Focus On This Podcast

173. Start with Simple: Building Goal Momentum

Audio

Overview

Happy New Year! It’s 2023 and it’s time to make sure that you’ve set yourself up for success. Every year, in order to start off on the right foot, it’s important to take a step back and plan your year with some very simple actions that will build up speed and propel you all the way until December 31 with a list of completed goals.

Courtney and Blake talk you through three questions that you can ask yourself to give yourself some quick wins at the start of the year. They also talk through how Blake can use these questions to start his stand-up comedy career. Also, Courtney speaks with Full Focus Certified Pro, Nicole Santamaria, about using the Full Focus System with kids and teachers.

In this episode, you will:

  • Learn how to ask yourself the questions that will get you moving towards your goals
  • See how to apply these questions in a real world situation
  • Hear how to introduce elements of the Full Focus System to kids

To find out more about Nicole, visit her website: https://Nicolesantamaria.com

Watch this episode on YouTube! https://youtu.be/zsZJjrYuNa0 

If you want to join a community of people who have brand new goals and are looking to achieve them, then it’s time to join the Full Focus Community on Facebook! There’s nothing to lose and a wonderful community to gain. https://www.facebook.com/groups/ffpthinktank

For more podcast, visit www.focusonthispodcast.com

Episode Transcript

Courtney Baker:
Happy New Year. We’re here. 2023. It’s hard to believe and many of you are sitting there. You have got your goals done or maybe you’re joining us on January 6th for your best year ever alive. Can’t wait, by the way. Congratulations. Either way, this is a big deal.

Blake Stratton:
You’ve made it. It’s time to step into goat status this year, people. It’s the Jordan year. It’s ’23. You got to do it. Step up your game.

Courtney Baker:
That’s so true.

Blake Stratton:
If you’re at work and you’re about to close a big deal, go ahead and stick your tongue out a little bit, Jordan style. That’s fine. People won’t look at you weird. You can just be like, “It’s ’23. It’s all about ’23.” At least that’s what my plan is. We’ll see how that goes. I’ll keep you guys posted.

Courtney Baker:
Well, if you’re not the Michael Jordan of goals or you’re not Michael Jordan, you may be sitting there thinking about your goals and wondering, “How in the world am I actually going to do this?” And what we would say is “Just do it.” No, I’m just kidding.

Blake Stratton:
Nice. There you go. Way to bring it back. I also like that you said, “And if you’re not Michael Jordan,” because you know that MJ listens to this podcast. He’s got to.

Courtney Baker:
Of course he does.

Blake Stratton:
Right?

Courtney Baker:
Oh, of course he does.

Blake Stratton:
He’s got goals. And so if you are listening, MJ, I promise I’ll start returning your calls. It’s just been a busy season for me this year and I’ve got a lot of goals that I’m aspiring to. But finish your thought, Courtney.

Courtney Baker:
Yeah. So you may get a little overwhelmed or you may even feel discouraged out of the gate. And the solution to that is really to focus on two to three goals per quarter. And I actually find this difficult. Once I’ve decided what my goals are, it’s like I want them all now. I’m very impatient in that way. I get excited and I want them all to be true immediately. But obviously, we talk about this on the podcast all the time, that is a recipe for goal failure when we try to go after that many goals all at the same time.

Blake Stratton:
Yeah. Another important thing is to identify very simple concrete next steps you can do this week, even what you can do today. So the key here is to set the bar really, really low. It’s a bit of a counterintuitive experience. Because if you listen to this podcast for very long, you know we like to challenge you to set big, set risky goals and overcome limiting beliefs and think bigger and imagine what you could do this year and get all excited. If you come to best year ever live, you’re going to feel so much energy about what’s possible. And we’re going big. And then right away, the very next step is to go small, to go very small. Because believe it or not, starting simple, starting small is critical, especially in the beginning. Because building momentum is easier when you start small and it’s key to actually sustaining progress in the long-term so you can actually reach those big goals.

Courtney Baker:
So today we’re going to be giving you three questions to consider to just make your next steps so easy.

