Sometimes our anxieties about the future negatively impact the present.
We anticipate 1-star Amazon reviews before we’ve written a chapter. We dread how little our new business venture will make before we’ve designed the product.
But is all thinking about the future bad for productivity and creativity?
Of course not. Natasha Crain commented, “I like to have the goal, work toward it, achieve it, move on. But some things are out of our direct control.” She’s on to something. Let’s unpack this.
photo credit: oscarandtara via photopin cc
From Self-Defeating to Self-Empowering
When we allow ourselves to become perplexed about things beyond our control, we’re hurting our work.
It’s tempting to focus on metrics like reviews, sales, revenue, traffic, shares, comments, retweets, and so on. All of these metrics, while important and definitely worth tracking over time, are to a great extent beyond our control. I would argue that when you’re at the beginning or middle of a creative process, these are not the best places to focus your energy.
Where do we have direct control?
We have direct control over the work we do—the number of hours, the number of words, the number of blog posts we publish, the number of pieces we create, whether we launch or don’t launch, whether we wake up early or don’t wake up early, the number of hours our butts are in the writing chair, whether we create or don’t create. In short, we have a great deal of control over how much we hustle.
Looking at the future in a way that paralyzes or discourages you is self-defeating. Looking at it in a way that motivates you to action is empowering.
Hustle-Oriented Goals
I’m a big fan of goals, and I like Michael Hyatt’s emphasis on S.M.A.R.T. goals. But if all your goals are based on metrics beyond your control, you’re headed for disappointment. (Want to tweet that?)
I might establish a goal to have a contract with a publisher by July 1, but so much of this goal is beyond my control. My advice: Keep this goal in place, but be sure to support it with some hustle-oriented goals as well. In this case a hustle-oriented goal might be to attend three writers’ conferences this year and meet with as many agents as possible.
How to Determine Your Hustle-Oriented Goals
1. Start with a B-HAG: Big Hairy Audacious Goal. Don’t worry about anything except the ultimate outcome you hope to accomplish. This could be “Become a New York Times bestselling Author” or “Sell a million books” or “Meet Oprah.” Whatever you like.
2. Now think about all the areas of hustle where you will need to invest time and energy to make the B-HAG happen. This might include platform building, writing, networking, and so on.
3. Establish at least one hustle-oriented goal per area of hustle. Examples would include “I want to send out at least five helpful tweets a day” or “I want to write 500 words per day.”
4. Go for it. See if you can hit your hustle-oriented goals.
5. Tweak as necessary. Don’t be afraid to adjust a goal, especially when you have lived with it for a while and you see a way to make it better–either by making it more realistic or more strategic.
When you’re setting goals for yourself, don’t forget the hustle!
Question: What’s one hustle-oriented goal that will help you move closer to your desired outcome? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Hey Chad, Thanks for the mention! I love the concept of having a B-HAG (not in your direct control) with controllable hustle areas under it. That’s a great balance! I find that whenever I set goals to happen every day or on specific days, I never want to do them. I have to use time periods that give me flexibility. For example, I would shoot to do x number of things toward a hustle area per week and allow myself the freedom to choose when. I think that if I have more time after all my kids are in school, I’ll be better able to commit myself to daily things. Thanks for the great ideas here!
I can relate to getting frustrated with goals that aren’t very realistic. I like to set mine within a timeframe as well. Some of my goals for 2014 are to have at least one date night with my wife a month, to speak publicly once a month, and to redesign my blog by March 1, 2014 (check!). These timeframes afford me some flexibility, and the other thing I remember is these are goals, they’re not matters of life and death. I’ve set them, and I’ll do what i can to hit them, but if for some reason they don’t come through, “Well, nobody died” is not a bad way for me to respond, I suspect.
Interesting way to approach goal setting, Chad. I break up my yearly goals into quarterly goals and then monthly goals, similar to what you’re suggesting here. It’s always nice to be able to check an item off that to-do list.
Love it! I’m a firm believer in breaking these down into doable steps whose accumulative effect over time is significant.
This is stellar advice, Chad. I’ve only recently recognized the need to approach my writing as a career/business, and goal-setting is an integral part of doing that. One of my hustle-goals is to spend a small but consistent amount of time each weekday to developing and implementing a social media strategy. Creating content for my books and blog requires the bulk of my limited time, and without platform-building goals it’s too easy to neglect this important part of the puzzle.
Love this, Alison. If you were to spend 15 minutes per week day on this, over time you’d have a robust social media strategy!