271. Need to Pivot Your Goals? Here’s How

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Marissa: Ken, I feel like we’ve had some really good episodes over the last month. We’ve talked about a lot of things like spring cleaning, stopping certain things, recommitting, how to not quit or what to do when you want to. We talked about your quarter and making sure you’re fully set up for success. But I feel like the one thing that we haven’t talked about yet is what to do when you need to significantly change your course on a goal.

[00:00:28] Ken: That is huge because life happens, right? You might have all of a sudden had a baby or a new promotion or a new job. Like there’s so many different changes that could happen in life. So we want to make sure what do we do and how do we actually address it and keep being intentional with our lives?

[00:00:45] Marissa: Yes. As we head into Q2, this is such a good episode for you guys because we’re going to talk about really like pivoting and how to do it well.

[00:00:55] So let’s jump in.[00:01:00]

[00:01:01] Ken: Welcome to another episode of Focus On This. This is the most productive podcast on the internet so you can banish distractions, get the right stuff done, and finally start loving Mondays. I’m Ken Freyda and I’m here. With the amazing, the wonderful, Marissa Hyatt.

[00:01:19] Marissa: Heyo!

[00:01:20] Ken: Happy Monday!

[00:01:22] Marissa: Monday! Happy almost Q2.

[00:01:25] Ken: Yes.

[00:01:26] Marissa: It’s the last Monday of March. And I’m just glad that spring is here and that we’re officially like not in the dark days of the winter any longer.

[00:01:37] Ken: For some of us, right?

[00:01:38] Marissa: That’s true. That’s not fair of me to say. We

[00:01:42] Ken: live in the South. There are some people like my friends and colleagues who are in Minnesota or anywhere up North.

[00:01:49] God bless your soul. It’s second winter is upon you. Good luck.

[00:01:54] Marissa: Well, you’re in our, our thoughts and our prayers. No, it is officially [00:02:00] spring. You know, we’re almost as of tomorrow in Q2. It’s exciting. And you may be sitting here because you have goals that you’ve created for the year and you might want to pivot on some of those.

[00:02:16] So often when it comes to the end of the quarter, we have five R’s that we talk about. So rejoicing when you accomplish a goal, recommitting if you’re sticking with your goals, removing it, you know, if you’ve got a goal that just doesn’t fit anymore, you can just remove it. You can also replace it if you want a new goal more than an old one.

[00:02:36] And then lastly, revising a goal. So that’s what we’re going to be specifically talking about today is what to do like if you’ve got a goal that you need to revise. And I’m really, really excited about this.

[00:02:49] Ken: The reality is when you set a goal, you don’t have the full picture of how it will actually play out.

[00:02:53] Sometimes, like I said, unexpected things happen in your life. Sometimes the goal is harder than you anticipated, so [00:03:00] you have to scale it back down a little bit. Sometimes you hit obstacles you just didn’t see coming.

[00:03:05] Marissa: Honestly, more often than not, you’ve broken obstacles you didn’t see coming, right?

[00:03:09] Ken: Yeah, 100%.

[00:03:10] So it’s going to just take you longer than you expect. So when that happens, it’s time to adjust. So let’s talk about the four elements needed to revise a goal. Marissa, walk us through element number one.

[00:03:23] Marissa: Yeah. So element number one to revise is the timeline. So this is kind of straightforward, but you might get halfway in and realize you need more time than you anticipated to accomplish the goal.

[00:03:35] I feel like this often happens for me in work related goals. Like I end up, I don’t know why this is. That feels like the number one area for me that I. kind of underestimate how long things are going to take to accomplish. And then it ends up that I actually need more time. The other thing is, if it feels too easy, You might need to actually do the opposite, reduce the time it takes so that it feels more [00:04:00] risky.

[00:04:00] And it feels a little bit more exciting. I was actually talking Ken to one of our double win coaching clients about this a couple of weeks ago, and she was struggling to make progress on her goal. And we had had a previous conversation where she realized that she often does her best work when there’s a really tight timeline, because she feels that sense of urgency, it feels like kind of more exciting, more thrilling for her.

