3538: The Missing Element to Achieving Your Goals and Expanding Your Potential by Michael Mehlberg

[00:00:00] Before we start, please check out our new podcast, Good Sleep. Have you ever noticed how a calm mind can really set the stage for a good night's sleep? That's the idea behind our new podcast, Good Sleep. Greg, our host from Optimal Relationships Daily, is here to help ease you into a peaceful night's rest with some positive affirmations. And these affirmations aren't just comforting, they can help ease anxiety and nurture positive thoughts, setting you up for true good sleep.

[00:00:25] So press play on Good Sleep tonight because a good tomorrow starts with a good night's sleep. Just search for Good Sleep in your podcast app and be sure to pick the one from Optimal Living Daily. This is Optimal Living Daily, The Missing Element to Achieving Your Goals and Expanding Your Potential by Michael Mehlberg of michaelmelberg.com and I'm Justin Malik.

[00:00:48] This isn't your typical podcast, this isn't your typical podcast. This isn't your typical podcast, there are no interviews, just me here reading articles to you with permission from the authors and with a little bit of my commentary at the end. So for now, let's get right to it and continue optimizing your life. The Missing Element to Achieving Your Goals and Expanding Your Potential by Michael Mehlberg of michaelmelberg.com.

[00:01:13] I chuckled in the smallish veterinary clinic in Leesburg, Virginia, just loud enough to draw a glance from the doctor standing nearby. My wife just responded to my text, I said. I told her Dottie gained 10 pounds. She told me, that's because you feed her salami every night. Dottie is our bull oxer rescue, a bulldog head stuck on a boxer's body. She's 4 years old, has white fur, and now weighs 85.2 pounds.

[00:01:40] Where she was once ripped with genetically gifted shoulder muscle striation, she now looks a little soft and full. Maybe full of salami. In my defense, delicious deli meat is a staple of my closely tracked diet. Some of it falls on the ground while I'm snacking, where Dottie dutifully slurps it up. Other times I'll roll up a slice for her and play catch. Still, other times she'll snag some off of the coffee table herself, usually when I'm slow to share, and especially when I'm not looking.

[00:02:07] Okay, okay, clearly I'm to blame here for her weight gains. If I'm being honest though, it does come as a surprise. I'm quite diligent about feeding her the same amount of food, one and a half cups in the morning, the same at night, both with a splash of warm water. No more, no less. But over the course of six months, a few slices of fatty meat started to add up to ounces, then pounds, then you're getting scolded in the vet's office for overfeeding your dog like some guilt-ridden gluttonous garbage disposal.

[00:02:36] This happens to us humans too. We occasionally overeat. We skip planning our day. We lose track of time and get behind on meetings, work, and life. We're human. It's allowed. But knowing this about ourselves doesn't mean we should succumb to lackluster results. Instead, we should double down on building good habits, habits that will naturally lead us to our desired finish line. Moments are made of habits.

[00:03:02] It often feels like the greatest moments of our lives are just that, moments. In reality, life-defining events are the culmination of hours, days, weeks, months, years, and decades of small decisions made easier or harder by the daily habits we keep. When we're living in the moment while keeping tomorrow in mind, we'll eventually walk into a future we've always envisioned or something similar. When we're eating a little extra salami every night, well, we're going to miss our goals.

[00:03:32] On April 21st, Mark Fisher from Mark Fisher Fitness, one of the top-rated fitness studios in the nation, graced our business mastermind group with his superhuman presentation powers. He was giving a talk on gathering customer feedback and using that data to improve your business and yourself. During his talk, Mark said something quite profound. To paraphrase, it's not enough to develop a vision for your life, nor is it enough to turn that vision into goals.

[00:03:58] To truly achieve your dreams, you must transform your goals into the skills you'll need to get to where you want to go. Create habits to develop skills. Think about that for a moment. To achieve your goals, you must transform them into skills. Said another way, while setting goals is important, if we don't create daily habits to develop the skills we need to achieve our goals and realize our vision, we'll flounder. Our goals will be nothing more than dates on a calendar.

