The Challenge

I’ve Made Enough Excuses…

Our lives are getting busier, our distractions are increasing. It’s easy to see why we so readily put our creativity or creative projects on hold, because that’s exactly what I did.  Do you know the feeling when you know you are so busy, but you aren’t quite sure what you’ve been so busy doing?  This is how I felt! Yes I was very busy at work, but I was busy achieving nothing in my own time. I realised I was using full time work as an excuse to put my goals on hold. By telling myself that I was too busy, I didn’t really have the opportunity to invite other opportunities into my life.  By continuing to tell myself this limiting belief on a daily basis, I’ve limited my potential success.

After far too many years of an ‘under construction’ logo as the front page of my website, I told myself that I finally had to get my act together and create a blog.  The question was, what represented me, and what did I want to share with the world?  Picking that right topic was one of the hardest processes, because it then becomes engrained as part of your online identity.  That scared me. I didn’t like the idea of representing myself online and I kept telling myself that I didn’t have anything worth sharing anyway.

I’ve since made a commitment to myself to breakthrough these fears and using my own domain online was the best way for me to achieve this.  After my tertiary studies in media /  creative industries, I developed a lot of goals to see my creative ideas ideas come to fruition. All these concepts for writing scripts, creating short films, paintings and more were circling my mind and gradually disappearing.  I had no means to capture my creativity and consequently I was placing my goals on hold.

I’ve had enough. So instead of flaking out in front of the television for the night, I’m working towards a goal. I’m forcing myself to take daily steps to stay focused and motivated. By documenting my journey I have to be accountable to myself.

The Goal

My goal is to………….

I’ve identified two problems that I’ve encountered with previous attempts at goal setting.

1. Daily Reminders – it’s great to think “big” but if we only do this once and store the goal into the back of our mind, it was a waste of time. I’ve often completed goal setting exercises and then hidden the notebook in the cupboard for a rainy day. That hasn’t worked. So now I’m doing the opposite.
2. Goal Breakdown – After setting the goal, in the past I have not broken it down further into achievable steps. I’ve left the vision too big and unattainable that I haven’t considered ways to make it possible. That’s also about to change.
3. Accountability – There hasn’t been anyone to answer to but myself, and I haven’t been asking myself the right questions. Not only will I have my self to answer to, but the encouragement of my readers.

   

By blogging about my journey, it’s an opportunity for me to have that daily reminder of my goals. This is a chance to break the goal down into achievable steps allowing me to test, measure and evaluate along the way.  By placing a timeframe on my goal, I’m giving it a sense of urgency to keep focused on the task at hand.