Blake Stratton:
Welcome to another episode of Focus On This, the most productive podcast on the internet so you can banish distractions, get the right stuff done and finally start loving Mondays.
I’m Blake Stratton. I’m here with Courtney Baker. Verbs is not here today, but don’t hit that unsubscribe button just yet, ladies and gentlemen. I promise we’re here to help you even though, admittedly, certainly, we miss Verbs.

Courtney Baker:
We always miss Verbs when he’s not here.

Blake Stratton:
Yeah. He’ll be back.

Courtney Baker:
Did you say happy Monday to me?

Blake Stratton:
Oh my goodness, I didn’t. You see, this is what happens. This is the exact thing that happens.

Courtney Baker:
I know. It all falls apart.

Blake Stratton:
I’m used to Verbs being here. He says, happy Monday to me. And I say, “Happy Monday to you, sir.” Right? And I missed that rhythm. So-

Courtney Baker:
Yes.

Blake Stratton:
Okay. Happy Monday, Courtney. How are you?

Courtney Baker:
Happy Monday. It’s good to be with you. Today we’re going to be talking about some questions for you to think about to help you get started on your goals. And again, we are setting this bar so low you can trip over it.
So Blake, you want to jump us off with the first question?

Blake Stratton:
The first question you should ask, “What could I schedule?” “What could I schedule?” So you’re looking at your goal. Take one goal at a time and ask yourself, “Is there an appointment that would help me move this forward?” Maybe you could schedule your alarm. If your goal is a habit goal of getting out and exercising earlier in the day, maybe it’s scheduling that alarm to be repeated every weekday. Or maybe you need to put a reminder in your phone. Maybe that’s going to be a trigger for you to take action on a certain goal or have a goal or otherwise. Ask yourself, “What could I schedule?” Because scheduling doesn’t take a ton of energy, but boy, it is powerful because, as you’ve heard us say many times, what gets scheduled gets done.

Courtney Baker:
And I gave you question number one because I wanted question number two because it’s my favorite. Question number two is, “What could I purchase?” So maybe you purchase an app subscription to facilitate the meditation that you’re going to be doing. Maybe you’re purchasing new running shoes or a new workout outfit. Always. That’s me. Yes. Sign me up for that one.

Blake Stratton:
Courtney, maybe you purchase something for your friend Blake, just to say, “Hey, you can do it, buddy.” Maybe that’s what you do.

Courtney Baker:
Mm-hmm. Something with 23 on it that might also be a pair of shoes.

Blake Stratton:
Yeah. Maybe a vintage. Yeah, a pair of Jordan’s. That’d be great.

Courtney Baker:
Mm-hmm. Maybe you need to purchase an alternative that helps you break an old habit by replacing it with a new one.

Blake Stratton:
So for instance, if you’ve got a goal around your diet, let’s say, maybe you go ahead and make an order to that meal subscription-

Courtney Baker:
Yes.

Blake Stratton:
… Meal in a Box service or something like that or you make the order for something. I know we do the butcher box thing. Something like that. Or I’m trying to think. Another habit you might want to break, you want to purchase an alternative. Maybe you purchase a standing desk. You’re trying to improve your posture or something like that.

Courtney Baker:
That’s a good one.

Blake Stratton:
Purchase [inaudible 00:07:05]

Courtney Baker:
Or what about a dumb phone?

Blake Stratton:
A dumb phone? An Android?

Courtney Baker:
[inaudible 00:07:11] dumb phone.

Nick Jaworski:
Oh.

Blake Stratton:
I know. I came out with violence. Sorry, everybody listening,

Courtney Baker:
Listen, we love all of our Android listeners.

Blake Stratton:
Yeah, we do.

Courtney Baker:
We just don’t like your phone.

