Hey Moguls, Shaun McCloskey here…
I’m writing from an absolutely beautiful park near my home in St. Louis, Missouri. The temperature outside is a perfect 80 degrees, and I’m sitting here on a park bench underneath countless trees towering over me to the tune of what seems like miles. Beyond the tree line is the Meramec River, where every few minutes I look up to see yet another ever-expanding ring in the water that was brought into existence by a fish, frog or turtle, I couldn’t really say…
I have to admit to you that just recently I was feeling a little overwhelmed by some things that have been on my plate. I knew I had to get these things done, but the fact is, I didn’t want to do them.
Have you ever felt this way?
I made a goal for myself this morning that if I was able to finish these mundane tasks before 10 am (all of which I had been putting off for quite some time) I could take the rest of the day off and do whatever I wanted.
The interesting thing about this is that I set up this little goal and reward last night before I went to bed and somehow found myself wide awake at 6 am totally excited about the day…
I was actually excited about doing these mundane little tasks that up to this point, I’ve been dreading. These tasks were things that, without a doubt, needed to get done. There’s no question that they were important things.
They were also tasks that I didn’t want to do, nor could I delegate them to someone else. The list of tasks was no different today than it was yesterday, so why is it that I dreaded working on the tasks yesterday, but today I jumped out of bed ready to start the day, ready to devour and conquer?
The difference is I had an outcome (and a reward) in mind.
I think all too often many people find themselves setting goals only to achieve the goal and then say, “Okay, now what?”
Either that or many people set a goal and pursue it heavily without understanding the purpose of why they’re going after the goal in the first place. I’m pretty sure this is where a lot of repeating frustration comes from.
What I’ve learned as result of continuously working on my vision is that I can do anything I want to do today. I can get rid of anything I want today that doesn’t further assist me in living my vision. I can also set rewards for anything I need to do but don’t want to do today.
It’s All about the Why
The bottom line is that whatever I need to get done, if I’ve got a big enough “why” I can do it. Not only that, but I can actually enjoy the process, even if it requires me doing some things that ordinarily I wouldn’t want to do.
Today, my “why” was simple. Get it done by 10 am, and I can go and goof off the rest of the day. Now I realize it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to reward myself with “just take the rest of the day off” every time I have to do a mundane task that just needs to get done, but hopefully you’re seeing the point.
I had a result and reward in mind, not just the task. Without a reward or result, a task becomes just another thing to cross off the to-do list, and there’s no fun in that.
Speaking of which, this is why simple to-do lists don’t work. I used a to-do list for years, always with the intention of getting to the point where my list was down to ZERO and I could FINALLY rest.
The problem is I never got it down to zero because it seemed that every time I would get close to getting everything done there would be another 20 things that needed to be added to the list.
Can you relate?
Do Things Purposefully
Coming to the park today meant coming with a purpose. That purpose is very simple…
I came here to surround myself with a beautiful setting to continue working on my vision and just enjoy life; a routine that I’ve become accustomed to over the course of the past 18 months or so.
Today is much more fun than yesterday was. Somehow, I also managed to get more done before 10 am than any other day this week, all because I had an end result in mind.
Who knew that it didn’t have to be so difficult?
So my question to you is this: What do you want for today?
What’s the REAL outcome you’re looking for? Are you looking to just cross things off of your to-do list so that it can continue growing? Or will today mean something much more than that?
The meaning you attach to what you do every day is the difference. Will what you’re stressing out about today matter in a year? 5 years? 10 years? Will it help you to continue worrying about it? Or would it better serve you to take 30 seconds right now and decide what you would like your outcome to look like?
The beauty of this is that YOU get to decide. I hope you’ll choose wisely.
Hopefully you got something constructive from lesson today. Check out my other awesome lessons here for more helpful info.
Talk to Me
So, what will your outcome look like? What have you decided? Share with us below.
Think about your tasks as more than just stuff to cross off your list.
Focus on the end goals and take action toward them.
Give yourself a reward, and have that reward in mind, each time an actionable goal is achieved.
Shaun McCloskey
is considered to be a very successful real estate investor, author and real estate coach by world standards, but he realized that he was working far too much and was too consumed by his real estate investing business. By implementing Lifeonaire life coaching into his own personal life and business, this is now a thing of the past. He currently teaches others to do the same.