Turning your Goals into your Successes

with guest David Wood #MakingBank S5E15

Maybe you’ve got a dream, a sort of idea or business that you feel could be successful and you’re just itching to get started. Or maybe you’ve already built the beginning of a business, and don’t know where to go from there. How do you make the vision in your head into a successful reality in front of you?  

David Wood, a recent guest on Making Bank, outlines his simple three step process to becoming a more focused entrepreneur that puts time into his/her business. David is the founder of the world’s largest coaching business, Focus CEO, and has faced more than enough hardships in his lifetime. However, he pushed through these hardships and found motivation in helping others overcome some of their own battles.  

By becoming more focused on your business and the goals you want to achieve, you’re ensuring that you’re building the base of success. Here are the steps that David teaches to be the best entrepreneur one can be. 

Determine Your Goal  

Often time we have a vision for where we want to end up, but when we look deeper into those visions and goals, how are they really aiding to benefit our life? Does the end picture align up with our happiness? The focus has to be greater than money or the accomplishments of your company. It’s got to be something for you – your relationships, your family, your own successes.  

“Do these goals really support you and serve you? Or are you just chasing shiny objects? Is this going to take you…away from the prize?” By exploring where these goals might lead you, it allows you to break down the values that are truly important to yourself and your growth.  

David advises creating a goal for your 12-month future. This goal should serve both you and your business long-term. Then, create three month plans to help you reach your yearly plan. Create the specific targets you want to hit. Small goals lead to accomplishing the bigger goal.   

“CEO Time”  

Inside of all of us we make conscious and unconscious decisions. Somedays, we’re doing things purely out of habit and give no second thought to our actions. David says that we’ve got to wake up the “CEO” part of our brains and make conscious decisions that will benefit us.  

“We’ve got executive function in our brain that can look ahead and make decisions. All right, I’m going to say no to that…this is most important,” says David. Your thoughts start to plan your day as soon as you wake up. It’s difficult to filter through these thoughts, as some of these thoughts may be important and others may be insignificant. Recognizing the important thoughts and not second guessing or doubting them is key in growth.  

A simple way to avoid these thoughts getting scattered and lost in the mix is by dedicating 30 minutes a week to reflect on what you did in the last week and set targets for the following week. It breaks down the three-month target goals into even smaller tasks that pushes you further to the goal you have at the end. The important thing is making time for these smaller goals and reviewing what is working and what isn’t. Furthering this advice, you can start by taking 5 minutes to determine the most important things that you have to do for the day and do them without any distractions.  

CEO time is making time for yourself and reflecting on your goals, making sure that your daily life is fitting into the bigger picture that you have for yourself. It takes discipline and being conscious in choosing what you want to do during the day. Do the things that will change your life for the better first, then you can do whatever you want.  

Avoiding Distractions 

The third and final step is eliminating the distractions in your life. Life throws so many different things at us and we are constantly multitasking. However, this can be detrimental when we’re trying to reach the goals we put in place.  

“You understand the mind is like a monkey on crack jumping around from thing to thing. And then we’ve got external distractions.” And even without those external distractions, David says that you’ve got to push through the random thoughts that invade your focus.  

David suggests putting all your focus on one thing and to prevent distractions by setting a block of time that you truly only put your energy towards the things that you want to get done. Turn off Facebook, put your phone on do not disturb, etc. Make the time that you’re blocking off as freed from distractions as you possibly can.  

This takes time and effort, it’s not easy. Sometimes we don’t even realize our attention is being pull elsewhere because we’re so used to doing two or more things at once. But once you do eliminate the things that are pulling your attention away from what you want to get done, it gets easier. It’s a working meditation that takes a while to develop into a habit.  

These steps focused around goal setting, making conscious decisions, and eliminating distractions can better you in your business and life. These steps may be simple, but the process of implementing them into your life might take a while. In order to be successful, you’ve got to put time into yourself and what you want, and know that it might not ever be totally easy, but there are small accomplishments that can accompany you along the way to your road to success that make it beyond worth it.