Blake Stratton:
So what could I purchase is the second question? Question, the third, “What could I research?” “What could I research?” Again, we’re setting the bar low here. We’re not trying to go out and run the marathon tomorrow. What could you research? Maybe you need to meet with someone who’s further along than you. You could ask yourself, “Who in my friend group or in my network has already achieved this goal?” And maybe it’s reaching out to them and setting up a coffee hang or something like that or phone call. Or maybe you’re trying to research, just Googling this goal and going, “Okay, what are the things I ought to know? What could make this easier, better, faster?” Maybe there’s blogs you want to take a look or podcasts or audiobooks you want to get related to this topic. Do a little bit of research.
It’s not taking a huge stride, but as Courtney said, that step not only will help you take action faster, or I should say once you take the action, I’ll take action a little bit smarter, which will be faster. But I think researching does something internally that helps us with our goals, which is it starts to shift our paradigms, our internal thinking. When we’re pursuing something new, the biggest thing that’s got to change is how we’re thinking. And doing a little bit of research, filling your mind with information and helpful information, especially about this topic or about your goal is going to help you move with greater speed and greater effectiveness towards your goal.
Okay Courtney, so let’s help me with this. Okay. So this year I’m trying to have a little bit more fun, have some goals that aren’t just about career advancement or that sort of thing. But one of the goals that’s sort of been on the back burner is a fun thing for me for a long time has been to develop a short five-minute set of standup comedy. I’ve always wanted to try it. I thought it would be fun. I love standup comedy and I’m sure I would just bomb terribly at some hilarious open mic. But I want to try it at some point. So why not try it now? Help me. How could I apply these questions to that goal?

Courtney Baker:
Okay. So what could you schedule? First of all, I love this goal because you have a new baby in the house. So when you’re up at night doing nothing but rocking a baby, you can be working on this.

Blake Stratton:
Oh yeah. It’ll all be like, “What’s the deal with baby poop?”

Nick Jaworski:
Or you could have a whole set specifically towards babies. Like, “What’s the deal when you can’t find your pacifier” or whatever it is? Just specific.

Courtney Baker:
Just for babies. A standup comedy show for babies.

Blake Stratton:
I’m doing it for babies and they decide I put them all to sleep. It’s great.

Courtney Baker:
That’s amazing. Okay. So what could you schedule?

Blake Stratton:
I’ve thought about wouldn’t it be fun to do this for a long, long time. And of course I don’t really talk about it because it’s kind of embarrassing. Like, “Oh woo, Mr. Funnyman, you want to try-” whatever. I don’t know. It’s vulnerable.

Courtney Baker:
Okay.

Blake Stratton:
But-

Courtney Baker:
First of all, hold on, time out. Time out. Because you just went into limiting belief thoughts, story that you’re telling yourself about-

Blake Stratton:
No, I didn’t, Courtney.

Courtney Baker:
… what people are saying-

Blake Stratton:
I never struggle with limiting beliefs. No.

Courtney Baker:
You did and I know you need to journal about that and think through that and do your own work. But you are funny. And so when you need to just note, Courtney always laughs at your jokes when you’re trying to turn it into a liberating story.

Blake Stratton:
There we go.

Courtney Baker:
Okay? That is true.

Blake Stratton:
So, I should schedule a time for Courtney to just come and just laugh at whatever I say. That’ll be a-

Courtney Baker:
Exactly.

Blake Stratton:
But probably the thing I need to schedule is it’s always a fun idea. But when do you actually write? Back when I was in my music days, I did a lot of songwriting and I would make a ton of time to practice and do it. I’ve never really tried to write a joke. I’ve always just kind of riff. If I’ve been speaking on stage for something else, I can riff on jokes or whatever. But I guess to schedule time to actually try to write a joke would maybe be a good-

Courtney Baker:
That’s a good idea.

Blake Stratton:
… thing I should schedule.

Courtney Baker:
I like that. Can I give you another idea?

Blake Stratton:
Yeah.

Courtney Baker:
What about scheduling a coffee with someone that has done this before?

Blake Stratton:
I could do that. I have a couple of friends actually who are talented-

Courtney Baker:
Nate.

Blake Stratton:
… standup comedians.

