To Find Success, Forget Your Priorities

I love me a good productivity hack, and when I stumbled upon the Beyond the To-Do List Podcast, I knew I'd found something I'd like. I've listened to dozens of episodes, and have learned great things from folks of all walks of life about organizing time, setting a morning routine (see my free ebook on the topic), and committing oneself to goal-setting.

Recently, the man behind the podcast, Erik Fisher, came out with a book on that very topic. Beyond the To-Do List: Goals is the first in a series exploring issues of productivity in personal and professional life. After I read it, I asked Erik to weigh in on some of the ways we can make goal-setting easier in our daily lives. He came back with a rather bold statement – going so far as to say that we actually need to ditch our priorities as we know them in order to really set successful goals.

Here's what he said...

Forget Priorities and Find Your Success

We all have priorities in life, or at least we say we do. We can point to the usual categories — faith, family, career, marriage, finances, and hobbies — but just having priorities is not enough. If you want to achieve more than simply accepting whatever life hands you, vague priorities need to be replaced with intentional goals.

How do you achieve these goals? By taking specific action steps.

Yes, this sounds a like a lot of hard work. That’s because it is. Nothing good comes easy, and everything takes time. The great news is you can do it!

Here are three simple steps to break down your priorities into goals:

1. Define your success. Let’s say you have a "priority" of family. Fine. But what relationships make up that family, and how would you define what success means for those relationships? More specifically, if you are married, what would having a “successful” marriage look like? What characteristics would it have? Think about it and write down your thoughts.
2. Make an action plan. Go over what you’ve written down and be honest about what actions must take place for this success to happen. Continuing with the example of marriage, if success is defined as having clear communication, quality time, and deeper intimacy, you need to choose actions that foster the growth of those attributes. In this case, scheduled date nights, family business meetings, and other ideas specific to your marriage will make this success a reality. Be sure to communicate clearly with those who will be helping you make these changes. It is really important to have support from others. You can’t just change an important area of your life overnight.
3. Put it on the calendar and do it. Jerry Seinfeld became a better joke writer by writing every day. To maintain discipline he used a wall calendar which has the whole year on one page and hung it on a prominent wall. After he did his work, he used a big red magic marker to mark each day he’d done his task.

After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.” Jerry Seinfeld

You will find success by doing one thing intentionally each day. Don’t fall into the trap of assuming priorities are enough. Focus on one specific thing and take intentional steps to grow. Don’t worry about what others say or do — you must decide to concentrate which specific area matters most to you.

Are you ready to turn vague priorities into specific goals? If so, what areas matter most to you? Is that an easy question or a hard one?

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About Erik: Erik Fisher is the host of the Beyond The To-Do List podcast and co-author of a new book available here about how to make and meet the goals that matter in simple, step-by-step method. Erik is also a husband, dad, and lover of all things Bacon.

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For more from Claire, read her free ebook on developing a morning routine, check out her blog, follow her on LinkedIn, or find her on the Twitters via @claire.

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