[00:04:24] And so one of the things that we did was we just moved the finish line closer to her. And so she had to get into action faster. So sometimes this is a good strategy. If you find yourself procrastinating on a goal you may need, or it just feels like too easy, like it’s not requiring enough of you, you may want to actually reduce the time.

[00:04:44] Line for your goal. So you actually get into it faster. So the right amount of time for a goal should feel challenging, but it shouldn’t feel impossible. So you may need to adjust your timeline. You may need to say, Hey, I need a little bit more time on [00:05:00] this goal or a little bit less, depending on what you’re working towards and also how you work.

[00:05:06] Ken: Which, once you start doing that, leads to element number two that you need to revise, which is the metric for success. You might decide that it might not be the time constraint, but you might decide that you need to alter your metric for success. For example, instead of a weight loss goal, right, you might decide to track the consistency of your workouts, right?

[00:05:26] Or instead of counting the number of books you read, you might decide to count the number of pages. Or, instead of saving a percentage of your paycheck, you decide to aim for a specific N dollar amount. All these metrics of success should be measurable and should also get you excited. I think this is where people mess up when it comes to a metric, right, or a KPI if you’re in business terminology.

[00:05:50] It’s like this begrudging thing that you don’t feel like you have control over. No, it should be something that you feel good about, something that you have control over so that you can actually succeed in. [00:06:00] Now, quick note, you can totally decide to turn a habit goal into an achievement goal or an achievement goal into a habit goal as one of those metrics of success that you need to change, right?

[00:06:10] This is the beautiful part about pivoting is that sometimes you need to just adjust and it’s okay. I think there are many times people just feel like once they’ve set something, it’s like set in stone, like the Ten Commandments or something and it’s like, no, no, no. We could pivot and it’s okay to pivot.

[00:06:25] Just make sure you understand what you’re pivoting. And for many of you, it might need to be that metric for success.

[00:06:31] Marissa: And the whole point here is we want you to set yourself up for success. So what might be personally motivating for you may be different for me. And so this, this isn’t going to look the exact same for every single person.

[00:06:44] So for instance, can you talked about, you know, you might want to change from a weight loss goal to consistency in your workouts. Both of those are kind of leading to the same end, but it’s two different strategies if you will. [00:07:00] And depending on what motivates you more, you, you know, may want to go with the weight loss goal or consistency.

[00:07:06] So for me personally, you guys know Q1, I have had the goal of consistently working out. That is what was personally motivating for me, not having a specific weight loss goal or something else similar to that and that might be true for you. So we want this to be tailored to you, to your specific motivation, what essentially like gets you out of bed every day.

[00:07:28] So if you find that what you’ve been doing isn’t quite working or you’re just not feeling that excited, About this goal that’s on your list for Q2. You might just need to slightly adjust that metric for success to make it more personally motivating. I love that strategy.

[00:07:55] Element number three is to revise the scope. So one of the [00:08:00] oldest tricks in the book is trying to roll multiple goals into one and you guys know, this is my number one guilty as charged thing. Can we talk about this? I’m like, I’m sick of talking about it. And it’s worth talking about because I think a lot of us tend to do this.

[00:08:17] And I am like the chief of this. Like, this is the number one thing that I’m guilty.

[00:08:22] Ken: We all do. We’re like, Oh, well we could add two or these two or three goals are similar. So let’s just put them into one super goal. It’s like. It’s too much.

[00:08:30] Marissa: Well, and honestly, like when I talk with our coaching clients, this is what I hear.

[00:08:35] Always try to do this and be honest with yourself for a second. Look at your goals for this quarter. One of those, are you trying to roll three, four, if you’re like me, eight goals into one, because I’ve done it. I’ve tried it all. And let me tell you, it doesn’t work. You think you’re cheating the system and you’re actually cheating yourself.

[00:08:57] So don’t fall into this trap. You [00:09:00] might, for instance, have a goal to do your morning ritual, but you’re actually trying to implement like four new habit goals. Well, that’s not going to work. You’re going to run out of steam and you’re not going to be able to follow through on that. So rather than that focus on one of those new habits, and you could do that for four quarters in a row.

