I was reminded of a valuable fact, yesterday, when it comes to staying motivated so you can keep moving forward. I have a lot of projects on my plate right now and I’ve been putting in “overtime” for the last couple of weeks. Though, some days I’m a little tired, I’ve been making a lot of progress and it’s felt great. Yesterday was no different, except for one big difference. I got a “great idea” for one of the websites I’ve been working on. It had to do with a lot of complicated, time consuming work that may or may not have been such a “great idea” anyway. It involved purchasing some software and, after I had some issues activating it, I ended up spending a couple of hours on web forums trying to resolve the issue.
About halfway through this whole ordeal I got this gut feeling that I was really sliding backwards. After weeks of really making some progress and feeling great because of it, I realized that I had let myself become distracted. And that this distraction was starting to undo the progress I had made. In the past I may have continued with the mess and tried to “resolve” it but I instead decided to go with my gut, backtrack to the point that I had started to go off course, and continue with my journey in a positive direction.
I returned the software and just looked at the wasted time as a lesson learned and hopefully one that will keep me from making the same mistake in the future. The big realization that I came to was the fact that forward progress brings on a sense of hope in reaching your goals which feeds your motivation and aids your success in life. But getting sidetracked by something that is not helping you reach your goals is a sure fire way of becoming discouraged and loosing site of what you had set out to do. Because once you stop making progress, you will most definitely start to backslide into the mediocrity that you see all around you. This journey isn’t about moving forward or standing still. It’s more like being on a treadmill. It takes some effort to just keep from falling back, let alone making progress.
So here are 5 tips that I came away with yesterday in my struggle for forward progress.
1: Wear blinders if you have to.
My mistake yesterday was not keeping my eyes on the prize. I had a set goal when I was in the store but I let myself go off track to “play with some ideas.” This was when I went off course. Try not to let yourself become distracted by all that is around you. You will always be bombarded with advertising of every kind. There will always be something you “have to have” or that will most certainly “enhance your life”. But most of the time these are just things that will pull you away from what’s really important. So be very diligent in keeping your eyes on the prize.
2: Be aware of the time.
This is just a simple, yet very important, tip. All too often, even when working on something important, we loose track of time and get less accomplished because of it. Be careful not to let yourself become too engrossed in any one task or you will run the risk of neglecting another. Progress is made by getting things done. If you get lost in what you do you will most certainly get less done overall.
3: Do it and be done with it.
In light of tip #2, this one will help you get the job done. When working toward a goal it is important not to be too picky. Let’s say you are working on a new logo for a website. Yes, it’s important that it looks good but you shouldn’t spend all day working on it. Anything can be tweaked “just a little bit more”. I have a tendency to be the one who keeps on tweaking. But all that “finalizing” can really take away from the progress you could have made on other tasks. Just realize this fact; most things need a rough and final draft. The rough draft gets the task done while the final draft cleans it up. These two steps are necessary to accomplishing the task. Beyond that you are just treading water.
4: Listen to your gut.
If I hadn’t done this yesterday I would have been continuing down the road to progress derailment. The first thing you need to do though, is be aware of what the right situation feels like so you will know the wrong one when it comes. How can you know if it’s dark out if you don’t know what light looks like? Next time you are in a great place in life and making great strides in progress, take note of your gut feeling. This will be your neutral spot. Anything more positive than this is great. But anything less is potentially a backslide. I’m not saying you can’t have your bad days. Just be aware of your situation so that you can maintain your forward heading.
5: Don’t be afraid to backtrack.
This final tip is greatly important. All too often we find ourselves stuck in that place where the only way to move forward is to first move backward. Just like hiking on a trail, if you were to get lost, you might find that you need to backtrack so you can return to making forward progress. Often times though, we will just keep moving off course, hoping to eventually run back into the path. This rarely works and usually ends up getting you more off course. So don’t be afraid to turn around and go back way you came. It may at first feel counter productive, but you will be glad you did it once you get back on course. And while you are working your way back you can use the time to reflect on the importance of maintaining a positive heading.
