3333: 5 Thoughts That are Secretly Destroying Your Goal Progress by Kalen Bruce on Personal Development

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: This is Optimal Living Daily. 5 Thoughts That are Secretly Destroying Your Goal Progress by Kalen Bruce of Moneyminiblog.com

[00:00:08] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm your narrator Justin Malik, reading articles to give us a little step in the right direction every single day.

[00:00:15] [SPEAKER_00]: And with that let's get right to it as we optimize your life.

[00:00:22] [SPEAKER_00]: 5 Thoughts That are Secretly Destroying Your Goal Progress by Kalen Bruce of Moneyminiblog.com

[00:00:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Our life isn't as logical as we like to think.

[00:00:33] [SPEAKER_00]: You may plan your goals perfectly, but when the time comes for action it doesn't work out.

[00:00:39] [SPEAKER_00]: That happens to all of us because our emotions affect our decisions.

[00:00:43] [SPEAKER_00]: We don't think about that when we set goals.

[00:00:46] [SPEAKER_00]: So how do you deal with that?

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_00]: You have to make these decisions and set your goals when you're in a logical state

[00:00:52] [SPEAKER_00]: and then push through when you're thinking emotionally.

[00:00:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Easier said than done.

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Don't worry, I've summed up 5 of the most common emotional thoughts that will destroy your goal progress.

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Once you acknowledge that these thoughts exist, you can fight them off.

[00:01:08] [SPEAKER_00]: 1. I messed up so I might as well go all out.

[00:01:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Here's the scenario. You're on a strict diet that includes absolutely zero grains.

[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_00]: While you're eating out, you taste something delicious and realize the onions in your salad are breaded.

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_00]: You've messed up.

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_00]: You've blown your diet.

[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_00]: So then you decide that you might as well go all out and order a second entree.

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Before long, you've eaten everything ever because of a breaded onion.

[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_00]: We all mess up.

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER_00]: If you mess up, that's fine. It was an accident.

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Get back to your goal.

[00:01:45] [SPEAKER_00]: It could be that you overspend, miss a run, or eat a piece of breaded onion.

[00:01:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Whatever happens, just get back on track.

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not a big deal until you decide to go all out and ruin everything.

[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_00]: But in the same way, if you do go all out for an entire day, you can still get back on track the next day.

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Stop thinking of it as, I messed up one thing so it's all for nothing.

[00:02:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Every decision counts including all the small decisions you make to stick to your goal after you did something that hindered your goal.

[00:02:20] [SPEAKER_00]: 2. I'll start tomorrow, next week, next month.

[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes going all out when you mess up can lead to further delay.

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_00]: You messed up so you try again.

[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_00]: On Monday.

[00:02:33] [SPEAKER_00]: You say, well I messed up and it's already Friday so I'll just blow off my goal the rest of the week and start fresh on Monday.

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to debunk a myth that seems to be naturally ingrained in our minds.

[00:02:45] [SPEAKER_00]: You do not always have to start new things on Mondays.

[00:02:49] [SPEAKER_00]: The mindset of, I'm going to start this new diet, workout routine, budget or whatever on Monday or on the first of next month has got to stop.

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_00]: I understand that sometimes it doesn't make sense to start something today.

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you just planned a new lifting routine and it's bedtime.

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to go to the 24 hour gym right now but why can't you start first thing tomorrow morning or at least tomorrow after work?

[00:03:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Even if you can't do the whole routine, start as soon as possible.

[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Now let's talk about what to do if you can't do the whole thing.

[00:03:24] [SPEAKER_00]: 3. If I can't do it all, I might as well not do it.

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_00]: You plan to run for 30 minutes and you woke up 15 minutes late.

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_00]: There's no possible way you can get your 30 minute run in before work.

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_00]: No problem.

[00:03:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Run for 15 minutes or even 5.

[00:03:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Whatever you can do, do it.