[00:09:18] And by the end of the year, you have a really beautiful morning routine. So if you’re not making progress on your goals, if you’re struggling and you’re just not getting the progress that you need, see if you need to actually narrow the scope. So asking yourself the question, like, is this really specific enough?

[00:09:38] Am I trying to cheat the system or am I truly just kind of cheating myself? So focus is your superpower here, hero here. You really want like the narrowest focus you can possibly have. And getting super, super specific

[00:09:54] Ken: when we talked about narrowing scope, uh, you’ve been following this journey with me.

[00:09:58] And if you’ve been listening to the [00:10:00] podcast for a few years now, you have heard me reference this, but Marissa and I both tend to be people who are like all in, like, we’re going to go extreme. We’re going to do something 75 hard. Like we’re just going to go crazy. And for my health goals, I was always doing that.

[00:10:13] I’m like, Oh, you know what? I’m going to go whole 30 for 90 days, or I’m going to just cut all these things out of my diet. And I would just crash. You know, I do it for 90 days, but then I’m like back into dairy or back into sugar. So a year and a half ago, I just started to narrow the scope down. And I said, what’s the one habit that I could keep consistently today.

[00:10:32] So back in October of last year. or two years ago now, I said, I’m just going to drink water because I was horrible at drinking water. Shout out to my 42 ounce Yeti mug. Right. Everybody else has got Stanley’s.

[00:10:47] Marissa: Whatever it takes, you know, whatever,

[00:10:49] Ken: whatever it takes. Okay. Anyways. So I started drinking water and I, that’s all I did.

[00:10:53] And it was actually really hard for me to stay disciplined, to just stay focused on one thing versus adding multiple other [00:11:00] items to my list.

[00:11:01] Marissa: Well, I think this is because. You’re hitting it, it’s actually harder to stay focused because like all of those habits, if you were to roll them all into one goal, and I’m using air quotes, if you’re watching your, if you’re just listening, those kind of tend to be a distraction.

[00:11:19] And we feel like, I don’t know about y’all, but for me, I tend to use that as almost like a scapegoat for not accomplishing all the things it’s like, it’s like an easy way out for me to be like, well, I don’t know, I just said like too many things. It’s honestly harder to stay with one thing consistently over time.

[00:11:36] This is why Q1, my goal was I just wanted to work out five times a week, every single week. And I’m happy to report, I think I did that 90 percent of the time. I had a one week where I was out completely for sickness and a few weeks out of the quarter, there were a couple of times where I only got, you know, maybe four workouts in or something.

[00:11:55] But the majority of the time, I was consistent, but it was way harder to do that and [00:12:00] actually follow through. Or I guess I should say it’s way harder mentally initially, but the truth is you set yourself up for way more success. When you choose to focus in on one thing, you actually make faster progress.

[00:12:12] And then. Like this quarter, I can stack on another habit if I want, but yeah, being true to that one is really important.

[00:12:19] Ken: Yeah, and that’s where it’s like one of the things that that people should listen to is that what we’re doing is we’re building the Our follow through muscle our consistency muscle where a lot of times when we try to stack multiple things It’s actually an indicator that you’re not consistent Because it’s really hard to do five seven things at a time for a long periods of time if it’s not a habit So that’s why like for me, that’s why I just started with water.

[00:12:42] Then in May, a big one was sugar, right? And that was if you guys been following us, we did a health challenge and I said, I’m not going to do any sugar. And, uh, I’m glad to report

[00:12:51] Marissa: you’re doing this. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:12:53] Ken: I’m almost there. It’ll almost be a year of like no added sugars. Right? So that’s a huge thing [00:13:00] this quarter.

[00:13:00] Now I’ve done dairy, right? And actually quarter two, I’m going to be similar to your work. Your quarter one is consistent workouts are like, that’s going to be my next thing. But guys, here’s why I mentioned all that is that when I narrowed the scope, what ended up happening is I started not thinking about short term, but long term.

