Some people think that today will be the end of the world because the Mayan calendar dating back thousands of years ends today. While there are no guarantees in life, I think it’s a pretty safe bet that most of us will wake up tomorrow morning to the same world we woke up to every other day of our life.
What if today really was your last day on the Earth?
- Would you look back on it feeling good about the life you lived? The goals your achieved?
- Would your music die inside you without anyone being able to hear it?
- Did your music fall on deaf ears?
- Did you spin your wheels but not really get anywhere?
So while it might not be the The End of The World today, it could be the First Day of The Rest of Your Life tomorrow!
The New Year is just around the corner, so contemplating “The End Of The World” is a great way to reflect on your life and gear up for 2013.
If you’re not quite where you want to be, that’s okay.
It’s easy to get caught up in the distractions of life and end up not focusing on the really important things. You now have the choice to make a change or wake up tomorrow and fall back into the same old routine….
Here’s a strategy that – if you apply it to your life – will get you results.
- Set a goal.
- Make it specific and quantifiable.
- Write it down.
- Break it down to monthly/weekly & daily targets
- Start tracking it.
- Put this somewhere you can see it and focus on it each day.
Why does this work?
Because it helps you to focus on what you want, and then you’re paying attention to it each day.
Tracking your progress will help you to take action and get smarter about what you’re doing – and hardly anyone does this!
There’s a saying in business that “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”. Once you start measuring your results, you can take action to change them.
Here’s an example; say your goal is to sell more of your music in 2013.
The first thing you need to do is make it quantifiable – what is “more?” 10%? 50%? Pick whatever it is and assign a number. If you sold 100 cds and your goal is to increase sales by 50% then write that your goal is to sell 150 cds.
Now work backwards – if your goal is to sell 150 cds per month or per week, break it down to a daily number of sales.
Now start tracking it.
Graph it out in a spreadsheet. Each day write down your sales. If it’s “0”, put that in.
This is counter-intuitive, because most of us would rather not be confronted by our lack of progress.
But what happens is that it forces you to change what you’re doing. It shows you exactly that whatever you’re doing – or not doing – is not getting you to reach your goals.
It shakes you back into awareness, every single day that you’re either making progress or going nowhere fast.
You’ll have to decide to either change your actions or give up.
If you’re going to give up on this – guess what, you’re not going to get much of anything that you want in life.
If you stick with it, you’ll find that you really get sick of putting up “0”s every day. You’ll start to think of new ways to get even one sale and you’ll be more motivated to take action.
So, if you wake up tomorrow and the world is unchanged, but you want to start making more progress for a change… try it out and let me know how it works for you.
Leave a comment below if you “really” think the world is going to end today!