December Challenge Lesson #3 - Focus on Footholds

This is the third post in Dave’s December Challenge series - if you haven’t heard about it yet, read the intro.

(Yes, I know there’s been a lag in posts as I’ve been promoting my newsletter and new time management system. But for now, back to the show.)

You put unnecessary stress on yourself every time you tolerate the idea that there’s “not enough time” to do some of the things you want to, and instead they’ll have to wait until some point in the future “when you get some spare time.” This is loser thinking (and no, I’m not calling you a loser - it’s just you’ll lose out on so much good stuff in your life if you tolerate this kind of thing). You’ve got to crush the idea that progress has to wait under your heel until it’s powder.

Here’s why: Take an honest look at your life and ask yourself how many things you told yourself you wanted to do that have never, ever, ever been done. Stuff that you planned to get to “when some time came up,” but it just didn’t. Think of something that gnaws at you that you haven’t gotten too … maybe something you told yourself this time last year you’d do. Sucks, don’t it? Sucks big time. That book is still unwritten. That business still isn’t off the ground. And you’re left holding the bag.

So why didn’t you ever make progress on it? Most likely it’s because you told yourself that it was a big undertaking and you just couldn’t block off the time to take it on. Fair enough. But still, it’s loser thinking that left you with a lost opportunity to get more of what you really want out of your life.

Here’s How To Start Winning
So here’s how you turn the tide. Take your focus off of this project being some big undertaking that you’ve got to put 1000 hours aside for. Instead, just slip a tiny little slice of time into your schedule to tackle it. 15 minutes during lunch on Tuesdays. 30 minutes on Friday afternoon. Whatever works for you - just find a forgivably short nugget of time that you can take action on that project, every single week. In other words, establish a foothold on that project.

Do this, and an amazing thing will happen. Your project will move out of that fuzzy, when-I-get-to-it phase and move into a holy-crap-I’m-actually-doing-this phase. When it does that, you’ll bask in the heady afterglow of actual progress on a project that used to be stalled out and you’ll magically find yourself becoming more motivated to carve out the time to accelerate working on the project.

Your 15 minute slice might become an hour-long Monday lunch event. Or you might (gasp!) stop watching so much damn tv and surfing the web without a purpose. Or (double gasp!) you might even be motivated to wake up earlier to get more done. Any way you slice it, it’s a win.

I See You Skimming, So Here’s What You’re Looking For
Here’s the big lesson of the day:

Quit telling yourself you’ll eventually get to that project you’ve been putting off forever. Schedule small, regular slices of time and they will grow on their own.

Focusing on establishing footholds has been how I’ve gotten everything done. I’ve got a long commute, overtime, and three crazy kids that want (and deserve) all that I have to give, and I’ve used this Foothold technique to write two books and three audio coaching programs. Each project started with a little, manageable slice of time, and grew from there.

Now get to it. And if you haven’t subscribed to this feed by email or RSS, do it now so you’ll get updates on new lessons as they come out.