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_00]: For goals like this that are going to be part of your ritual or routine, it's important to simply build the habit.

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Let's say for whatever reason you weren't able to do your entire workout at all the entire month.

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Would you feel better if you skipped all of them or if you did a partial workout every time?

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_00]: In one scenario, you never used your gym membership.

[00:04:05] [SPEAKER_00]: In the other scenario, you were at the gym several days a week, every week.

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER_00]: One built the habit while the other was completely useless.

[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_00]: 4. I couldn't do it before, so I can't do it now.

[00:04:19] [SPEAKER_00]: When you're out there achieving your goal, your motivation often comes in the beginning.

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_00]: But once it gets hard, you remember how you couldn't do this before.

[00:04:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Then you start to emotionally and illogically assume that you can't do it now.

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Remember, this is why we set goals in our logical state.

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_00]: We set goals to become better.

[00:04:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Of course you couldn't do it before, you weren't the person you are now.

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_00]: You should set your expectations in a way that always assumes your goals will get harder and harder as they should.

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_00]: You're improving and so are your goals.

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Measuring goal progress backwards will help with this.

[00:04:58] [SPEAKER_00]: It'll help to show you how far you've come and how you can't judge what you can do now by what you could do in the past.

[00:05:04] [SPEAKER_00]: You should always be able to do more.

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_00]: 5. Other people don't do this much, so I don't have to.

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_00]: Comparing yourself to others is almost always a bad idea.

[00:05:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Don't cut your goals down based on what others are doing.

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_00]: You may start with big goals and then realize that most people don't do half of that.

[00:05:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Then when you're out there running or making cold calls or working extra jobs, you start to think,

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm already doing more than the average person, I don't have to do this much.

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Even though earlier when you were setting the goal, you felt like it was appropriate.

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Don't trust your emotions on this.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Wait on your logic and trust your logic.

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_00]: You're going to be much more logical when your mind is clear and you're writing your goals,

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_00]: as opposed to when you're sweating at your third job to pay off all your debt.

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Remember to trust your logic that set the goal, not your emotions that are talking to you right now.

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Make the important decisions with your logical mind.

[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_00]: You're better than average, you're an overachiever, and you should be proud of that.

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_00]: You just listened to the post titled,

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Five Thoughts That Are Secretly Destroying Your Goal Progress by Kaylin Bruce of moneyminiblog.com.

[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'll be right back with my commentary.

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you to Kaylin.

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_00]: I've definitely been in that situation where my progress took a step back,

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_00]: and even though maybe it was only one step, I took that as,

[00:06:34] [SPEAKER_00]: well, that's done, I might as well just give up now.

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's terrible, especially if decent progress had been made.

[00:06:41] [SPEAKER_00]: There will always be setbacks.

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_00]: And how we choose to move forward after that is what separates us from the rest.

[00:06:49] [SPEAKER_00]: It reminds me of a Dale Carnegie quote,

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Every day is a new life to a wise man.

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Or wise person would be better, but that's the original quote.

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Meaning, let's not think about the mistakes of yesterday.

[00:07:03] [SPEAKER_00]: What's done is done.

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Let's focus on what choice we can make today,

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_00]: because that's all that really matters now.

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_00]: And this applies to the second point from Kaylin's article too,

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_00]: not waiting for a Monday to roll around or the first of the month.

[00:07:17] [SPEAKER_00]: That's really just an excuse to not take action today.

[00:07:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Would it really matter, I don't know, seven months from now if you started on September 26th versus October 1st?

[00:07:27] [SPEAKER_00]: It would definitely make a difference if you waited until January 1st.

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_00]: That's three months wasted.

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_00]: So start today because it might be the only chance we have.

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_00]: And with that, thank you for being here every day with me.

[00:07:38] [SPEAKER_00]: That's what's kept me going all these years.

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Your support keeps all of this going.

[00:07:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Have a great rest of your day and I'll see you tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.