Success Tip: Don’t Try to Change Too Much at Once

It may seem counterproductive for me to advise you to limit yourself when it comes to setting goals and resolutions, but please hear me out. There are a lot of solid reasons why you may wish to choose only one or two objectives to focus on. Goals that are manageable can actually allow you to accomplish far more than ones that cover every single aspect of your life. If you prioritize your pursuits you can actually achieve the things that are most important to you. Read on to discover just why it’s smart that you don’t try to change too much at once.

Increase Focus

With fewer goals, you have more focus. Developing laser focus allows you to prioritize and to give your limited energy to the things that matter most to you. When you spread yourself too thin, you won’t be able to stay on top of all the tasks required to manage these desires. Sure, you may want to shake up all sorts of things in your life, but it makes more sense to give your attention only to the most important ones. Once those are addressed, you can move onto the next area on your agenda for improvement. It’s great to have a mindset of constant personal development and to always be striving for better. Just be sure you do not expect it all to happen at once.

The 2-week milestone approach toward 12-week focus goals that I recommend in my This Is the Life I Choose Goals Planner and Journal is one good way to do this. (Request a free 2-week sampler.)

Promote Passion

Passion and desire are strong motivators. Prioritize your targets and shoot for only those that are most important to you. You’re bound to find yourself feeling more passionate about reaching them. Listen to your intuition and rule out any resolutions that don’t speak to your soul. Give your energy only to the ones that are most meaningful to your world, and you’re bound to be more successful as you let your passion guide you.

Avoid Overwhelm

Let’s face it; there are only so many hours in each day. Tackling each and every little thing you want to change about yourself all at once simply isn’t realistic. Doing so will set yourself up for burn out quickly. Then you’ll find yourself accomplishing absolutely nothing. Isn’t it better to choose specific goals to focus on that set your on fire and make you want to work toward achieving them than to try to fix all the nitpicky little details? If you tackle a specific goal or habit you can allow that new way of being to become automatic in your life. Then tackle another.

Achieve More

Finally, you’ll find that you actually achieve more by setting limits on the number of resolutions you make. When you’re successful at reaching the most meaningful goals you’ve set for yourself, you’ll feel motivated to keep going. This success builds momentum. You’ll also feel a sense of pride in your accomplishment and will be energized to go further in your self-development.

There you have it, the reasons why it makes sense to avoid trying to change too much at once. Trust me; you’ll be happier and more successful when you take this route.

Resource Recommendation: The Power of Focus

A quote I read about 15 years ago in the first edition of the book The Power of Focus by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Les Hewitt had a huge impact on me. I’m having to paraphrase for you as I haven’t been able to find the exact quote as I’m re-reading the 10th-anniversary edition. It said something to the effect of, “85% of the time you should be doing what you are truly magnificent at doing and hire the rest.” I have used this in so many areas of my life. The book also talks about how spreading ourselves too thin causes us to get much less accomplished than if we would focus on a few things that are truly important or that we’re particularly good at.

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