[00:04:27] Our vision will be nothing more than words on a page, with no more or less power than the words in this very article. Dottie can't set goals for herself. She doesn't have a vision for her life, and she can't build daily habits to help her achieve success. She's a dog. She'll eat meat until she's bloated and sick. But you and I? We can. We can take the time to know our purpose, create a vision for what we want our lives to look like, set goals to achieve that vision,

[00:04:55] and build the daily habits that will give us the skills to get there. Skills help you grow and achieve. Are you interested in becoming a better writer? Don't just set that as your goal. Create a habit of reading and writing and learning every day. Want to sell more of your artwork online? Learn the skills necessary to take better photos of your art, write better sales copy, and practice it daily.

[00:05:20] Whatever it is that you want, set your goals and build daily habits to develop the skills necessary. That's the missing element of success. What's amazing about this strategy is that even if you miss the mark, you still win. Goals are temporary achievements, but skills last a lifetime. As I was writing this very article, Dottie begged me for her dinner. I carefully measured one and a half cups with a splash of warm water, as always. Dottie ate quickly, faster than usual.

[00:05:47] And where she would normally beg to go outside after finishing, she instead slunked to her bed, ears back, and tailed down as my wife walked in. Dottie probably saw the shock on my wife's face who realized that she had fed Dottie dinner, and then unknowingly, I did too. One breakfast and two dinners, a 50% increase in the amount of food this overweight dog is supposed to eat on any given day. I guess she'll start on her goals tomorrow. But you have to start now.

[00:06:15] You and I, we have to start now. We can't wait until things settle down. We can't hold out for a quieter, less crazy time. That time will never come. And to be frank, we won't find a settled, quieter, less crazy time until we get a handle on the daily habits necessary for the growth and success we've always envisioned. The skills we take the time to develop now will save us untold time in the future. So go now and find your purpose. Set your vision.

[00:06:45] Build supporting goals. And finally, stop letting a few slices of proverbial salami ruin your potential. Establish good daily habits that help you build the skills necessary for success. Inch by inch, you'll get closer to where you want to be until one day, you'll find yourself looking back on tremendous purposeful growth and achievement. You just listened to the post titled, The Missing Element to Achieving Your Goals and Expanding Your Potential

[00:07:14] by Michael Melberg of michaelmelberg.com. And I'll be right back with my commentary. Thank you to Cozy Earth. Cozy Earth products are designed to transform your five to nine, the time that matters most, into the coziest sanctuary. Seriously. With Cozy Earth, my bedroom now is my personal retreat. With Cozy Earth's bamboo sheet set, luxury starts where you rest. These sheets are buttery soft, keep me at the perfect temperature all night, and I feel like I'm sleeping in a five-star hotel.

[00:07:43] And the bath sheets are a game changer. They're huge, super absorbent, and super soft. Now here's what I love most. They offer a hundred-night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty on all Cozy Earth bedding and bath products. Try them risk-free, but I'm pretty sure you won't be sending anything back. Luxury shouldn't be out of reach. Head to CozyEarth.com and use my code OLD for 40% off sheets, towels, pajamas, and more.

[00:08:11] If you get a survey after purchasing, mention you heard about them right here on the podcast. That's 40% off at CozyEarth.com with code OLD. Sanctuary awaits at Cozy Earth. Thank you to Michael. Small habits really do add up over time. That's pretty much the way this podcast is meant to work. They're short, daily episodes for a reason. If we have just 10 minutes or so of positivity every day,

[00:08:39] it feels like it compounds over time. That's how it's been for me and hopefully for you too. But this works in so many different areas of life. Pretty much all the areas we cover on the OLD podcast. Finance with tracking expenses, saving and investing. Health with taking care of ourselves, relationships, work, you name it. And he makes a great point that even if we miss our goals, it's still a win because we developed new skills.

[00:09:07] This podcast has been that for me since the beginning. I've learned so many new things that I never thought I'd learn, including some not so obvious ones, like what I've learned through attending conferences, which I had never done before. So maybe today we can think about one small habit we could develop that would help us build a skill we'd love to have. It doesn't have to be huge. In fact, it's probably better if it's something small that we can do consistently. Let me know what you end up working on or building.

[00:09:36] But that'll do it for today. Have a great rest of your day and I'll see you tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.