progress Archives - Page 2 of 2

Even At A Turtle’s Pace, You Can Still Make Progress

Everyone makes progress with their goals in their own time. We don’t achieve success together, not unless we’re on the same team. Developing the habit of progress is important to your goals.

It may take some people five years to write a book, while it may take others only three months. Time is always of the essence, but when it comes to making progress with our dreams, everyone is different.

A Turtle Still Makes Progress

A turtle is one of the slowest animals on earth. We could learn a lot from them about being persistent. Slow action is better than no action.

No matter how slow a turtle is, it always gets to it’s destination. It may not get there the same time as a dog, but nevertheless, it will get there.

A turtle probably doesn’t know it, but it has what we humans call persistence. No matter what happens, all it knows is to keep going (even in traffic).

It doesn’t matter how slow you think you’re going. The main point is that you don’t quit. Continue to make progress, even in the face of adversity.

Mistakes Are Proof Of Progress

Some of us stop ourselves before we even begin. We have a fear of making mistakes and having to deal with obstacles.

A mistake isn’t a hint that you should give up. A mistake is simply feedback. It will let you know what kind of adjustments that need to be made in order to improve what you’re doing.

Most people stop at mistakes. They think of it as a dead end. How else would you figure out how to do anything, without making mistakes?

A mistake will help you more than it will hurt you. It may seem painful in the beginning, but overall, it’s there to let you know that there’s a better way and you can make progress and create quality work.

Problems Promote Progress

Like mistakes, problems are there to help us towards a path of improvement. It’s hard to see it that way when your mindset is constantly set on ‘victim’ mode.

If you look at a problem as a challenge (because that’s what a problem really is), your mind will switch to finding solutions, as opposed to playing the victim.

When you play the victim, everything is everyone else’s fault. You take no responsibility for what happens and you complain to make it go away.

Problems won’t go away until you see them as challenges and become a solution-oriented person. Instead of accepting what happens, turn it around and create a strategy to overcome it. It may take time, but it’s still progress.

Follow Through

Be intentional by following through with your goals. The time will pass anyway, so you should go ahead and just start.

What if you would have started when you first thought about it? How far along would you be if you hadn’t procrastinated? Following through is a strategy that is often forgotten, once a mistake or ‘problem’ occurs.

Fast or slow, progress can be made as long as you continue to follow through. Whether it takes two years or two months, just keep moving forward. By putting it off, you’re making a promise that it’ll never happen.

#BeGoalden

Why Consistency Is Key

Consistency is key when it comes to making progress in life. The daily habits you develop play a major role in being consistent and can help with making incremental improvements over time.

Why is consistency so important? What happens if you don’t follow a certain pattern everyday? Will consistency enhance your life?

Daily Habits

We all have different daily habits that help move our day along. We perform most of these patterns unconsciously and it provides a foundation for the rest of the day.

Habits, such as brushing your teeth and taking a shower, are things you do from a necessity standpoint. If you weren’t consistent with these things, no one would want to be around you. Hygiene habits are critically important.

Other habits, such as folding your clothes or writing down your expenses, are things you choose to do to keep organized. No one has to do these, but it helps you on a personal level and allows you to promote your own development.

Consistency Has It’s Benefits

Being consistent naturally falls in line with your habits. Since you do them everyday, you’re already consistent with them.

Imagine if you didn’t brush your teeth everyday. What would happen? It definitely wouldn’t be in your best interest personally and it could lead to possible health issues. The fact that you brush your teeth consistently, is beneficial to the people around you and your health.

When folding your clothes, you are prepping for when you have to choose your outfit for the day. If you didn’t fold your clothes, you could waste time looking for something you need, as opposed to knowing where it is and putting it on right away. When you’re organized, you can focus on more important things and avoid draining your energy on the simple things.

The Power Of Consistency

Having a habit of consistency enhances your life, especially when you have productive habits.

If you exercise on a daily basis, you’ll see and feel the results throughout your body. Not only will you look good, you’ll feel good. This is a powerful habit that leads to being physically healthy, along with other advantages.

When you develop a habit and you’re consistent with it, you’re ahead of the game. Others who aren’t consistent with their good habits will have a harder time becoming more productive and won’t enjoy the perks from being consistent.

It’s a win – win situation. The more consistent you are with your good habits, the more progress you will make in your life.

The Key To Being Consistent

Don’t overwhelm your mind with how hard something is – if you do, it will seem hard and you won’t even begin.

The key to being consistent is to keep going. Start small and take action everyday. As time goes on, you will become better and it will allow you to put your mind power towards accomplishing your goals.

Consistency also helps with your confidence and puts you on another level. Because you take the time to enhance yourself on a regular basis, your confidence will rise, which prepares you for the next level of your life.

