Staying Positive By Looking Backward

When you first set a goal, you probably have a vision in your mind of what that goal will look like once it’s achieved. You probably have an idealized image of that future achievement and its positive impact. As you move toward that vision and make progress, you’ll probably even measure the distance between where you are and that ideal vision to determine how far you have left to go.
But all of this is a great way to get demotivated, discouraged, and down on yourself.
Instead, I advise a different approach that will have you staying positive on a consistent basis.
Setting achievable goals and measuring backward.
There is a right way and a wrong way to set goals and to measure your progress. Simply put, your ideals should be used only as a way of illuminating your specific, measurable, tangible goals. If you use your ideal as your goal, you’ve set yourself up for disappointment. Use your ideal vision of a bigger and better future to set goals you can actually achieve.
Then, when you measure your progress, the key to staying positive, inspired, and motivated is to look backward to your starting point and measure from there to where you are now to see all the growth and improvements you’ve made. If you measure forward, toward your ideal, you’ll be disheartened by how far you have left to go, because, ultimately, the ideal is a constantly moving target and not achievable anyway.
If what you’re moving toward isn’t a specific goal, you’ll never achieve it.Click To Tweet
Here are four benefits of measuring backward instead of forward:

A sense of accomplishment. You gain a real sense of accomplishment that keeps you in the positive zone and appreciating your actual achievements and improvements rather than perpetually striving for unachievable perfection.
A new way of viewing your past. You acquire the ability to look at your past achievements through a new lens and appreciate the real progress you made and goals you achieved. Past progress that may have seemed disappointing to you when you were measuring forward instead of backward is now transformed in your mind so you can see your achievements more clearly, giving you renewed confidence now.
Increased confidence. This renewed confidence from knowing that you made progress in the past has you staying positive and optimistic that you can do it again in the future and achieve even bigger goals, especially now that you know how to measure properly going forward.
Strategy for setting goals. You have a new understanding of the purpose of your ideals and how to use them to illuminate your path and set achievable goals. Your ideals can keep growing and getting even more exciting and motivating, allowing you to set even bigger goals in the future.

By making these simple switches in your mind to set achievable goals and measure backward instead of forward, you’ll see that staying positive and motivated is easy. And if you find yourself striving after ideals or getting in a negative zone by looking at how far you have left to go to achieve your vision, just remind yourself to flip the switch. It’s a mindset shift that takes practice but in time will become a habit. Share this strategy with others, and you’ll be surrounded by positive, energized people as you work toward your bigger future goals.



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How To Harness The Power Of Being Present

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How To Harness The Power Of Being Present


From the very beginning of my coaching career, I’ve been aware that getting trapped in their past is one of the biggest things holding entrepreneurs back in their lives. Yet it is the present that holds all the possibility, growth, excitement, and satisfaction of being an entrepreneur. Being present in the moment is an undeniable catalyst for success.
Traps from the past.
A trap could be a perceived personal limitation of some kind that may have been picked up on early in life. It could be a memory that hasn’t been figured out or resolved in some way. Or it could be the memory of a past failure, an uncomfortable emotional situation, or a big mistake that was made.
So, whenever a new and exciting opportunity comes up, first there’s the initial excitement, and then the memory of a negative situation from the past stops any forward movement. We all know people who are held back by a particular situation, relationship, or experience from their past, with no hope of truly being present in the moment.
And then, the future traps.
On the other end of the spectrum lies the future, with its own set of mind traps. With the explosion of technological progress all around us and all the possibilities of what could be — the much bigger and better results from using new kinds of technology — I notice just as many people getting trapped in the future.
Just like people trapped in the past, those trapped in the future are having a hard time operating in the present, actually being present in the moment. You can tell when you’re having a conversation with them; they give you only half of their attention.
Their mind wanders. They’re distracted, most often by a cell phone. They can’t stay with a line of thought for more than a minute, and then they’re on to something else. We’ve all experienced this (or are guilty of it).
The greatest life skill today.
In our personal life and in every area of business, one of the most desirable and useful skills today is to be fully where you are, and to give your full attention to whomever you’re with or to whatever you’re working on.
We live in a highly distracting world, so I realize that this requires real intellectual, psychological, and emotional muscle not to be pulled back into the past or forward into the future. Both are just an idea in our minds. The only reality is the present.
I would say that not only has my success increased as I’ve learned to live my life day by day in the present, my satisfaction in life has also increased along with it.
There’s no possible satisfaction from being trapped in the past or in the future because these are just thoughts in your mind. So you’re actually not trapped in the past or the future — only by your thoughts about your past and your future.
My muscle-building “being present” exercise.
I’m a big fan of thinking exercises that involve paper and pen or pencil. Our brains have been scientifically proven to engage more with an idea when pen is put to paper. So let’s get started.
Set the timer on your phone for two minutes and write down all your winning achievements over the past 90 days, usually around five to ten things. Next, set the timer again and write down all the things that are creating progress right now in the present. Finally, set the timer and write down everything you’re thinking about in terms of your future.
When I take our clients through this exercise in The Strategic Coach Program, you can almost feel them settling in, getting grounded and centered in their thinking. They’re 100% present — and that’s where the learning happens.
“Be 100% present in the moment. That’s where the learning happens.”Click To Tweet
Enjoy all the benefits of being present.
When you’re actually focused on being present, amazing things happen. Great creative ideas happen, great decisions and plans happen, and energy and momentum are created for what has to happen to keep things moving.
Simply writing down your list of what you’re proud of from the past quarter, what’s giving you energy right now, and what you’re excited about in the future gets you started. Now you can do some deeper thinking, communicate your ideas to those around you more clearly, and make considered decisions you can be confident about.
You’ve given yourself permission to be present, and your results will reflect that every time.
“Give yourself permission to be present, and your results will reflect that every time.”Click To Tweet

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