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Hello everyone and thank you for joining me! We are officially into Spring here in the northern hemisphere but here in Maine you would not know it.

Although I do have to say we are now experiencing temps in the mid-40s. That may not sound great to most of you but it feels like warmth when the temperatures have been ranging from single digits to low 30s over the last few weeks.

Bring on Spring!

The Problem with Big Goals

Here’s a tiny peek into what I’ve been struggling with lately. I have been procrastinating on this latest episode of 100% Jodi and I am relieved that I got this out on schedule.

Every time I had a to-do or blocked time out on my calendar to sit down, gather my thoughts and put together an outline of what I wanted to share with you I found other things that were more urgent or I openly admitted to myself I just didn’t have the inspiration to create anything.

However, I had an epiphany yesterday thanks to two episodes on two different podcasts I listened to this week.

The first podcast I wish I could name but it is eluding me right now. I think it’s because I was listening from a selfish place of how it was going to help me.

However, the message has stuck with me. It was an interview and the guest shared that when you have a goal such as running 5 miles in the morning, you can’t think about it in terms of the whole goal – it’s too overwhelming.

Break a big goal down to identify the first “baby steps”

Instead consider your goal to be getting up with the alarm, getting dressed and stepping outside. That’s the goal. If you do anything else after that it’s a bonus.

Given that you are already dressed and on your doorstep you are more likely to do the next natural thing which would be to begin walking. Once you are walking it’s likely you’ll start to pick up the pace after you’ve warmed up and gotten into a groove. Wah-lah, you are then on your way to achieving the bigger goal which is to run 5 miles.

Then yesterday I was listening to Luke Iorio’s The Meaningful Way podcast and he was talking about a similar concept. I think I remembered that it came from this podcast because while I was listening I immediately had the thought that I was going to share this with my community. Because of that thought the resource stuck in my head. Lesson learned!

In this particular episode Luke Iorio talked about how when we set a big goal we are creating a goal that we cannot yet achieve. We have to develop ourselves and execute many actions that will take time before we reach the destination.

It’s all logical and yet once we have set this big goal we start comparing our current reality against the future reality of the goal having been realized. It’s unrealistic and only sets us up to feel bad.

How to Feel Good and Make Progress

However, if every day we focus on a couple or few actions that help us move toward our goal we will feel good about our progress.

These concepts have already had an impact on me.

I mentioned in the last episode that I am doing a Spartan race in June and my training has not been what I wanted it to be up until this point – and for all the same reasons that I could not create this episode when I planned to get it done.

I either got distracted by tasks that were urgent but not important or I just didn’t feel like working out when I had planned to. When it came to my eating I kept telling myself “this is just a small treat, it’s not going to hurt me.”

After weeks of not working out half as much as I knew would be beneficial to my happiness on race day and watching the scale consistently going up instead of down I picked a date on the calendar to put a line in the sand.

I told myself and others that I was going to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with friends and then the next day I would be cutting alcohol and sugar out of my diet until after the Spartan.

It may or may not be true for you but I’ve noticed for myself that alcohol is an energy drainer. I know alcohol makes you feel relaxed but after a couple of sips I go from relaxed to feeling tired. Yes, it happens that quickly for me. Even if I only have one drink the next day I feel depleted and have to put extra effort into getting my energy back.

And sugar, that wily temptress. I get a buzz from eating sugary foods, especially baked goods, but then it turns into body aches, moodiness and lethargy. Knowing this, sugar and alcohol are out!

I also knew I needed to do frequent workouts and they needed to be workouts that stretched my endurance.

Create the Space to Get Inspired

I remember from training for the marathon I did hit a tipping point when my mentality changed regarding my long runs. I went from being intimidated by them to looking forward to them.

However, it was not immediate and it was likely due to the changes that were taking place in my body’s chemistry that helped this change of attitude along.

And I flipped to the second half of the book that had the stress test, the beginner’s workouts, the 30-day workout plan and suggested nutrition that Joe refers to as Spartan Recipes.

I saw one workout starting with 30 squats and thought, “I can do 30 squats.” So I did.

Then, I saw the stress test and did a little bit of that. Overall, my results were barely into mid-range which had an interesting effect on me. While I was a little disappointed and daunted by the work I would need to put in to get into Spartan Fit shape, I could see that it was possible.

Rather than doing a structured workout, I did what I wanted to do. I treated it like a workout with stations. I went from cardio, to push-ups, to pull-up attempts, to core, to yoga – whatever my body felt called to do. An hour later I was flushed, sweating, fatigued and gratified.

I went to bed last night feeling so good about myself and wanting to have that feeling at the end of each day.

Slowly Build on Each New Success

I told myself that the first project I did this morning was going to be sitting with a blank page and begin writing whatever came to my mind. It wasn’t going to be about creating a finished product – it was about putting words down onto paper.

I didn’t need to create this episode, I needed to put my thoughts into words – whatever those thoughts happen to be. Before I knew it I was creating this episode.

After I’m finished here I’m going to change into my workout clothes and sit on the couch to read some more Spartan Fit. We’ll see what happens after that but my only goal is to be dressed in workout clothes reading Spartan Fit. Check!

If you’ve been struggling to make changes or make progress toward a goal, have your goal be a baby step. What are the simple initial things you need to do before any of the other stuff would need to come into play? Do that and tell me how it goes.

As you know I’m all about going from Dreaming to Doing and this may be the key that unlocks the motivation we need to get there.

Tell me about your goals in the comments below. Nothing gets me more jazzed than talking about what could be.

I hope this was helpful to you and here’s to your success!

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Resources

Apply to be on an “On-Air Coaching” episode: Are you a female leader who has been promoted in the last year? You are invited to apply to be on the podcast.

Checklist to Ask Your Company for Coaching: Would coaching help you become a stronger leader? Wondering if your company would pay? It doesn’t hurt to ask!

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Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to Doing: The book containing a simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

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