When I have more time, I will…I wish I had an hour for every time I’ve said that in my life. Maybe I’d have more time. 

I probably wouldn’t. What if you had the chance to talk with your former self? What would you say? Earlier this week, I was at the post office sending some signed copies of my book back east for my mom. 

When I told the young lady at the counter what was in the box, she lit right up. "I'm a writer!" she said. "I love writing!" She began to list out all the things that she was writing, and as I stood there listening to her talk, it dawned on me how much she reminded me of myself at 23. 

Then she said, "My favourite thing to do is to share my writings and see people's reactions, you know? Laughter, emotion, and conversation ."

I nearly fell over. "Just like me" I thought.

When I was 7, I began writing stories, but it’s never been the writing; it’s been sharing my stories out loud.

I always put writing a book in my head as something so big I would never be able to do it. I just didn’t have the time.

It took me 25 years to finally understand that if I approached writing a book like a training plan, one workout at a time, and just keep showing up, it wouldn’t take long at all. 

And so it is. I had my book written, edited, and self-published within 90 days in just 60-120 minutes a day.

I began to share with her my method and encouraged her to keep going. It's so easy to self-publish these days. You just gotta do it and keep doing it. It will get easier. I gave her my contact info so that she could reach out at any time for support. It felt right.

That's like anything you know. You just got to START. Make it messy, and it will get better. Set small goal markers for yourself.

There are 7 things you can incorporate into your goal setting that will help your goals stick.

Put a fortress around your focus. Maybe you need to do what I did and have a serious look at your morning routine. 

I had a solid morning routine. Usually, I’d take my dog out, meditate a few minutes, work out, then have breakfast, shower, and work on my own projects for about an hour before delving into client work.

That system did not work for writing my book. By the time I’d get to my desk, I’d feel the gravity pull me towards my emails, and the recovering people pleaser in me would just skip the writing sessions. After failed attempts over and over again at keeping my writing promise to myself, I finally decided to mix it up.

My morning routine changed. I got up, took the dog out, then came in, grabbed a coffee, put my happy light on my face and got right to writing. When I was done with my scheduled session, I would go work out, then meditate, have breakfast, shower, and then arrive at work.

Boom! Magic recipe. I still do that now because it works. What I’m saying is, if what you are doing is not lining up with what you say you want to do, first find out why. 

Then make a shift or a change. For me, I need to tackle the hardest thing first, with a fresh mind. Then I’m free, energized, and more confident the entire day because I didn’t let myself down. I kept that promise to myself.

How was 2021 for you? It shocked me in more ways than I could imagine. I felt like many goals I had were just outright cancelled and not just because of the pandemic. My dog also had major surgery. We had heat domes, fires, floods. Just all-around bananas. Sometimes it felt like walking around in a sci-fi movie. How the heck can you keep your goals when all of these things out of our control affect all of us emotionally? 

Stop writing so many goals. Start writing intentions instead. 

What if I told you reducing your goals from 10 goals to 3 intentions would bring you further faster? This is how we do it in the Ideas in Motion Planner. Choose 1 intention for your mind, 1 for your body, and one for your purpose. 

I’ll share my example: 

Mind - I have an intention to meditate 10 minutes a day for 28 days.

Body- I have an intention to follow my workout plan 80% of the time for 28 days and to listen to my body when it needs extra recovery.

Purpose- I have an intention to write for 90 minutes each day before the sun comes up for 28 days. 

If I do that, what do you think the outcome will be? Pretty good. I might even have a rough draft of a new book.

The next layer is putting in some visualization techniques within your meditation. This is when you can really start to see your idea coming to life. While I was writing Be Weightless, I visualized holding it in my hands, signing copies for people, and even seeing it in bookstores, reaching out and picking it up even before the cover was designed.

It all came true.

Make yourself a vision board. I'll show you mine. It’s 2 years old, and it’s almost ready to be retired because everything is happening or has happened.

As you can see, I cut out magazine images, and I printed some headshots and pasted my head on all the images. A vision board is yours. Be creative. Be true to yourself and don’t be afraid to dream REALLY big. I made mine 2 years ago.

Get yourself a playlist of meditations and affirmations. They are easy to find. Choose the ones that speak to you and start using them every single day.

Goals or intentions don’t work if you are not working towards them every single day. You have to write it down. Get some action. Start with 15 minutes if you have to. Nothing gets momentum if you don’t have movement. End of story. 

Get a planner, a notebook, or whatever you need to have in front of you every single day. Break down that big dream you have into a million little pieces if you have to. Just start!

A little warning. Once you start something big, and you let people in on what it is you are doing, people are going to show up for you and support you in many ways. Believe in yourself more than anyone else does. Be open to the help, but also don’t get caught in the weeds of doing things someone else’s way. Always evaluate. Stop thinking about the how and just do. The how will be there when it’s the next step to take.

If you are still wondering where that time is, consider building boundaries around your smartphone.

When I quit smoking, I didn’t realize how much time I was using to “go out for a smoke” until I wasn’t anymore. I know you are the type of person that is not addicted to your phone but hear me out. There might be something you can tweak that makes a huge difference. 

Your smartphone is like a junk drawer and can cause decision fatigue just by existing in space with you.

Gain more energy by deleting decision fatigue. 

• Clean up your home screen. 
• Empty your home screen of anything that does not line up with your morning routine.
• Slide all the other apps onto the next pages.
• Create folders by dragging apps on top of apps, then label them.

Examples of things to have on a home screen are music, workout app, calendar, clock, voice memo notes, and the camera.

• Turn off all your notifications through the settings; get comfortable with silencing your phone. 
• Turn on “do not disturb” and turn the sound off, especially in your productivity zone.
• Choose a time and schedule a window or two windows of social media time in your day so that you don't feel deprived.
• Choose a time to be on airplane mode. Be realistic and make sure that it fits with your lifestyle. My phone goes to bed 2 to 3 hours before I do.
• Add a full day at the end of the week of no smartphone.

If you find the above list difficult, then it’s something you need to work on. A little tough love moment.

Let’s recap. We are in a new place and time right now. Start fresh and adopt some new strategies for sticking to your goals.

1. Create a fortress around your focus
2. You will never find more time. If time is a struggle, make it smaller.
3. If you don’t have a routine, build one. It will create the habit and momentum you need.
4. Keep your goals as intentions, and put them on a vision board.
5. Use affirmations and meditations daily to keep your inner coach alive.
6. Write your actions daily. Small steps need to be scheduled.
7. Clean up your smartphone habits if you’ve indicated that’s something you need.

You got this! I believe in you always. Do you already do all of the above? Do you have a system that works for you? I'd love to hear it!