[00:13:18] And my health has been way better in the long term because I’ve just been doing these slow things consistently over time.

[00:13:24] Marissa: Well, consistency always wins. And one of the things that I’ve really tried to kind of almost have as like a mantra is I’m playing the long game.

[00:13:35] Speaker 4: Yeah.

[00:13:35] Marissa: Like that week when I was sick and I couldn’t work out, it was really frustrating for me.

[00:13:40] I All I wanted to do was work out. I’ve, I had, you know, really developed the habit at that point of working out. So I, you know, at that point was looking forward every single day to my workout and to get knocked off for an entire week really sucked. Like it just, it was. Really discouraging. And I had to remind myself I’m playing the [00:14:00] long game.

[00:14:00] And then the week after when I was trying to get back into it, I was still not a hundred percent there physically. And so I was having to go lighter on what dumbbells I was using the normal, or I was having to modify things that typically I wouldn’t really have to modify. And that’s hard, you know, especially if you’re like us, where you’re kind of that all or nothing personality is like, I wanted to go hard.

[00:14:20] I wanted to go back into it. I was like, no. We’re looking for consistency here. We’re playing the long game. That’s the goal. So just a couple more examples here that you may need to kind of narrow scope is instead of a super complicated workout schedule, maybe you just want to narrow to three strength workouts a week.

[00:14:40] Like if you just can get consistent in that, then you can add in another day as you get consistent. Instead of rolling out multiple offerings in your business, you just focus in on one product. This is something we’ve really tried to do here at Full Focus is get really disciplined of what we’re focusing on.

[00:14:58] I know it’s our name, Full Focus, [00:15:00] but we really are practicing that name in our everyday lives. And then lastly, instead of, you know, an entire weekly schedule for your family, you focus on your shared morning routines. So those are some examples of how you could narrow the scope. of your goals.

[00:15:17] Ken: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:15:18] Which once you start doing that, it gives you a sense of relief and now you have energy because you’re focused and that’s how you start to accomplish your goals. Which leads to our last one, that fourth element that you may need to revise is the strategy. We’ve alluded to this throughout this conversation, but it’s okay for you to sometimes recognize that this thing that you’re working on, It’s not a part of your goal anymore, right?

[00:15:44] So you got to shift it and it’s okay. We talked about it in workout, right? Like you may say, hey, it’s not the weight loss, but it’s the consistency. That’s okay. That’s all strategy that we need to switch. But what we need to do here is that we need to be honest with ourselves that the [00:16:00] strategy you’re using is not working.

[00:16:03] Most of the times what I have found, Marissa, is that people are trying to just add on to the strategy, not remove the strategy.

[00:16:10] Speaker 4: And here we

[00:16:10] Ken: just got to replace it. We got to switch it completely. So for those of you who are listening, if this is the element that you need to revise, right? You want to keep the finish line exactly where it is, but we just need to shift how you’re going to get there.

[00:16:23] So the most important thing to get is for you to give yourself permission. If what you’re doing isn’t working, use that data to find a new route, a new routine, a new strategy. You may need a new partner. You may need a new coach. You may need a new, um, you know, physical therapist or fitness trainer, whatever it is, make sure that you pivot on your strategy.

[00:16:43] Marissa: Well, and I think this is really important because it’s easy for us to get tied to or committed to a specific strategy that we think for some reason is best. Maybe it worked for somebody else or somebody told us this was the best way, you know, the best strategy for us to accomplish the goal. [00:17:00] And my encouragement to you guys is don’t be committed to the strategy, be committed to the goal because the truth is it doesn’t really matter how you get there, right?

[00:17:09] There’s what they say. Hunter ways to skin a cat, which is so weird. I don’t know why I’m like, what, but maybe there are, I don’t know. It was

[00:17:18] Ken: people from the South. But

[00:17:20] Marissa: the point is there’s multiple different ways that you can go about accomplishing whatever the goal is that you’re struggling to accomplish.