Courtney Baker:
[inaudible 00:12:19], of course here and-

Blake Stratton:
Oh me and Nate aren’t brothers, but maybe we should be. We got some mutual friends. No. There’s this guy, he’s been around the game. His name’s Jerry. He had a little TV show that some of you may have heard of before. But he’s just… I’ll give him a call.
Okay. What could I purchase? What could I purchase?

Courtney Baker:
What could you purchase? I have an idea on this. You could purchase the outfit that you’re going to wear when you do your open mic, your first open mic.

Blake Stratton:
Okay.

Courtney Baker:
And you can’t wear it until that night.

Blake Stratton:
Okay. Purchase an outfit. That’s great. That’s great. I’ve been meaning to purchase an outfit. It’s been three years since I’ve purchased any actual clothes.
So I think, the pandemic was so great for my personality type because it’s like as long as I have half of a shirt, I’m fine. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I’ll purchase some clothes. And then what should I research?

Courtney Baker:
Okay. One, you could research groups that you could be a part of that are also writing standup. I know there are lessons that you can go to. It may even be just an online course. I think there’s several things. You could research where you can actually do this initial standout.

Blake Stratton:
Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Courtney Baker:
And then you might need to go back to question one and get it scheduled and then you got to schedule inviting me and Nick and Verbs.

Blake Stratton:
No, this is making it all too real. I realize what we’ve done here to our listening audience. Now that we’ve done it, is that we’ve made it very real and it’s no longer a figment of my imagination, aspiration that I can make an excuse about. And I don’t like it.

Courtney Baker:
Actually, to double down on that, I have an idea.

Blake Stratton:
Okay.

Courtney Baker:
You don’t need to schedule any standup place to do the standup. You’re right, you have tens of thousands of people.

Blake Stratton:
No.

Courtney Baker:
Tens of thousands-

Blake Stratton:
No, I know where you’re going with this.

Courtney Baker:
… right here listening to this podcast-

Blake Stratton:
No, no, no. Oh my gosh.

Courtney Baker:
… would love to hear your first five-minute standup and-

Blake Stratton:
Oh my gosh, just-

Courtney Baker:
Oh my gosh. I can’t-

Blake Stratton:
… crushing the unsubscribe button at the very thought of that. They are. Okay.

Courtney Baker:
No, I love this.

Blake Stratton:
All right. Let’s wrap this up. Let’s wrap this up before we get too scary. So ask these three questions, “What could you schedule? What could you purchase? What could you research? And how in the world can you help Blake tell a joke?” Those are the three questions with a bonus for today.

Courtney Baker:
Hey guys, I am really excited today. I have Nicole Santamaria with us today and she is one of our Full Focus Planner certified pros. And frankly, when we heard about some of her experience using the Full Focus Planner, we were like, we got to have her on the show. And so without further ado, Nicole, welcome to Focus On This.

Nicole Santamaria:
Hi there. Thank you so much for having me. I’m such a fan and I’m happy that you guys chose me to be here. I can’t wait to chat with you guys.

Courtney Baker:
So Nicole, why don’t you tell everyone a little bit about your experience, kind of your background. What do you do and how have you started to use the Full Focus Planner to help you with some of those endeavors?

Nicole Santamaria:
Sure. So I am a pediatric occupational therapist for over 20 years. I’m based out of Miami. And I guess innately I always use parts of the Full Focus System before I even knew about the Full Focus System. A lot of times we see clients as I work with children, they come in and it’s always great to preview what’s going to happen and what’s expected. So the previewing has always been a part of the system.
Fast forward to where we are today a few years ago, and I’ve moved into more working with teenagers, college students and parents too. And incorporating what the Full Focus System has with a lot of what I work with in my clients has been very beneficial because it gives us such a great framework from which to pull so that I can stay true to my occupational therapy treatment plan, practice frame of reference. But have these tools that were probably not even intended to be used in with kids with ADD or executive functioning skills, but they are magical.
I can share that one of the things that the kids love, which goes hand in hand with, I know a lot of times when you’re introducing the system, you just say focus on the big three, well focusing on, it’s almost like a sigh of relief for a teenager college student or an adult trying to figure out planning that, hey, if you can just get through the three things that are important to you, you are doing great and it’s a natural win.

