Habits
Preventing Burnout
Let’s Talk Goals…
We’ve talked before about how in order for something to become a habit, it needs to become something that we associate with consistent patterns. Today, we’re going to walk through four specific ways to prevent burnout and to facilitate success in meeting your goals!
Big goals, big dreams – How to get there without losing traction
Like we’ve talked about, a great way to set yourself up to be successful is to ‘Reverse Engineer’ your goals. So, when we set big goals, we can then go back through and set small goals that will serve to hold us accountable along the way. These small goals throughout the process will also then make what we are working toward appear to be that much more attainable. Again, “The man who moves a mountain does so first by carrying away small stones.” – Confucius. We are way more likely to be able to follow through on our goals if we focus on the incremental steps, rather than the distance we still have to go to be able to get where we want to be.
Additionally, a great tool we can use to hold ourselves accountable with our goals is to celebrate our wins! We’ve talked throughout this series that how accountability can play a huge role in following through. This same concept can be applied to the ‘wins’ we’ll experience throughout the process. For example, if our goal was to save up a specific amount of money- we can break that value down into the smaller amounts within our budget that we put away every month. If the goal is to save this amount of money within a year, then intervals along the way at the three, six- and nine-month mark are not insignificant! We can celebrate hitting these smaller goals throughout the process and share these wins with the people in our lives who we have chosen to hold us accountable. This tool can provide both accountability and encouragement throughout the journey.
Big goals, big dreams (continued)
Another great tool to utilize is incrementally walking yourself through a hard process. For example, Dr. White is not a huge fan of running. A tool that he has used in getting himself through the process is to look at each step within a run as a step he will never have to take again. For example, if you were to run a mile on a 400-meter track. One mile is approximately 1600 meters which is four laps around this track. Upon completing the first lap, an effective mentality in this situation is to recognize that this is ‘one lap that you will never have to run again.’ Additionally, the first step passed completing the second lap on this track means that you are more than 50% of the way done with the task. You are closer to the finish than you are to the start. Every step you take from there is one step closer to the finish line. This momentum can then be a push to bring you to the finish. For specific goals then, this mentality would infer that each step we take towards our goals, is one step closer than we have ever been in this process. This can be a very rewarding and fulfilling way to enable ourselves to continue to accumulate ‘steps’ toward meeting the big goals we have in front of us.
The fourth and final tool we’ll talk about today is largely the opposite of a reward system for positive behavior – it is a system of creating a consequence for ourselves should we not follow through. This can serve a similar effect to setting a reward but can also be even more effective. For example, you may have a sports team that you really don’t like. For example, a lot of people here in Michigan are not fans of the Green Bay Packers (if you are, we apologize ). You therefore make an agreement that the next time you and you and your friend who is a Packer’s fan get together to watch the Packers play the Lions, you have to wear a Packer’s jersey the entire time. If you’re a die-hard football fan, this outcome would be catastrophic and humiliating. Therefore, this could be just one more motivating factor in holding yourself accountable for the sake of yourself and the goal you have set, as well as to avoid an unfavorable outcome.
Overall, we hope you find these tools to be helpful! We can only hope that these tools enable you to set big goals, to work your way through them, and to find joy and fulfillment in the journey! Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to love and support you along the way!