[00:17:28] You just happen to be locked into one specific strategy. And if it isn’t working, the beauty is. You can just change that strategy. You don’t have to keep doing the thing that isn’t working. You can shift it while remaining committed to the outcome you’re trying to accomplish with that goal. Okay. So we do this often at full focus.

[00:17:47] This is so true in our marketing. You know, it’s like we have, let’s say a revenue goal that we’re trying to accomplish. And we’ve got a strategy that often I’m the one who’s creating the strategy for us to [00:18:00] accomplish that revenue goal. And guess what guys, sometimes it doesn’t work and we might be halfway into trying to accomplish that goal and realizing, man, this strategy just isn’t cutting it.

[00:18:11] It’s not producing the results that we’re looking for. So we have to go back to the drawing board. I think one of the best ways that we can do this is bringing other people in to help us think about strategy. It’s so rare to me that I find somebody. Who is intelligent enough, who is self aware enough, who has enough perspective to be able to do this for themselves.

[00:18:35] And if you are amazing, that’s incredible, but often you have to bring other people in to figure out a new strategy. That’s normal. That’s okay. This can be a trusted friend, a spouse, a colleague. We do this often as a team where if one strategy isn’t working, I’ll bring in the team and like, Hey guys, we got to have a brainstorming session.

[00:18:53] We got to figure out how to pivot together. And the beauty is. Those people on my team, they have a different vantage [00:19:00] point than I have. So they’re seeing things that I can’t see. And so they have Intel that I don’t have. And because we’re all working together, we’re able to be better together. So, especially on your work related goals, invite your team into this brainstorm together, strategize together, you know, because then you’re going to be able to actually win together.

[00:19:21] You know, if it’s a personal goal, you may need accountability partner to help you out with this. A coach, oh my gosh, a coach can offer so much help for thinking through strategy in a different way than you maybe have in the past. You know, if you’re behind on your goal, you’re going into Q2, you’re excited.

[00:19:40] Maybe you haven’t made as much progress on a goal, or you’re looking ahead at your goals for Q2 and going, Yeah, I’m not really sure about this. You might need a shift course, right? And there’s four elements that you can consider as you revise your goal. So those four elements are the timeline of your goal.

[00:19:58] The metric you’re using [00:20:00] to measure the success of your goal, the scope of your goal, and then lastly, the strategy that you’re using to reach your goal.

[00:20:09] Ken: Now, as you are thinking about all four of those elements, this week, what we want you to focus on is pick one goal you want to revise and do it. Find some time in your schedule to actually go through these four elements and revise the goal and give your permission.

[00:20:23] It’s completely okay to do that.

[00:20:26] Speaker 4: Yes.

[00:20:26] Ken: Because once you do that, it’s going to be so amazing. You’re just going to feel relief and excited once again. You always want to be in a place of abundance, not scarcity where you’re like, Oh, I’m too overwhelmed. I can’t achieve this. No, no, no. How do we get you to a mindset of, I know I can achieve this.

[00:20:41] It’s going to be hard. I’m going to become a different person. By doing this, but I love it and I’m excited for it.

[00:20:47] Marissa: Yeah, and this is the perfect time of year to do this. We’re right at the end of the quarter. Tomorrow starts a new quarter. We get a fresh start. We get to hit that reset button so you don’t have to just stay true to these [00:21:00] goals that you’ve set at one point in time that may or may not be working for you.

[00:21:04] You get the opportunity to revise those. Moving forward.

[00:21:12] Thanks guys so much for joining us this week on Focus on This.

[00:21:15] Ken: This is the most productive podcast on the internet. So please share it with your friends. And can you do us a favor and leave us a review on whichever podcast platform you’re using? And make sure while you’re leaving that review, you say why Marissa is cooler than Ken.

[00:21:31] Marissa: Hey, I like this. Yes.

[00:21:33] Ken: But you do that because we want to make sure we are always encouraging, we are always uplifting one another, and we want the feedback to help you guys still grow and make Mondays the most productive as possible.

[00:21:44] Marissa: Absolutely. Well, we will be here next week with another great episode.

[00:21:48] Ken: Until then, stay [00:22:00] focused.