Get The Thing Done

Welcome to the Second Mix Podcast where we reflect, revise, and remix our lives. My name is Matthew Bennett. We are here at episode 19, and we are covering what it takes to get through the cycles of complexity life throws at us – I’ve narrowed these things down to Ethos, Intention, Efficacy, Agency, Adversity, and Elevation. 

Your Intention is your goals, dreams, your vision of the future, and your purpose and mission. We’ve talked about this a bit without getting specific about goals, but getting specific is pretty important. 

Here’s why most people don’t set goals: It’s hard. It takes a long time. It really could take ten or twenty hours over a week of your life, and a couple of hours a week spending time looking over and revising them. It’s easy to sit down and start writing down what you want for a couple of hours the first night. But you get to the point where it’s boring, or too complex, and you don’t exactly know what to do. And you have to do a lot of thinking. 

It’s easier not to think, and the difference between those who achieve their goals and those who don’t - is mainly this process of thinking. 

You choose goal X, you write down all the steps you know of that it will take to get there. You end up with ten steps. Then you realize that you have to do step 7 before you can do step 2, and you learn that there are actually three more steps that you didn’t know about. 

It’s taxing. And that’s why the majority of people won’t do it. That’s why they decide it’s too hard, or they are just not good enough or smart enough to get it all done. 

None of that is true. But it’s easy – it’s easy to say, “I can’t do it.” It’s easy to say, “I’m not smart enough or good enough.” Most people stop in the planning stages of their goals because that’s where the complexity lies. And that’s the obstacle you need to move. Or get through. Or get over. Or get around. This is where “Never Quit!” comes in. If you can’t get it one way, then find another way. 

Be like an ant. If they can’t move it, they will go through it, or climb over it, or climb under it. And they will keep going until they get there. Or until they die. They don’t stop. 

I am guilty of all of this. I’ve made so many, so very many lists of my goals and what I want. And I got stopped early. I got stopped because I couldn’t organize them in a way that made me happy. I would say, I want to start a band, make more friends, be kinder to people, get better at writing, quit smoking cigarettes, buy a new car, and make more money. There was no way to categorize these things into clean columns. In that small list there were goals that had a finite place in time – like buying a car, and projects, like starting a band, and skill-building, like getting better at writing. 

I was so dumb that I, because I couldn’t organize it, I scrapped it all. Instead of calling it my goals list, and instead of figuring out how I was going to get all of it, make all of it happen, I scrapped the list. But I believe that it just seemed like SO MUCH WORK, and I came up with an excuse to not do anything. 

And although it hurt to give all of that up for a time, somehow I chose the pain over making things happen. I lived my life to be easy. 

Here’s what I could have done, at that moment of scrapping my goals because I could not organize them to my satisfaction:

I could have written at the top of the page:

“Goals.”

There. Now they are organized, and I can begin to get to work on them. That is what I do now, instead of trying to make them all fit into proper columns and rows. 

The system of setting goals is pretty easy. 

Decide what you want and WRITE IT DOWN. 

That’s it. That’s all. That’s where it begins. 

The next step is to take one of those goals and figure out how you can get it. And there are plenty of systems for this – and they all work. If you do a little bit of research online, you can find a system that stands out for you. I have my own to share with you, but to be honest it is just a composite of all I’ve learned in the last few years. 

But writing down the steps for each goal, all the things you need to do to get there. 

I want to quickly go over my system. Answer all of the following. I like to use paper, but that’s just me. Do what works for you – what you like the best. 

1.    What do you want?

2.    What are the benefits. Why do you want it?

3.    What are obstacles do you imagine will get in your way?

4.    What people, skills, and knowledge do you need to achieve the goal? 

5.    What do you have to become in order to get what you want? (This is the hardest one for me because it means a part of you has to change and sacrifice in order to achieve. In fact, if you didn’t have to change or sacrifice anything to achieve these goals, then you would already have them.)

6.    Write out your action plan, the story of you starting where you are now all the way to getting where you want to be. 

7.    Put a date on it and put it in your calendar. 

8.    After you’ve done all of this, and you can see what you’re getting into, then prioritize these goals and figure out the order you want to do them. 

There are some books and speakers that will tell you to take the long view, to keep your focus on the main goal as you are taking the steps to get there. There are others, James Clear in his book Atomic Habits who says to take the short view, and just focus on the next steps. I think everyone here is right. My take on this is that you need both. 

Take the long view, the ultimate goal, for your emotions – pull the excitement from the future in order to get the inspiration to keep taking steps even when you don’t feel like it. Take the short view to get things done. The short view is looking at the next step or two to make sure you’re making at least a little bit of progress. 

For the singular task of figuring out what your goals are, I’ve given you the steps. Take each goal through the steps. There are other systems out there, it doesn’t take very much research to find a goal-setting system online that fits with the way your brain works. These steps are your short view. 

The long view is what do you want to be, what do you want to do, and what do you want to have. Let these things inspire you. 

And I hope this episode inspires you to take whatever time it takes to write out your goals – the transcript, including that little breakdown of how to write out your goals, will be on the blog at secondmix.net. 

I’ve renamed and moved the Facebook group – it is called Ideas and Concepts – the link is in the description – this group is a mastermind for you to join where we share and critique ideas, keep each other accountable, and network together. Search on Facebook, or click the Mastermind link at secondmix.net, and it will take you right to the group. 

Once you are there, write down some goals you are thinking about achieving, and why you want to achieve them. Mine will be there first, come join in the conversation. 

Thanks for listening to the Second Mix Podcast, once again, I am Matthew Bennett. If you have any questions send me an email at matt@secondmix.net, I would love to hear from you!

Please give me 5 stars whenever and wherever you can and subscribe so that I pop up on your phone first when a new episode is out. If you know anyone who might find this information helpful, please join my mission and tell them about this show – I’m gonna be here every Monday and Thursday until all the politicians agree on everything.  

Take steps that will make your week incredible.  I’ll be back on Monday –  this weekend continue reflecting, revising, and remixing your life. I’ll see you soon! Or as my daughter wants me to say, I’ll see you faster than the wind.