Ever notice how one of your favorite socks disappears after you put it in the washer or dryer?
I’m not sure which machine is responsible, but after observing this phenomenon for decades, there’s got to be a “sock monster” hiding in the laundry room.
Socks are the only article of clothing the sock monster will consume. It’s not interested in shirts, shorts, slacks, underwear or towels. Just socks, albeit only one at a time.
Within a year, if you had three pairs of socks to begin with, you’re down to one solo sock. One by one, the socks disappear until you need to get another three-pack.
Now you might think this has nothing to do with goals, or success or achievement, but it most certainly does.
Your mind doesn’t outwardly object when you give it a bunch of goals to accomplish, but inwardly it does. Similar to the the washer and dryer, if we unwittingly jam our success mechanism with too many goals, there is a strong tendency that one by one, we lose sight of them. Just as is true with our socks, if we lose sight of them we are no longer in touch with them.
But what would happen if you washed your socks one pair at a time? What are the chances that the evil sock monster would dare consume any of them?
Similarly, if you focused on one goal at a time, and you broke it into bite-sized chunks, what are the chances that you’d lose focus on it?
The answer to these questions is “almost zero.”
Yet, as a high-performance coach, it’s amazing how many people jam their internal computer by visualizing a bunch of goals in one session, then wondering where all of them went.
Sure, you can set a number of goals – but shine the laser beam on one at a time rather than all of them.
Make your success process as easy as possible. Make it easy for you to win and difficult to lose.
Focus on one short-term goal at a time and at the end of a year you’ll have a drawer-full of accomplishments; successes you can stuff in one of those socks that could have gotten away.
Matt Furey
P.S. Looking for someone to coach you UP in 2022, then click here.