Unless you practice being consistent with the productive habits in your life, you will remain stagnant. Growth doesn’t happen where consistency is absent.

Develop some good habits and don’t allow any distractions to get in the way. You’ll soar beyond your potential when you continue to be consistent with the good, productive habits in your life.

#BeGoalden

Success Is Not A Destination

When people say they want to reach success, it sounds like a goal that would take a lifetime. Whatever it is that you want to do, once you’ve done it successfully, there’s this idea that it’s over and you can relax.

If you look at successful people, they are successful because they keep coming up with new ways to add to their success. Just like learning, it never ends.

Most lottery winners lose their money in a short period of time, because they think it will last forever. They don’t do anything to grow what they’ve won – they just continue to spend. The money doesn’t just magically reappear in the bank account – you have to do something with it to enhance it’s growth.

Success is the same way. After you’ve accomplished opening your business, it’s not over. Now, you have to work even harder to keep the business open and ‘alive’.

This could mean having sales around certain holidays or collaborating with other businesses. There are things that need to happen continuously in the background in order for the success to keep thriving.

What does success entail?

Have you ever won a championship game? All of the hard work that it takes to get there goes unseen, but the success occurs when you win. After you win, what happens? Do you wait until next season before you start to practice again, or do you begin to practice during the off season?

If you want to be successful, you have to practice during the off season. It doesn’t happen if you practice when everyone else practices in the beginning of the preseason. You have to take extraordinary measures to ensure that you’ll continue to be successful and outwork the competitor.

Success is not a ‘one and done’ event. When you reach your goal, you want to keep setting your standards higher, so that you can achieve more. If you stop, success goes out the window and you’re back in Average City. You’ll be one of those people always reliving your glory days, saying how you used to be the champ.

How to keep up with your life’s success.

It’s not hard to become successful, it just takes foundational habits (like discipline, focus, consistency, etc.) and time. When you get in the pattern of doing these habits daily, it contributes greatly to your success.

Meet everyday with a strong mindset for growth. When things don’t grow, they usually end up being complacent or they die. Don’t be afraid to do something that challenges you everyday. To be successful means to steadily grow. If you aren’t growing, you’re complacent or dying.

Do things that are out of your reach. You can’t always be comfortable – success means being uncomfortable. That’s where the growth happens. Even if it leads you in the wrong direction, you can always turn around and figure out a new way to complete your goal.

As you can see, success is a journey, not a destination.

As long as you do something constructive towards your future, you will always be successful. Learning, growth and success go hand in hand and they are never ending.

Think forward and be sure that you’re doing something daily that strengthens your end result. Commit to daily progress, even after the success has come. It’s your responsibility to persevere to your highest potential.

“Success is never owned, it’s rented…and the rent is due everyday.” Anonymous

#BeGoalden

The Art of Rising

We all have potential -it’s there. There’s always an option, if we choose to use it. When we are faced with that opportunity, what do we do? Walk away, ignore it or embrace it?

Throughout life, we experience different situations and circumstances. Some situations and circumstances may be similar, but for the most part, no two are alike. Either you do the right thing or make the best choice.

Your decision should always involve moving forward (and doing the right thing). Sometimes, you get stuck – it seems too hard to do it the right way or it may cause you to have to start over.

Be a helium balloon. Practice the art of rising. It’s a great habit to develop and will keep you on the path of daily improvement.

Rise to the occasion. If you have an opportunity to do something different, make the attempt to do it. Backing away only enhances your ability to be more stubborn and stagnant. When you’re stubborn and stagnant, nothing happens. You’re here to live life and to experience the best of it, not to watch it pass by and regret it later. After you try it, if the opportunity is not for you, at least you know from experience.
It’s your fault if you stay down. Life happens. None of us likes to be knocked down, especially when we’re in a good place. Things can happen out of your control, but it’s not a sign to give up. When life knocks you down, your job is to get back up – not to get comfortable and stay there. If you don’t do anything to improve your situation, it’s your fault. Use your resources to get to where you want to be.
Rise everyday. Allow growth in your life. Aspire to something greater than you are now. Make it a daily practice to do better than yesterday. Be a better person and improve upon yourself on a regular basis.

The art of rising contributes to your personal progress. It forces you to be responsible for your own life. Too many times, we leave it up to others to guide and control how we live. Why let someone else write the book on your life?

Step up your game and play your part. Stop allowing others to determine your fate, just because it happened that way to someone else. You’re not someone else, you are a person who continuously bounces back, like a helium balloon!

Rise. Create and follow the path for your life. The fault isn’t in falling down – the fault is in staying down and not rising.

#BeGoalden

Learning To Self-Educate

Once we graduate from school, most of us are glad to get out of the mundane, everyday cycle of sitting in a class, taking tests and doing homework.

