and make dinner and you know, do household chores, see my friends like great things, but none of them progress me forward.
You could take that day away and it wouldn't make an impact at all. And it kind of scares me to think about the number of days that you could take away from my life where I could still be here, where I am right now. How many of my days was I actually progressing towards my dreams and my goals? And this isn't to say that your whole life should be spent progressing forward, but what if each day was just one tiny little piece of progression for it. That meant that if Rumpelstiltskin came and asked for a day in your life, you, there's no way you would want to give it. Because every single day made an impact. Every single day moved you closer to the life and the world that you wanted to see.
No matter how small you want to make progress every day. You never want today to not count.
Think about your life, and if you're looking back on it, like if you're a hundred years old and you're looking back on your life, you don't wanna be like, oh, well there was that like ten-year gap when nothing counted. Right? Or there was like all those days that I spent that didn't really mean anything. And then I, I really wanna stress that this isn't to say you need to be like hustling or working your ass off all the time. That's not what I'm saying at all what.
I am saying is that when you are taking action and you are trying to be productive, ask yourself, is this progressive? If today was removed from existence, if this action was removed from existence, would it affect the final outcome? Would it actually affect the future or not? And I think that's really powerful because it suddenly changes the way you do things. So I'm recording this episode right now, which is only progressive if I do something with it, if it sits in my hard drive, nothing's gonna happen. I have to actually today turn it into an outcome, like I need to actually publish this episode so that, would create an effect, right? Somebody might listen to it and if this day was taken away, then you know, not only is my life gonna be different, but their life that's gonna be different, and we're gonna have this huge like butterfly effect that's gonna happen.
Taking action alone isn't enough. You really want to take action until you see a result. Until you see an outcome, even if it's the tiniest, smallest outcome, make your actions count. Make them progressive rather than just see how much stuff you can get done in a day with no actual outcomes.
And to be clear, like I have plenty of days where I am mostly chill and I just relax. I see my friends, I put on washing, I do whatever. I might be productive or I might not be productive at all, but I try to always do something small that is progressive that says, today counted, you can't take today away. It would matter. It would affect me. Whether that's sending one email that's gonna make an impact on my goal, whether it's signing up for something, whether it is connecting with somebody that I need to connect with for my goals. Everything has to be progressive. If you took today away, would it matter?
We can even take this a step further. I recently wrote and published an article for an online news hub, and in order to do that, I pitched my idea, I wrote the idea, and I pitched it. Then the person didn't reply straight away, and I was like, this isn't any progression. It doesn't actually move me closer to the goal unless I get a reply, unless I get a yes or a no, so that I can make my next action. So, I followed up and then they replied, and I think what's and, and then eventually it got published. But I think what's so key here is. Sometimes you have to look for what is gonna be the actual piece that's gonna progress me? Is it progressive to write the email and send it, or is it only progressive once you actually get a result that you can then make a new decision from? So if even if I'd heard no from them, I would've still then been like, okay, cool, I'm gonna go send it to somebody else. And that would've been progressive action. But even just sending it and hear, not hearing a reply, might not actually be progressive cause I just, then I'm just like, then what? I don't know, I, I'm not gonna do anything or change anything.
So ask yourself, is what I'm doing progressive? Is this creating a result? And if it's not, keep acting. Keep taking action until you see a result that is actually moving you forward. And it might be tiny, it might be just following up with someone on email.
But putting all of your actions through this filter will supercharge your ability to create results. It will make you 10 times more effective at what you do, because you're actually thinking about the outcome that you wanna create and not just the thing that you're doing.
And again, this is not saying that everything you do needs to have a result. This is only for the things that you want to create results with. It is totally fine to sit around and do nothing all day. If that is what you wanna do, please be my guest. Go for it. I am not at all trying to tell anyone they need to do more or take action on anything unless that is your desire. And for me that is, that's what I wanna do. I want to create, I wanna make things happen. I wanna hit my goals. And so that's why I'm so passionate about how to take action. That is why this whole podcast is here in the first place.
So put your actions through that filter. Is this progressive or just productive? And I will talk to you in the next episode.
Hey, if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, you're gonna love being coached by me. We're gonna solve your specific action taking struggle. So you can hit any goal you set.
Just go to saraharnoldhall.com to sign up.
5. If It Matters, Do It Daily
I blogged every day for 730 days.
I meditated for 365 days in a row.
Because doing something every day is actually easier than doing it once in a while.
Listen to this episode to discover how showing up daily will change your life forever.
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Hey, it's Sarah Arnold-Hall, and you're listening to How to Take Action.
It is so much easier to do something every single day than it is to do it once in a while.
That's why on today's episode we're gonna be talking about if it matters, do it daily. This is kind of my mantra because if something really matters to me, doing it once in a while is not going to be effective. It matters so much more what you do every day than what you do once a week or once a month.
When you do something every single day, you never have to ask yourself: is today one of the days is do does today count? What about tomorrow? Like, maybe, could I do it tomorrow instead? If you haven't done it since you woke up today, you gotta do it before you go to sleep tonight.
And the freedom that that allows is really amazing.
I started a blog in 2016 and it had like 10 posts on it in the next 12 months, maybe 10 posts. I always used to think that if I did something every single day, it would take so much more work than doing it once in a while. Like at the time, posting on my blog once a month seemed so much more manageable than posting once a week or every day.
But actually, it's complete opposite because it became totally unmanageable to do it once a week or once a month because it didn't, I didn't have a natural routine. It became so much more difficult because it wasn't really integrated in my life. I wasn't used to doing it. When it came time to do it, it was kind of like, ah, this thing that I'm supposed to do this month, I forgot I need to do it.
