That elephant is the mammoth goal you set which seems impossible to accomplish. It’s daunting. Weighs you down to think about it.
- It’s the 5 inches I want to lose off my waist.
- It’s the $1,000,000 in new sales you want to do this year.
- It’s the 4.0 you want this semester
- It’s the $100,000 in crowd funding you want to attract
- It’s becoming a movie star
- or just about any monumental goal you can think of
How to accomplish goals
To eat that elephant do 3 things
- Stop looking at it as a whole elephant. You can’t eat an elephant…no one can. Instead break the elephant down into small bite size chunks…yum!
- Automate those small chunks where possible.
- Never, never give up
How to view that elephant as bite sized chunks
Set large goals that challenge you, but not so large they paralyze you. Break a large goal like, doing $1,000,000 in sales into small manageable easily measurable chunks. For example: You could say I will meet with 10 new prospective clients each week. I will do 5 proposals each week. See measurable and attainable.
The power of automation
The idea here is to think less and act more. Once you know the correct thing to do automate it. If you put yourself in a position to think sometimes you’ll convince yourself not to do that thing you’ve already figured out is the right thing to do.
Example: Losing 5 inches on my waist will boil down to mostly small changes in my diet (at least I hope so). What I already know: for best results eat within 3o minutes of waking (breakthefast), eat nuts, low fat greek yogurt, and drinking lots of water everyday. So I automate it.
Each week I buy ten 5 ounce cups of greek yogurt and stick them in the frige. I keep large packs of walnuts on hand. First thing I do when I wake up each morning: drink 16 ounces of cold water (yes I measure it), eat one 5 ounce cup of yogurt, and have a handful of walnuts as a snack about 2 hours later.
I’ve automated my first two meals of the day. I don’t think about it. I just do it. No thinking allowed until lunch. Look for ways to automate the small task (the chunks) that lead to the greater success (the elephant) you want.
Never giving up
This may sound over rated but the fact is most people simply give up to soon. They don’t stick with their weight loss habits. They tire of rejection so they stop making calls.
The most difficult part of anything is the start. Once you get going don’t guit. Find the necessary motivation to keep pushing forward. Every step you take brings you closer to your goal.
Something to make you go…Hmm!
Early in life basket ball hall of famer Ervin Magic Johnson decided he wanted to go to the NBA (definite elephant). To accomplish this he made a smaller goal to shot 100 free throws every day. His neighbors tell stories of him as a kid shooting the free throws outside in rain and snow storms (commitment).
More insight and motivation on how to accomplish goals and eat elephants:
7 Things Anyone Can Do To Be Successful
Photo Credit: bocavermelha-l.b. via Compfight cc