Traditional school is the basis of your learning. It’s not perfect, but for the most part, it teaches you the fundamentals to get along in the world.

The path to education has changed the learning landscape now. Learning is no longer limited to a school building. Although this is the way we still provide education, it extends beyond that.

The internet has changed the education game. Twenty years ago, you couldn’t go to school online or listen to an in-depth podcast on what you like to do. Sometimes, when you’re inside the change that’s happening in real time, it’s hard to realize the benefits around you.

It doesn’t take any effort to learn anything, today. Back then, you had to learn AT school or ON the job.

Today, you can learn anything from the internet. You can Google it, watch the YouTube video or listen to the podcast.

Somewhere in that little device, is the answer to your question.

You want to learn how to install a car engine? Youtube it. You want to repair your credit? Listen to a credit repair podcast. You need a little inspiration, motivation or you feel stuck? Go to the Goalden Lady website.

No matter what it is, the answer is accessible – it’s there and it’s free! Don’t limit yourself by being stubborn and doing it the old way. There are so many options and possibilities now, it’s ridiculous, but it’s ridiculously great!

If anything, the internet has made learning more interesting and fun. It’s beneficial to everyone, on all levels. The best thing we can do today is take advantage of it. Gone are the days where you have to call, sit and wait for someone’s help. Today, you can grow and make progress on your own.

Make a decision to open yourself up and take a chance at becoming better. Achieving your goals still takes hard work, discipline and focus on your part in order to see success. The path of action may not be easier, but having (and using) access to your resources gives you more of a head start.

Keep learning. Self-education is key. We are no longer confined to a ‘one way only’ system. You can do so much more with technology today. You have the power, literally, in your hands. Learn it and leverage it.

#BeGoalden

How To Become Remarkably Persistent

What does it take to be persistent? Is it reserved only for those who are playing at a high level? When does it happen? How does it happen?

Being persistent is when you continue to follow through with your actions, no matter what obstacles get in the way. It could be big or small, but persistence is what keeps you going towards your desired result.

People will attempt to set simple goals, but what most lack is the ability keep moving, after the first or second setback. Setbacks happen, but it is up to us to maintain enough persistence to keep going.

Persistence can be the difference between achieving a goal and being complacent. Anyone can be persistent, with the following suggestions:

Create a plan. This could be setting a goal or something as simple as completing a daily chore. When you set a time to do something, preferably at the same time everyday, you’re building power behind the habit. No matter what, everyday you will brush your teeth. Or, no matter what, everyday at 6pm, you will exercise. Create a plan that will build the habit.
Take action. As simple as it sounds, do it. Develop your habit until you can’t go without performing it. This is where the disconnect lies, because a lot of people will stop after 3 days or once they come across a challenge, they’ll stop altogether. Keep performing the action until it becomes second nature to you.
Develop a “no matter what” mindset. When you develop a “no matter what” mindset, it sharpens the habit of becoming persistent. You will mentally feel better, knowing you pushed through and made progress, as opposed to quitting. If you don’t take your daily run because it was raining outside, it will haunt your mind. Maybe you could’ve ran in the rain or done something else to get some type of exercise done. Don’t allow silly things to stop you. Do it, “no matter what.”

Persistence promotes satisfaction, which promotes a peaceful mind. A peaceful mind promotes a restful sleep. A restful sleep promotes a productive start to your day and a clear mind.

The true test of persistence comes when you’re tired, distracted or your plans have been thwarted. Persistence will give you a little more strength when you’re tired, laser focus when you’re distracted and a creative mind to continue your plans.

Learn to become persistent with these tips. You will notice a gradual progression with your goals. By encouraging your habits through persistence, you’ll open yourself to more opportunities.

Don’t live a lazy life – be persistent. Put your best efforts forward everyday and watch your goals unfold!

#BeGoalden

Rejection Is A Part of Growing

When we attempt to do something, we’ve been conditioned to cringe at the word ‘no.’ What makes this word so scary?

Whatever we do, we always look for approval, or a ‘yes.’ Getting a ‘no’ breaks us down, mentally.

Rejection is actually more constructive than we think it is. What can a ‘no’ do for you?

A ‘no’ will make you stronger. Don’t let your feelings get hurt. If people say ‘yes’ to you all the time, you become soft. You’ll expect everyone to give in to you and make you feel comfortable. There is no progress in comfort. Rejection is like exercising: the more reps you do, the stronger your muscle will become. Build your confidence, not your comfort level.
‘No’ sets you up for the best rewards. After going through so much rejection, the reward will be that much better. If you allow it to stop you, you’ll never know what could have been. Getting past a ‘no’ many times will prepare you for more opportunities in the future, because others will give up on their first try.
The more you hear ‘no,’ the more resilient you’ll be. After you hear it so much, you’ll have thick skin. Having thick skin means you can handle it like a pro. You know how to brush it off and move on. It shows that you’re not a quitter. Also, you prove to yourself that you have what it takes to be resilient and become successful.