Instead of, it became such a part of my daily routine, it actually became easier and I wanted to share the thinking behind why I decided to do two years, because like that's a really random amount of time. Why didn't I just do one year? And sometimes I think about that now I'm like, I could have totally done one year, but I wouldn't have learned the lessons that I've learned doing two years.
I was actually inspired by someone named Sean West who wrote this blog post, and I'm gonna read it to you right off my computer right here. So, that you can kind of get the depth of why I decided to blog for two years in a row instead of just blogging for like 30 days in a row, for example. So this is what he says. He's talking about if you've got something that really matters to you in your life, then this is his advice.
"Show up every day for two years. That's the golden answer right there. It will make you money. It will build an audience. It will solve most of your problems. It will develop the tenacity needed to survive in this world. It will teach you that those who are successful aren't successful because of some condensed version of their story, but because they made a commitment to show up every single day. When it was really hard, when it sucked and it looked like nothing would ever come of it, but no one will hear this advice because show up every day for two years isn't microwavable."
That last line? I remember just thinking, boom. It like hit me like a ton of breaks. Show up every day for two years isn't microwavable. And it hit me because I was like, the reason I'm not being as successful as I could be is because I want the microwavable version. I want the one that you just pop in the microwave for 30 seconds and out comes all your success. I was looking for like a magic pill that I could take that would suddenly change my entire life. And I'd been searching for that.
And this post itself made me realize there is no magic pill. I am the magic pill, and I'm gonna have. Show up every day for a long time. If I wanna see my overnight success happen.
And you know what? He was right. It's not necessarily because of my blog that my business worked, but it's because of the dedication and the shift in the way that I started showing up for my business when I started showing up daily for something that really mattered. It completely changed the kind of person that I was and the way that I showed up for my business.
And so now before I started, I was like working in a call center and now I have my own business and I'm running it full-time and it's going really well. And what's the difference, right? I learned to commit to showing up every single day for two years, and I think especially the two year piece hits me because it's like you're not just showing, one year surely would've been enough, but two years, it's like, can you wake up one day and commit for two years to this dream?
And if you can't, you probably don't want the dream enough. You probably don't really want it. If you can't see yourself showing up for it every single day for the next two years, you probably only want the end result, and don't actually want to create it yourself. You just wanna be handed it.
And listen, if we could all be handed our goals, that'd be ideal. I would not be opposed to that. But unfortunately that's not the way that it works.
And so if you really want something, you're gonna have to be willing to show up for it every single day for two years.
So think about right now, what is it in your life that you could be showing up for every single day for two years, and what could you commit to?
I made a real public declaration that I was gonna do this. I said to my Instagram, my Facebook, my, on the blog that I was writing, I posted it to the world that I was gonna do this, and that really held me accountable.
Like the embarrassment of not completing it would've been too much for me to handle. I would not have liked that at all. So I was devoted. I was completely committed. I was gonna do it and I did.
But if I were to do a two year challenge again, I would do one that was really specific to the goal that I wanted to go after.
So really think about, well, what is the goal that you want? And then reverse engineer that and think about what would be an action that I could do every single day that would really change things.
It's gotta be a challenge, but you don't wanna set yourself up to fail either. So blogging was really good because there was no number of words that I had to write. There was no, I could do one line or I could do a massive paragraph as long as I showed up every day for it. So you wanna definitely not, you don't wanna be giving yourself the challenge to put out a 20 minute YouTube video every single day if you've never put out a YouTube video before. You don't wanna probably give yourself the challenge to run 10 k every day if you have never run 10 k, but run every day could totally be an option. Or film something every day could be an option. So other options that I came up with that I wrote down as well, get properly dressed every day, that could be a goal that for me, really made a difference.
It might sound like it's not impactful, but when I am ready and like properly dressed and I have my hair and makeup, I'm like, oh, I can just quickly film something and put it, or I could do a live stream, or I could pop out in the street and talk to someone that I need to talk to. Like I'm suddenly more ready to attack my goals that day than if I'm not fully dressed in the morning. So that one actually makes a really big difference to me.
Another one is you could write one page of your book every day, for example, or one of my clients wrote 600 words every single day until she hit 50,000 words in her book.
You could pitch an offer every day. If you have a business, you could show up and make an offer every single day. That's actually something that I did every day. My, I committed to doing it every day until I created clients, and that was a really big turning point in my business a few years ago when I said, okay, I'm going to just put out an offer every single day. I'm gonna tell people every single day that they can come and work with me and I did it for 14 days straight and it was complete silence. And then on the 15th day, I had three applications come in, maybe even four. And I was like, what? This is amazing.
So, I remember realizing how powerful it was to do something daily in the sense of my business like that.
Another one that I did is I meditated for 365 days in a row every day. I had spent a long time in my life before that meditating on and off and on and off, but doing it for that 365 days was a real challenge, but I loved it because I knew I could meditate for like one minute or 20 minutes. It didn't matter what I was doing, I was just always showing up and always meditating.
And through this process, you're gonna really develop your commitment and your discipline muscles to really continually show up for something that you want to do every day.
I will say I don't recommend trying to do too many of these commitments at once. You probably just wanna pick the most important thing to you right now, and do that every single day.
Because if you have a list, which I used to have of like all of these daily commitments that you're doing, it can start to get a bit overwhelming and you're more likely to just stop doing them entirely. So I would recommend picking one thing that really matters to you and doing it every single day.
So my mantra can be your mantra now, "if it matters, do it daily," and I will talk to you in the next episode.
Hey, if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, you're gonna love being coached by me. We're gonna solve your specific action taking struggles so you can hit any goal you set. Just go to saraharnoldhall.com to sign up.