2 Tips to Sticking with Your Goals w/ John LeBrun

Welcome, unscripted, fam, this is John Lebrun with your weekly unscripted off script. It's January. Many of you have set goals. Many of you set smart goals, written them down. Put them on your board at work, at home, told your friends and your spouse that this is your year. But we're about four weeks into the year and statistically about 30% of you have probably fallen off the horse. Hey, I've done it. Don't get too hard on yourself. It's OK today. I'm going to give you two tips to actually help you hit those goals. Before I dove into this, I got to tell you about that. This episode is powered by patreon.com/unscriptedleadership. Your commitment is making a huge impact and helping us build better leaders, better families and businesses in our communities. Visit us at patreon.com/unscriptedleadership. Become a patron today. Let's get back to it. So you're so by now, you might be feeling weary. You've said some huge goals for 2020, too, but we're about a month in and life is getting hard. Distractions are piling up. Excuses are becoming the norm once again, as it did in 2021. For some of us, me included on some of my goals, unscripted 2022 is going to be your best year yet. Let's not forget the why of these goals. You were created for a purpose destined for greatness. So let's do it. Here's the question What can you do to increase your chances of staying persistent and consistent in the pursuit of your goals? I have two tips for you that should change the game. Number one, make room for your goals. And number two, attach emotion to your goals. Let me explain more. I'm going to walk through using my own examples, a couple of my goals and my distractions, so we can relate a little bit making room for your goals. You have to set space in your life to really pursue your goals and receive the fruits of the labor so you need space to pursue and to receive. You got to identify two or three things that are getting in the way, or maybe potentially getting in the way of your goals. Ask yourself this What causes you to waste your time, or what do you find yourself doing when you should be working on those goals of becoming a better dad, a better husband, a better business owner, a better friend, a better pastor, a better leader for many of us. It's the TV or social media that endless scroll of video watching whatever it is for you, identify the obstacle and remove the obstacle. If the distraction brings you so much joy that you just can't possibly live life without it. You probably don't have to remove it, guys. Turn your distractions into a reward system. Reward yourself for hitting the goals. Here's one of mine. So personally, I have this crazy bad addiction to chocolate. It's terrible. I know I'm pretty sure heaven is filled with chocolates. That's my vision of heaven. Dove chocolates in me and no waking. You know what else is filled with? Love me and this dead body is 100% evidence to it. So I found myself getting low on energy and I decided to get back to my good, sustainable diet and exercise routine. Now, there's no way that I could just remove all that dove chocolaty goodness out of my life completely. So what I did, instead of going to the store I used to every day or every couple of days and buy a bunch of big dove bars and just take out on those and chips and stuff like that. I picked the one thing I love the most chocolate. I purchase bags of small chocolates and I told myself very good through lunchtime. So breakfast and lunch, I stick to the diet. I can have one chocolate. That's all lies. And boy, do I look forward to it? And then if I do well through dinner and I finish my day working out sometime during the day, whether in the morning or in the evening, I get to reward myself with another chocolate at the end of the day. I hit my goals and I only added 90 calories to my entire day with two pieces of chocolate heaven. That's how I do it. How will you do it? So step one make room for those goals. And for me, my shirts will make room for me by not adding to my luscious gut. Step two Attach emotion to your goals. Now I know you're not going to be emotionally attached to like every goal. We know this. I'm definitely not attached to my exercise or diet routines. I just want a few shirts to fit better, a little less gut action at the beach this summer. You know that sort of thing. But now we're talking about that big goal. But it goes the goal that you set for 2022. The game changing goal. The goal that's going to take you to the next level. Take that goal. Add some emotion of achievement and disappointment. Here's how we first make a list of all the reasons how accomplishing this goal will change your life. How will it change your life or change your kid's life? How will it change your spouse's life? The next generation's life, your business? If it will work for you, everything the big, bad, burly list every way that it would change your life by hitting this goal. Now, once you get a piece of paper and I want you to write a letter for will do this and in this letter, write yourself a congratulations and list all the reasons why this accomplishment for a list of accomplishments had made such an impact on the envelope of this letter. I want you to put the date of January first, 2023. So when you hit this goal, you can open this up next year on New Year's Day and remind yourself of all the great things, why you did it, why you work through all those distractions, why are you busted through those obstacles? Now, wait, we're not done. Here's the hard part, the part that should make you extra emotional. I want you to get a second and third piece of paper. I want you to write a letter to yourself and a letter to whoever is most impacted by these goals. For me, that would be my wife. I want you to write two letters explaining to one yourself and to that significant other person of why you fell short and what that means. And I want you to date this as well. January first, 2023. And in this letter, I want you to write to this person. What happened? Don't blame anybody. It's no one else's fault. You explain to them all the potential things that got in the way. Something like this. Dear Sherry, I must apologize. I set my goals and I promised to get you free from the stress of that job. Although you were supporting me for years and I promised this would be the year of breakthrough. I fell short. I didn't fall short due to lack of opportunities, but because of my failure to remain persistent and consistent, I failed to get out of my comfort zone, failed to overcome my fear of rejection and self-imposed limitations. This means you have at least one more year of work, one more year of tension and stress, and the kids have at least one more year of no mom during the daytime. I sincerely regret every decision to watch TV scroll mindless apps over pursuing greatness. I know I am meant to become better. Please forgive me. Love chance. And script the fam, it's how you do it. Thanks for letting me invite myself into your ear today. Take the time this week to set this up, make room for your goals and attach emotion to them. Let's make this the best year yet. And as always, we pray that you be the leader that God has called you to be. Until next time.