Train yourself to keep going. Rejection is not there to make you feel bad, it’s there to push you to the next level. There won’t be a breakthrough unless you continue to take action.

As soon as you hear ‘no,’ move on to the next person. The word doesn’t hurt you, just your ego. Keep your emotions under control, so it won’t slow down your momentum. Always think, ‘what’s the next step.’

Don’t cheat yourself. ‘No’ is just code for ‘you can do it, so keep going.’ It puts you that much closer to getting a ‘yes.’ Don’t waste your time overthinking it – your only concern is to get results.

Rejection is very difficult to hear at first, but after a while, you’ll get the hang of it. You’ll develop a solid work ethic and become relentless. It doesn’t matter what others think – what matters is that you stay on track until you reach your goal.

How Information Overload Stops You From Being Productive

There’s an idea that’s been bouncing around in your head for quite some time. Finally, you decide to do the research and get started on it. When you find the information you need, you study it thoroughly.

“This is very interesting,” you think. Before you know it, you discover more details that seem helpful. Each time you come across something new about it, you continue to read.

And then you read some more. Then, you read more. When will you stop reading and researching and start?

This is a classic situation of information overload. Sometimes, we get so caught up in researching and finding more information, we fail to start. How much information do you need to begin?

You’re being busy, but not productive. Being busy is when you’re doing something that may contribute to your idea, but it’s not being put into action. Being productive is when you start and you see good or bad results and you make adjustments.

For example, reading about building engines for 3 hours a day is being busy. You can read all you want to, but it’s not doing anything.

Actually sitting down and building it is being productive.

It is good to be detailed and prepared for what you’re about to do, but at some point, you must stop reading and just build.

Doing extensive research is another way you avoid doing the actual work.

It’s a comfortable place to be, because you aren’t putting yourself out there for others to be critical or to judge. Researching is your safe space.

Stop fooling yourself. If you’re going to do it, stop reading and put in the work.

Another reason is perfection. Some of us feel like whatever we do must be perfect, but this is just another way we hide from the outside world of opinions.

When you become older, you’ll see that other people’s opinions don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Don’t buy into what people say about you – it’s called jealousy and insecurity.

You’re the one making progress and they aren’t. You’re the one making the most of your opportunities and they aren’t. You’re the one improving yourself to become better and they aren’t.

You’re doing everything they wish they had the courage to do. Remember that the next time you want to do extensive research and be perfect. Don’t hold yourself back because of what other people might think.

If that’s the case, get around people who promote the reality of your ideas. When you feed off of the energy of other like-minded people around you, the entire group will grow and improve and become exceptional! This is the support system you need to be around in order to thrive.

Get unstuck and move. Deliver. Put it out there. Expose it. Bring it. It doesn’t matter, just believe in yourself and do it!

Stop being busy and start being productive!

How To Hack Your Life For Awesome Results!

Sorry. There is no hack. No matter what they tell you, there is no magic pill or mathematical equation that will enhance your life.

You want to make your life better? Find your own hack. The same ‘hack’ doesn’t work for everybody.

What does work is being consistent. Moving forward. Not allowing your emotions to get in the way.

In order to hack your way to a better anything, there has to be constant progress. Being ‘all in’ one day and lazy the next couple of days does not promote movement. Even if you have to break it up into small chunks everyday, that’s more consistent than making three huge splashes every month. Big progress or little progress, you are responsible for making it move.

The biggest reason it doesn’t seem to be happening is because of excuses. When you want to have that awesome life, you have to put yourself on the next level. If you’re on a ‘good’ level, then to get to the ‘awesome’ level, you have to push harder – remaining on the same level won’t get you to where you want to be.

Going to the next level may be changing your surroundings or joining a new networking group. Or, you could put in more effort and expose your work to more people. Advancing to the next level doesn’t happen all at once, but do something different once a week or once a month that you haven’t done before.

When you level up, it encourages movement, and movement encourages growth.

People often get caught up in their emotions when it comes to working through challenges and obstacles. They are there for a reason. It’s not for you to stop, it’s for you to grow. Blaming and complaining doesn’t solve or help anything.

Be like a computer. When you search for something in the computer, the computer doesn’t say, “Sorry, not today. I’m too tired to search. Ask me again tomorrow. Girl, stop.” No, the computer gives you results. No talking back or smart comments involved. It’s purpose is to help you find the solution to whatever you’re looking for.

That’s how you face those tough challenges. Try it the next time something doesn’t go your way. Put your emotions and reactions aside and focus on finding a solution.

These may sound like several small hacks, but even these suggestions may not work for everyone. There is no ‘one hack fits all’. Find your own personal hack and make it work for you.