Sometimes the best way to reach your goals is to not worry about reaching your goals.
Steps to Achieving Your Dreams
In my last post I talked about how to achieve your dreams in three simple steps. These are three steps I use all the time that have helped me a great deal.
It was just two days ago at the time of this writing that it helped me catch up on a project without much concern at all. In fact, when a bit of worry popped its head up, I used step three to help me stay on course.
90 Seconds to Stress-Free Living
I create an instructional series of videos called 90 Seconds to Amazing Presentations. This series helps people get over the anxiety of public speaking by showing them simple techniques they can use to improve their speaking, such as sharing stories, planning ahead, and explaining the benefits of a new action to your audience.
I create one of these a month and release them on one of the last Tuesdays of the month. The deadline for my most recent video was looming – it was Sunday. I had a script but hadn’t created the video or done any editing.
Normally this would cause me a lot of anxiety; I am typically well ahead of my deadlines. But with a slew of unexpected changes and circumstances in our family schedule, it was difficult to find time to record the video in a quiet, uninterrupted moment without neglecting the people close to me.
Staying Positively Focused
Since distraction can lead to stress, I knew I didn’t want to worry about something I had little control over. Instead of stressing about it I took action to keep myself on track and stay positively focused.
I did three simple things:
- I prepared: I had everything ready to record. I had my script completed and reviewed. I put the script into the teleprompter app and verified the timing. I had the equipment setup and ready, and I jumped into the other work to get it out of the way while I waited for a quiet moment to record.
- I planned: Even though this would have to be done at the last minute, it was planned. This didn’t sneak up on me. I knew when I would record, when I would edit, and when I would publish. Although the timing did change once (the date I recorded was actually an alternative date), it was still planned out.
- I had a backup plan: Had an emergency popped up, I could move the schedule and release one week later. As January had one more Tuesday in it, this would work. My goal however, was to release four weeks after my previous video, so this was only a backup plan. In fact, even for the recording, the date I recorded was a backup date from my original.
Focus and Have Faith
When you have a plan, and you follow the three simple steps to achieving your dreams, it can sometimes still be hard to avoid stress. The desire to do it all can be distracting and debilitating.
That is why step three is so important: Focus and Have Faith. It you’ve spent your time learning what you need to know and adjusting your course, and you’ve taken the steps to move forward, then you simply need to focus on what’s important at the moment and have faith that you’re on the best path.
As I went through the studio time after time, looking at the equipment and knowing that I needed to queue this video in less than 36 hours, I could have become stressed. I could have focused on the many things that would require my attention and become overwhelmed. It’s easy to do.
Instead, the best thing to do in circumstances like this is focus on getting done what needs to get done in the moment and believe that the plan you have set in place will work.
Success without Stress
When you follow the three simple steps to achieving your dreams, you can find success.
With good planning and solid action, you can find find success without stress.
That’s why step three is so important: focus on the task at hand and believe it’s all coming together. You may not be creating a video series on presenting, but if you apply these principles, you can create something amazing.
