Tired of Burning Out Pursuing Your Goals — Do This Instead
Have you tried to achieve a massive goal but went so hard after that you burned out and quit in under a month? After you quit, did you feel like a loser, wondering why you even tried to set goals in the first place? Is this a pattern that keeps happening year after year?
You are not a loser. You are picking losing systems.
Stop it!
This year, use a winning system: The Compound Effect
What is The Compound Effect?
In Darren Hardy’s book The Compound Effect, he lays out his system for radically changing your life for the better. It is:
“Small, Smart Choices + Consistency + Time = RADICAL DIFFERENCE.”
It’s simple.
You start by taking ridiculously small but incredibly smart actions.
You repeat them every day.
Most importantly, You don’t stop!
Why Have Your Previous Attempts Failed?
Our culture has created the myth that you must go hard or go home, driving most people to go after goals with all their energy for the first few days or weeks.
But they end up burning themselves out and giving up altogether.
How Do You Adopt This System in 2024?
I have a radical suggestion for you. Don’t wait until January 1st to start working on your goal(s).
Start today!
Darren Hardy backs this up by explaining, “The key is to start NOW. Every fantastic adventure starts with small steps. The first step always looks harder than it is.”
Start now!
Start easy!!!
Take step one, which is so ridiculously easy that you could not miss it if you tried!!!
What is the Process To Put The Compound Effect To Work?
Darren Hardy offers a five-step process to go from dreaming to doing.
- Making new choices based on your goals and core values.
- Putting these choices to work through positive new behaviors
- Repeating those healthy actions long enough to establish new habits
- Building routines and rhythms into your daily disciplines
- Staying consistent over a long period of time
The key to following this five-step process is to track it.
You don’t need a fancy calendar or a new bullet journal. Just get a sheet of paper and make a checklist for yourself.
I put my daily goals in an Excel spreadsheet and then mark everything I do in green and the things I don’t do in red.
I don’t beat myself up if I see a pattern of red highlights. I get curious and ask myself some questions.
Can I anchor the new habit I want to something I already do daily?
Do I need to set aside time to do this new thing when I have high energy?
How can I remind myself to take this action daily and celebrate after it?
Don’t be self-critical; be curious about how you can turn dreams into small steps that build them into habits that change your life.
One Last Piece of Advice
Even if you do everything this article suggests, one last thing can get in the way.
Darren Hardy argues, “If you want to sail your life in a new direction, you must first pick up the anchors of bad habits that have been weighing you down. The key is to make your why-power so strong that it overwhelms your urges for instant gratification.”
Do you have bad habits that get in the way of your goals?
Eating sugary desserts that get in the way of your weight loss goals?
Pulling out your Smartphone after work instead of working on that side hustle that makes you light up when you think about it?
You need to focus on your why and replace that bad habit with one tiny step toward your goal. Don’t buy junk food at the grocery store. Put your social media apps on a different page of your Smartphone so it is a bit harder to scroll mindlessly.
Make the things you don’t want to do harder and make the steps toward your goal smaller and more manageable so that you can and want to take them.
Where to Start
Do you want to start working on your goal(s) today?
Pull out a sheet of paper and list what you can do in five minutes or less to take a baby step toward your goal.
Review the list and pick the most straightforward thing on it.
Do it now!
Make checking things off that list a habit until everything is done.
Then repeat.
It’s simple, but remember, what is easy to do is easy not to do.
Do it, track it, repeat it.