From Drawing a Blank to Taking Action

One of the most common reasons people put off doing an important task is that they’re not sure how to do it. Sometimes they’re not even sure exactly what they should be doing — they just know they’re supposed to somehow end up with a finished product.

At a recent coworking session, T Carter knew she needed to work on marketing her services. She recently left the corporate world to open her own boutique graphic design business, Design Breakfast.

Confusion breeds procrastination

It was no surprise to me that T was using the coworking session to write marketing content. When you own a small business, there are an infinite number of things you could do for it, and a lot of them are more straightforward than writing content. Writing content is so important, but what kind of content should you write? About what? For whom? It’s so much easier to fiddle with the colors of your website — even if nobody sees your website because you don’t write any marketing content.

This doesn’t just apply to business owners, though. In general, confusion breeds procrastination. The tasks we’re fuzzy on are the ones that need the most attention, but they tend to get the least.

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How to Follow Through With Goals

So you have a goal for the new year, and you’re excited about it! But in the back of your mind, you know that most new year’s resolutions don’t last for a whole year. A lot of them are lucky to get as far as February. So how can you follow through with your goals, knowing that the odds are stacked against you?

Welcome your off days

The trick is to welcome the uncertainty, the challenge, the likelihood that you’ll fall off the wagon. Instead of seeing the days when you don’t stick to your resolution as failures, see them as expected opportunities.

Of course you’re not yet the kind of person who accomplished your goal—that’s why it’s a goal. The process ahead of you is not just a process of executing your goal, but of becoming the person who can follow through with that goal.

Every off day is a day you get to learn what you need in order to become that person. This means you don’t need to focus on accomplishment so much as noticing.

And that’s why I recommend daily intention tracking.

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