I hope these tips are helpful to you as you seek your goals and pursue your dreams. Feel free to add to them with your comments and let me know how YOU stay on track.
Hey nice list man. “Listen to your gut”, is what I am learning now a days!
Hey, I just read your comment on Problogger.net. Your content is very very solid! Do not give up! I have watched so many bloggers start out strong and give in to frustration… your blog has some serious upside potential.
Just an opinion, if you’d like to promote comments and discussion… you should make the comments link easier to locate. From the homepage I have to click several times… People who are surfing never want to do more work than they have to! If possible, make it WAM BAM right there in your face… you could even change the name from comments to “Add your Voice” … Just some thoughts… all new blogs need tweaking and experimenting… Keep the good fight.
This is great stuff… can’t wait to read more!
SATISH, I’ve become much more sensitive to my “gut feelings” lately and it has really paid off. Not only for reasons of success but I have also found a huge benefit in the area of “finding your groove”. Using my tech consulting business as an example; I used to make decisions purely based on what I thought my clients wanted and I would neglect my own desires for the situation. I figured that “the customer is always right” must apply everywhere. But over time I started to realize that my gut was telling me otherwise. I would often feel uncomfortable and frustrated because I was trying to do things unnaturally. So I finally began making decisions based more on what felt right to me and felt much more in control of the interactions with my clients. It felt natural and my work improved as well. I had “found my grove” and my mind thanked me with better focus and clarity. And you know what, an amazing thing happened; my clients responded very positively. It’s almost as if they could tell that I was in a better place/mindset and they felt more confident in my work because of it. So keep leaning that way, SATISH, you’ll make much more progress and you’ll find the journey to feel more natural.
By the way, thanks so much for leaving a comment. You are the first one to do so and I greatly appreciate it. Feedback is very important for a blogger and you really gave me a boost by “joining the conversation”.
Sean, just like I said to SATISH, thank you for being one of the first to leave a comment at motivatethyself.com. I appreciate the compliments on my content as well as the constructive criticism. I left that post at problogger.net partially out of frustration and partially out of the hope that someone would come and comment. I felt that someone just needed to “break the ice”. A blog without comments is like two strangers in an elevator. If no one says a word there is an uncomfortable awkwardness in the air. But the second one of them speaks they both relax and start chatting away. So thanks for speaking up.
As for your suggestion to the comment links. I know exactly what you mean and I have been struggling with this question since the blog first went up. I don’t know if you checked my “Static vs. Dynamic” post but I used it to ask a similar question in regard to my home page. My concern was that when you come to motivatethyself.com you have to click click something to read a post. At zenhabits.net and many other successful blogs you’re hit with the new content right away. But then others, like problogger, are more static in their home page design. I think I prefer the way zenhabits does it because, like you said, the reader has less work to do. But I also see a lot of future benefits from a static homepage with dynamic content. I know that you were referring to the comments and not the post itself but I think they go hand in hand. So I will look into better options for the comments section and I’d love to hear what you guys think about the home page options.
I hope you don’t mind me taking this opportunity to deal with some logistics. Like you said, “all new blogs need tweaking and experimenting”.
Well Sean, as you can see I went ahead and dropped the static home page. This will at least reduce the mouse clicking by one in most cases. I also just feel that as a blog reader myself, it just makes more sense for the latest content to, as you put it, “WAM BAM” hit you in the face when you first get to the site. So, hopefully, that’s a step in the right, logistical, direction.
Hi Eric,
Welcome to blogoshpere!. I just subscribed to your blog and will be reading more of your writings, but this one did resonate with me today. I try to stay focused and find instead of trying to multi-task, if I stick to one thing at a time, I’m more productive.
I also agree, sometimes we need to go backwards. I did that in the early days of my career to redirect my path. I went from a management position in one department to a supervisory position in another department to get on track with my passion (which is numbers/accounting). The pay cut hurt, but I was so much happier doing a job I loved.
P.S. You have a great blog here. It’s tough being new and not getting noticed. In time it’ll all come together. If you want to meet many other great new bloggers, please feel free to come by my blog – new bloggers are my target audience and the community there is awesome.