How are your goals for 2023 panning out so far?
As we head into Q2, many of us are probably looking at our New Year’s resolutions and thinking, “Oh I’m crushing that one!” or, “Eh, that one hasn’t materialized quite yet!”
And that’s totally okay. The important part is that we’re making progress in the right direction.
To give you a boost of inspiration as we head into the next quarter, here’s a quick rant about how I stay intentional and motivated in both my professional life and personal life.
You’ll learn a few random concepts that I use on a daily basis to:
- Achieve more
- Stay enthusiastic
- And ultimately reach the goals that I set for myself
I hope you enjoy it!
Success starts with yourself
I interact with thousands of marketers and business owners every year, and the most common questions I get asked are along the lines of:
“Ez, how do I make more money?”, or, “How can I make my business perform better?”
But my answers are NOT always what people would expect to hear.
I’m like, “First, you start with yourself.”
That’s because if you take care of yourself, you:
- Fill your cup with energy
- Fill yourself with emotion
- Fill yourself with positivity
- Fill yourself with enthusiasm
- Fill yourself with motivation
And when you do this, your business is going to do better.
If you want your business to grow in 2023, start by taking a stand for the things you want in life. Then follow through and do the things it takes to get them.
Are you in alignment?
People are like racecars: we’re out there rocking and rolling and zooming around. Our tires wear out. Our fuel level drops. Our intensity and focus falls away.
We become tired, and before we know it we’re out of alignment.
So sometimes we need to take a pit stop — for ourselves, for our loved ones and for our businesses — to allow us to get back on the right path.
And here’s a golden tip:
One thing I’ve learned in life is that new information (and revisiting previous information I already know) is really helpful in resetting my path.
So even though we’re only a few months into the new year, if you need a break to reset, take it.
And remember…
You are at the center of your world
Even though you can’t control what life throws at you, you can always control how you show up every day.
You can decide the attitude you bring to your:
- Personal life
- Relationships
- Work life
- And your emotional, physical and mental body
All of this starts with and stems from you. You are responsible for your existence.
And when you adopt that viewpoint, you begin to create your life based on where you direct your attention.
You get to decide whether or not you’re going to:
- Judge things as good or bad
- Decide to have a good time
- Be enthusiastic
- Bring joy and love
- Be of service
- Bring intention and desire for things to go well
- Be of support and help
So while you can’t control what life throws at you, you can still take ownership of your ability to ride the wave of intensity when the unexpected happens.
Take inventory of your day-to-day life
One thing I like to do is review the previous year and make a plan for the year that’s coming up.
That’s because history is a really great predictor of the future, and you can tell a lot about what’s going to happen from what already did.
If you don’t learn from your mistakes and, just as importantly, from your wins, how are you supposed to optimize going forward?
And if you prescribe to the idea that you’re in control of your existence, you can start being more intentional about how you shape that existence to get the things you want.
Routines
A great way to do that is by leveraging routines.
These are the things you do, when you do them, and how you do them.
What do you eat? When do you exercise? Do you set aside time for mindful thinking and reflection?
Last year was a very difficult year for me. And the only way I was able to cope with all that intensity in my personal life was by rigidly adhering to routines.
And listen, it’s okay if you fall off of your routines sometimes — it happens. Don’t let that discourage you from using them, because routines are a really useful tool in life.
Willpower
I’ve always enjoyed testing the power of my will, and I’ve worked on building up my willpower my entire life.
For example, If I say I’m going to do something, I do it. One time I did a 21-day water fast. It was probably the greatest test of my willpower I’ve ever had, but I did it!
I’ve also done a bunch of isolation retreats. It’s an interesting experience. You have to surrender to the intensity of it, and just let go.
Willpower is incredibly important if you want to be more intentional about the way you live your life. But it’s also okay to try something — a new diet, a new workout — and decide it’s not for you.
Just make sure you give it a fair shake first.
Gratitude
Many people spend their entire lives avoiding pain.
All their attention is on running away from “bad”: their family is bad, their health is bad, their income is bad, etc.
And yes, many things in life can be difficult. But instead of framing your existence around pain, another place to operate from is by framing your existence around gratitude:
- Gratitude for your mind
- Gratitude for your body
- Gratitude for your friends
- Gratitude for your community
- Gratitude for where you were born
- Gratitude for the hand that you were dealt
You can choose to be grateful that you are alive and that you have the opportunity to take action to create things that you want in your world.
Your mindset is very important. You live in your head, and what you think determines how you act, which results in what you get.
Goals and Resolutions
Those are a few random concepts that help me be intentional about how I show up in the world so I’m more likely to get the things that I want.
Now the questions become, “What do I want?” and, “How can I use these tools to help you get them?”
I start by asking myself:
- What are my desired high-level outcomes?
- What routines, systems, and actions do I need to implement to achieve those high-level outcomes?
So, I want to share a few of my 2023 resolutions with you.
Consistent creation
I created very little content last year, by my standards.
Most of my creative energy went into the bi-weekly calls I do for Blue Ribbon Mastermind. That was it.
So this year, I want to be more intentional about doing one of my favorite things — content creation — to better serve the people in my community.
(This article is a start!)
Call optimization
My job is to ensure that my companies and my clients’ companies work well.
To do that, I spend a lot of time talking to people about what we’re doing and about what they’re doing. It’s important to hold my leaders accountable, and to give them feedback and strategy advice.
But because I’m on a ton of calls every day, I find I can’t think deeply when I’m going back and forth in between calls.
So I decided I need days exclusively for thinking and strategizing, and other days exclusively for managing and directing and doing calls.
Take Notes
I’ve been keeping a little diary where I can keep track of my daily activities:
- “Meditated,” check.
- “Ran,” check.
- “Cold plunge and sauna,” check.
This really feels good to me.
I helps me keep track of my goals that I’m working toward at a high level, so I can see my progress over time and know if I need to change my routines.
I hope you’ve been having a great 2023 so far.
And if you needed a little boost of inspiration going into Q2, I hope this post gave you a little bit of that.
Until next time!
