Look at Your Feet

If you want to go up a mountain, the first thing you’d probably do is look up and say to yourself ‘that’s where I need to head to’. Then of course you’ve got to start moving towards your goal. It seems fairly straightforward. Keep moving and get closer. But, as these things happen, the path can be rough. Maybe there’s lose rocks, steep terrain. And if you’re only looking up then you can stumble, fall and maybe seriously injure yourself. ‘Eyes on the prize’ is great advice. It tells you not to lose your focus. But if we’re only focusing on the end point, our attention is drawn away from the smaller steps we need to do to get where we want to.

Research into the mindset of achievers has shown that those who achieve what they set out to do have the perfect balance between their end goal and the smaller wins they need to get there. Its their way of checking in with themselves and most importantly rewarding themselves. If we have only that one metric of achievement i.e. the goal, then all the time we spend doing the things needed to get where we want to can seem like a waste. It can feel like we’re doing all these things and yet we’re not where we intended to go. Essentially it can seem like we’re spending time and effort and not achieving goals. That’s not good for morale or motivation. What you then need is to track your wins on a more micro level. In essence, look down and see where your feel are.