A Lesson I Learned From My Baby About Achieving Goals

I was reminded of some simple steps to achieving goals while I was interacting with my baby. Who knew my baby would teach me something already?

I am sitting here right now with a pile of toys on my desk as I write this because my baby decided to bring me her pile of toys, one by one. Even when my husband tried to distract her with another activity, she was determined to take every toy in front of her and hand them to me. She had previously handed every toy to her daddy and was done with that activity. It was now time to hand them all to me.

She walked around her dad when he sat in her way. Nothing was going to stop her from accomplishing her goal of giving me all her toys.

Instead of grabbing a pile of toys to bring over to me, she picked up one toy and brought it over. Then, she turned around, grabbed the next closest one, and brought that one over.

When I reached out and meet her halfway, she stopped walking to me and just leaned over, but when I stopped leaning in, she walked all the way to me. One by one she continued. She didn’t even seem bored with the repetition. She could have kept going with a hundred items. Pretty soon, I was left with a huge pile of toys on my desk. It was super cute.

As she was doing this, it dawned on me that this is very similar to how any goal is accomplished in life. We start with an idea of what we want to do and set about to do it. Step by step. The tasks may be repetitive, but just as a house is built brick by brick, so are our goals and dreams. It is the constant practice of repetitive actions that move us closer to our dreams.

Stay Away From Over-Thinking

The only thing different from babies and adults are the mental blocks that adults face. We tend to over-think things, analyze things, and second guess ourselves to determine if this is the right thing to do, the best way to do things, the direction we want to go. Honestly, all of that mental chatter leads to paralysis. Analysis paralysis. If we are to ever achieve our goals, we need to move aside anything that’s in our way from making things a reality. Instead of over-thinking things, we need to just pick the most important task we see and move it forward.

It’s as simple as that.

Pick the most important task at any given time and move it forward. Just like there are many different ways to clean a house, there are many ways to get to the same goal. We just need to start, and we start by picking up the the task that is in front of us.

Choose How You Want To Travel

Once you choose your goal and destination, it’s just a matter of taking the steps to get there. There are a million ways to get to a destination. Some are faster, some are more scenic, and some include other stops along the way. It’s just a matter of how you choose to travel.

My preference is to enjoy the journey. I’ve had my share of experiences in trying to take the fastest route. It’s effective, but usually the hours are long and grueling and although I achieve my goal, everything else in my life suffers. It’s important to strike the right balance between work, family time, household responsibilities, and fun. As a mom, it’s important to enjoy every step of my baby’s development, but also take time to move my dreams forward consistently.

When we focus on small actions, such as picking up one item and doing it, there is a lot less resistance than trying to do everything all at once. Sure, my baby could have picked up a bunch of toys and brought them over, but I think she really enjoyed the act of giving me one toy at a time. It’s important to turn our daily tasks and learn to enjoy them so that things move forward effortlessly.

Here is what I challenge you to do today.

1. Pick something you want to accomplish.
Pick one goal that you want to move forward. It could be a goal you’ve been sitting on for a long time, such as starting a new exercise regimen or finishing some unfinished project. Or it could be something new you want to try.

2. Decide on one consistent activity you can do every day to move that goal forward.
It’s best if you choose an activity that you enjoy! Then, make a commitment to make it happen!

3. Disempower the mental chatter.
Instead of letting those voices that have prevented you from achieving that goal so far in your life run rampant in your head, replace it with the opposite statement. Repeat it over and over and over again until you really, really, REALLY believe it. Whatever excuse you have been allowing to live inside your head, laugh at it. It’s a silly excuse and it isn’t really true.

4. Measure your progress.
Measuring your progress brings more awareness to your habits and your progress. Set a due date and measure your progress along the way.

5. Celebrate milestones along the way!
When you measure progress, you can look back and see how far you’ve come. Celebrate small accomplishments by acknowledging them. Every celebration will make you feel good and encourage you to stay the course.

That’s it! Just repeat the activity and continue celebrating milestones until you have reached your goal! If you focus on the task at hand and just repeat small steps over and over, pretty soon you will have reached your goal even before you realize it!

• Six Simple Rules For Life

• Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. - Theodore Roosevelt
• A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do. - Bob Dylan
• Follow @GoalsOnTrack on Twitter for more similar tweets.