Summary

The article discusses strategies for staying committed to personal goals despite distractions and a lack of motivation.

Abstract

The author of the article expresses frustration with aimlessness, both in others and within themselves. They acknowledge the difficulty of following through on goals, despite the ease of setting and discussing them. Distractions like Netflix, social media, and even educational content like podcasts and books can derail progress. The author emphasizes that achieving goals doesn't require rigid routines but rather consistent daily practice. They suggest setting a daily reminder to ensure some progress is made each day, which can be more effective than intense, sporadic efforts. The article encourages readers to transform goals into daily practices and offers a daily email list for support and motivation.

Opinions

The author believes that society conditions people to give up on goals too easily.
They admit to using educational content as a form of procrastination, mistaking it for productivity.
The author advocates for a flexible approach to achieving goals, integrating them into daily life rather than adhering to strict routines.
They use a personal reminder system to ensure they make daily progress on their writing goals.
The author suggests that consistent, smaller efforts lead to significant progress over time.
They propose that with enough progress, the activity itself can become motivating.
The author offers a daily email list as a tool for readers to stay engaged and accountable in pursuing their goals.

How To Accomplish Goals When You Really Don’t Want To

I don’t know about you, but I get irritated by aimless people.

You know why?

What are you working on?

“Nothing.”

How’s that passion project you started?

“I gave up.”

What hobbies do you really enjoy?

“I don’t know.”

But I think the thing that irritates me the most about aimless people is that I am one.

It can be so easy to talk about goals and so easy to write them down and tell people about them. But it’s really hard to actually accomplish things.

Sometimes when I set goals, I don’t achieve them right away, and then I give up. That’s the easy path, and it’s what our society conditions us to do.

We have Netflix, social media, even Audible at our fingertips. It’s really easy to get distracted from goals. My favorite way to avoid accomplishing my goals is by listening to podcasts and reading books that are about my goals.

Then I don’t have to do anything, and I feel productive. Reading can be a form of procrastination. It feels productive, even when it isn’t.

But when I get distracted by books, blogs, movies, and video games, I pull myself together and start working on my goals. Sometimes I wait until after this episode ends.

My writing practice is not the most rigid habit in my life. In fact, it’s not really a habit at all. It’s a practice. I don’t always write before bed. I don’t always get up at 6 a.m. to write. (Actually, I never get up at 6 a.m. to write.) I don’t always write during my lunch break.

But I’ve committed that at some point each day, I’ll put words down on a page. I write throughout the day some days. Other days, I put together a few patchy paragraphs before jumping in the shower and going to sleep.

I have a reminder on my phone at 10 p.m. to make sure I’ve written something today. Often, when that alarm sounds, I need to go and write then because I haven’t yet that day.

After I’m done, I go back to my reading or watching. Or sometimes I go to bed.

Your goals don’t have to be the most rigid thing you do each day. They don’t all have to be strict habits and routines. Instead, they can be practices that happen throughout the day every day, with a reminder each night to make sure you’ve done something.

Progress doesn’t happen by throwing 12 consecutive hours into the same project once per month. It happens by spending a little bit of time on it every single day. And it adds up.

Who knows? After a few weeks, you might see enough progress that the task is motivation enough.

If you have a goal you’re working towards, subscribe to my daily email list and join the group that stays updated on how to get the most out of life and accomplish our goals together.