Courtney Baker:
This is such a great reminder, especially if you have someone in your life that you’re like, hey, I think this would be a really great tool for you, remind them you do not have to use every piece of the Full Focus Planner. It is a very robust tool. But even when we do the onboarding webinar, we teach people to start by just using the daily page. Just start doing your daily big three. So I think that’s such great advice for everybody.
So Nicole, I am curious because I feel like there’s probably so many people listening and, frankly, I’ve said this myself many times of unfortunately a lot of these skills we don’t learn in high school or college. There was no class that’s like, hey, this is how you organize your work. This is how you approach getting important things done. It’s kind of like we all have to learn that along the way. We’re just trying to pick them up. For many of the people listening to this podcast, we’re using the Full Focus System to help us. But what you’re kind of sharing is some ways that might be helpful for teenagers that people are working with or college students and maybe even people that are in their early career days trying to figure out how do I be successful and I’ve got too much to do, it’s hard for me to focus, what do I do here?

Nicole Santamaria:
Definitely I agree with all of that. Twofold, one of the things you mentioned is that we’re not taught this. So a lot of times in schools they embed, here I’m in Florida, all the kids get an agenda. The problem is that a lot of times that accountability piece and the follow through isn’t there. So, of course the kids that I work with are struggling with either attention or executive functioning skills. So they don’t get the accountability piece that actually they really… We all need this, but if you are struggling with executive functioning skills and attention, you, I don’t want to say need it more than anybody else, but you really need this as a tool. I mean it can really change your life to have these tools embedded in somebody that has executive functioning skills or attention skills.
The other piece I wanted to add onto is sometimes we don’t see the wheels falling off the bus because everything is structured. I mean, school is very structured, after school is structured, you have teachers, you have coaches, you have parents. But then when they leave to college and university, there’s so much free time in their schedule that if these skills aren’t really mastered and taught, there’s like that learning curve of oh they’ll figure it out, and a lot of kids do figure it out. But if you’re really struggling with these executive functioning skills and attention, you may or may not figure it out. So these tools getting taught and embedded from a younger age is super important.
I’ve even had parents say, yeah, use the big three for even your five-year-old when they’re cleaning the playroom, what are the three things that we’re going to pick up? So it doesn’t have to be a five-year-old planning their day, that doesn’t make any sense, but just so they can start like, okay, the three things, let’s do it, and they get a quick win. So I love the system and I love that I can take pieces of it as not to overwhelm. I feel like if I give a whole planner to somebody I’m working with, they’re already so overwhelmed that they’re not going to benefit from it and they’re just going to throw it at me.

Courtney Baker:
That’s a really interesting idea of even at a young age kind of using the system of how do you teach the skills of figuring out priority and figuring out, okay, what would be the most important three things in this room to get done? That’s a really great tip. I’m curious because I think we have a lot of educators that listen to the podcast and use the Full Focus Planner, I’m just thinking if I was a teacher listening to kind of what you just said about the agenda. What are some ways, or maybe even for parents that we can help kids kind of have that accountability piece? Is it just helping them at the beginning of the day? What would your advice be for how we can help with just that very first step of prioritizing our daily big three?

Nicole Santamaria:
So for parents and for teachers, I guess it depends how urgent it is. If you’re end of semester, you just got a progress report, we’ve got missing assignments left and right, then your focus is going to be a little bit different. And then, again, what are the three things that are going to help you move the needle? Is it in the way that you study? Is it in the way that you’re communicating with the teacher? And just trying to keep those three things something that’s very doable so that, just like for us, the minute the student starts seeing the wins the more they’re going to buy into this system of like, okay, it is beneficial for me to take a breath and move forward.
When I work with the parents and this is exactly what I do, I tell them if you’re in the middle of it then you have to focus on what’s urgent. But sometimes it’s great to do it in the summer, we’re going to summer camp. Because then there’s not that big emotional component that a lot of families and kids have. What do you need to go to summer camp? What do you need to go to grandma’s house? And just really including that in all different pieces of their life, not just in academics because our kids don’t function and grow and become awesome only in academics.

