Great at coming up with big plans, but struggle to actually follow through with them?

Step 1: Break it Down

Step 2: Design Effective Habits

Goals and milestones are great for setting direction and defining what success and momentum look like, but creating habits is what help us truly experience what momentum feels like. Habits make sustaining momentum possible, even when goals and milestones become fuzzy.

When looking to transform your goals into habits, ask yourself these two questions:

• What is the tiniest thing that you could do that you have control over, that if done consistently, will bring you closer and closer to your goal?
• And, how can you make this as convenient and enjoyable as possible for yourself?

Let’s take a closer look at these key elements of an effective habit:

• Connected to your Goal. Each time you do it, it should bring you closer to your goal. The action or behavior isn’t random - it’s purposeful.
• Tiny - As a creative high achiever, you naturally want to think big and set huge goals. But these big goals can often feel more paralyzing than motivating. When you’re first trying to create momentum, you need to make your habit tiny - ridiculously tiny, to the point where it almost feels as if it’s not even worth doing. Instead of creating a new habit to work on your big creative project for 3 hours a day and do “as much as possible”, start with just 20 minutes a day - and pick just one small thing each session to move forward.
• Controllable - Your habits should be under your control, meaning you have the power to execute them almost regardless of what else is happening around you. If your habits depend on the stars aligning perfectly, or the permission of others - you’re setting yourself up to fail. Finding 20 minutes at some point in your day to focus on just one small thing, regardless of what else is going on in your life, is much more under your control than finding 3 hours in your day.
• Convenient - When attempting to get unstuck through creating a new habit, it is important to reduce as much friction as possible. Even incorporating a tiny change into our life can feel much harder than we imagine. Your aim should be to make the new habit feel convenient - so convenient that you can’t say no to it. If your goal is to learn to play guitar, don’t keep your guitar locked away in its case in your closet. Keep your guitar out of its case, right next to your favorite chair, already plugged in, and ready to rock. Make it so convenient that NOT playing your guitar would seem unreasonable.
• Consistent - Consistency is key. Without consistency, what you are doing is not really a habit. Make your habit repeatable. What rhythm of repetition feels sustainable? Daily? Weekly? Quarterly? Perhaps you want to just commit to your 20-minute progress sessions on weekdays, so you can use your weekends for something else. Define what consistency means to you, and stick to it.
• Enjoyable - To supercharge your habit, ask yourself, “How could I make this more fun or enjoyable?”

One approach is to find a way to make the actual performance or process of the habit more fun or enjoyable. While you are engaged in your 20-minute progress session, this could be something as simple as listening to your favorite album, working at your favorite coffee shop instead of in your office, using a new creative journal that brings you joy, instead of a sterile word document.

You can also take an outcome-based approach that aims to provide some kind of reward after doing the habit. This could look like something as small as rewarding yourself with a small piece of dark chocolate after wrapping up your 20 minutes session or as complex as creating a personal gamification system where you give yourself points for completing 5, 10, or 20 days with a session, in a row.

Whatever approach you use, the key here is that you want your habit to be associated with a positive experience. This helps strengthen your habit (and helps you get and stay unstuck.)

Step 3: Make Getting Started as Easy as Possible

Getting started is always the hardest part. If you’re feeling stuck, getting started may sometimes even feel insurmountable. It may feel as if you will be stuck forever.

But it’s so funny - usually, once we do get started, things quickly feel much easier to keep going. It’s that initial resistance that we need to overcome.

This is why, no matter what approach you take towards breaking your goals down into smaller pieces and habits, it’s so critical to make getting started as easy as possible.

Making It Easy to Start is the Master Habit

“Getting started” isn’t a one time event. You essentially need to make and follow through on the decision to “get started” each and every day. Why make each day feel like a struggle? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could easily jump right into whatever important task you want or need to do, without resistance?

How to Make it Easier to Start

Ask yourself these questions:

“What is my warm-up routine?”

Professional athletes always warm up before their workouts, practices, and games. They don’t just jump in cold - that could lead to serious injury at worst, or suboptimal performance at best. A professional’s job is to consistently perform at their highest level regardless of what their motivation level is - and to do this they create powerful warm-up routines and rituals that get them ready for action.

One of my clients who is writing a feature film has a simple, but effective warm-up routine that helps him consistently make progress, regardless of where his motivation level is at that day.

Each morning before diving into his main work of developing his script, he spends 30-45 minutes watching a critically acclaimed movie or TV show on his balcony in the sun, or relaxing on his couch. While he is watching, he is actively writing down notes and ideas that he could possibly apply to his own film. Then after those 30-45 minutes are up, he effortlessly transitions into applying those notes and ideas into his actual script development work session. Rather than just jumping into the hard task of developing his script, he eases into it through an enjoyable, inspirational, and low-pressure way that also boosts his creativity.

Creating a warm-up routine can be a powerful way to get started and ease into your most important creative work - even when you don’t feel like doing it. What could your “warm-up” look like?

“What is the tiniest first action I will take? And the next tiniest action? And the next?”

Create a sequence of tiny events that is so stupidly simple, it is almost impossible NOT to do.

For example, if writing or creating content is important to you, your tiny sequence of events might be:

• Make Coffee
• Sit down at your desk
• Open up your laptop
• Put your headphones on
• Turn on your favorite playlist
• Review your master planning document
• Brainstorm new ideas and next actions in your handwritten journal for 10 minutes - writing whatever comes to your mind, and then finally
• Jump into your main work!
  

Consider even making a “Startup Checklist” that you follow each time to make it even easier for you to execute - plus it feels good to check things off a list! Running through a startup checklist each day can also make you feel more professional - perhaps even kinda like an astronaut going through a checklist before blasting off into space.

Today, I want you to identify what important project, task, or habit is causing you the most resistance, and I want you to begin designing a way to make getting started on that easier! If you are having difficulties, feel free to reach out to me via email and share where you are stuck.

Step 4: Don't Go It Alone