Courtney Baker:
That’s really helpful. I’m sure as somebody that, I feel like so many things, when you can’t teach children how to use something, most likely you are very good at teaching adults to use something. So I’m curious for the rest of us, maybe if any tips that you would give us or hacks or things that you think might be helpful for those of us that have started using the system.

Nicole Santamaria:
Well sure. Yeah, definitely working with kids gives you a different perspective. The kids haven’t, some of them haven’t, maybe they’re not so overwhelmed because their to-do list isn’t anything from paying the mortgage to getting your own kid to school on time. But a lot of times I feel that the adults are very overwhelmed by trying to be organized and trying to be focused because they’ve tried so many times. I guess my tip is really pick one of the pieces of the Full Focus System that’s going to get them the most wins.
So, I can tell you that in my household I live with a couple people that have really benefited, my family, from this system. And the one thing that made it click was the weekly preview because the weekly preview was enough to focus what was important on the week, but it didn’t put so much stress on all the details that were already difficult. So the big picture was great, so the weekly preview was definitely a win and easy for adults to incorporate into their life from my experience.

Courtney Baker:
That’s awesome. Well, it’s my favorite tool in the planner, so I’m never unhappy about people saying the weekly preview. I definitely think it is the magic in the planner. So Nicole, I think for people listening, obviously you’re a Full Focus Planner certified pro, and you know can find all of our certified pros in our directory at fullfocus.co/directory. Just make sure that you’re searching for earners. But we will also put all of your information on how to find you, Nicole, in the show notes. But Nicole, are you also in the Full Focus Planner community?

Nicole Santamaria:
I am. I am in the community, am in the certified pros community and happy to be there.

Courtney Baker:
Any last thoughts that you want to share with our audience? I just think this is such helpful information.

Nicole Santamaria:
I think, after hearing this if you’re like, oh wow, I think this is something that my child is struggling with, my teenager is struggling with. Sometimes you see it because you’ve had a history and sometimes you see it because you live with them and you know them well enough. Start with small steps and make sure that they’re going to get the wins. I say that across the board to all my families. We need to make things achievable for the kids and then we can build on it, and the same goes for this system. I mean, actually myself, I didn’t even incorporate the ideal week until just recently. I was like, what? And then when I finally got it, I was like, oh, this is magical.
So that’s my tip. Make sure what you want to help your kids with. You set it up and scale it back so that it’s winnable and then they’re going to build on their wins.

Courtney Baker:
Well, thank you so much for joining us. Again, I say this all the time, but when James Clear talks about productivity, his definition is thinking intentionally about the work that we do. Again, you don’t learn how to do that in school. It’s kind of sink or swim in that area. And usually some people swim earlier. But if we can help younger generations get these tools earlier, I mean, I can only imagine where they’ll be in their 30s and 40s and beyond having that tool set earlier on. So thank you so much Nicole, for joining us. It was a pleasure talking with you.

Nicole Santamaria:
Definitely. It was a pleasure to be here. Thanks so much for having me.

Courtney Baker:
Hey, it is not too late to join us for Best Year Ever Live on January 6th. We have a full day of goal setting. So come join us. Get your ticket at fullfocus.co/goalsetting. And if you can’t join us live, you can also just go through our goal setting course. It is not too late. No, is actually the perfect time to make sure that you get your goals set for 2023. And I hope to see you on January 6th at Best Year Ever Live.

Blake Stratton:
Thanks for joining us on Focus on This.

Courtney Baker:
This is the most productive podcast on the internet, so share it with your friends. And don’t forget to join us in the Full Focus Planner community on Facebook.
We’ll be back next Monday with another great episode. Until then, stay-

Blake Stratton:
Stay-

Courtney Baker:
… focused.

Blake Stratton:
… focused.