The Type A+ Podcast Episode 29 - Motivation Month: Achieving a Wildly Important Goal with The Four Disciplines of Execution
Episode Description:
BACK with a new intro, new cover art, and brand new original music by a friend of the show, Dan "Dilemma" Thomas. Beth shares her recent struggles to stay motivated, and her top takeaway from the book, The Four Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney and Sean Covey, which helps to focus on the steps needed to make big strides.
Have you read the book? We'd love to hear from you!
Links mentioned in the episode:
Podcast:
The Four Disciplines of Execution
The Type A Plus Podcast Instagram
Host:
Beth Lawrence & Company Instagram
Episode Transcript can be found below:
Welcome to the Type A+ podcast with me, Beth Lawrence.
I'm a certified meeting professional, an award-winning event planner, and a classic over-prepared overachiever.
In each episode, I'll deliver bite-sized tips on organizing your business and life, even during your most hectic times.
So, let's get started.
Motivation = the general desire or willingness of someone to do something.
For me, the more I have on my plate, the more I tend to get done. However, that can backfire at times and make me feel spread too thin. So often, Type A Overachievers, take things upon ourselves and cause ourselves stress. When we are in this state of stress or overwhelm, even though we have a ton to do, it can cause analysis paralysis. When there are so many things that need to get done, where do we begin?
A former mentor of mine always recommended the book The Four Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney and Sean Covey to her team and gifted me a copy many years ago. I like the book and will cover a bit of a synopsis while focusing on one main point.
In summary, the four disciplines of execution are:
Focus on the Wildly Important;
Act on Lead Measures;
Keep a Compelling Scoreboard;
Create a Cadence of Accountability
The one I'm going to focus on today is 'Focus on the Wildly Important.' A gigantic takeaway from this is to focus on ideally one, but a maximum of two, goals at a time. Think about how many different things you challenge yourself to do on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. How many different ways do we have to be accountable to get those done? Now, think about trying to whittle those down into one goal. What's one goal that, right now, is so wildly important that you cannot let it slip another moment?
As the authors of the book state, we have reached an age where focusing, deep work, and sustained concentration is increasingly impossible. Our lives are so fast-paced that we are constantly looking for ways to get more done in the same amount of time. To truly move the needle, and truly see results, we need to focus on just one Wildly Important Goal.
This can apply to personal goals and business goals, of course.
From the personal side, take as an example my wellness routine. It's extremely important to me, and I love doing yoga, dancing, running, walking, swimming... just moving every single day. Well, if I decided to enroll in a 200-hour yoga teacher training, it wouldn't also make sense to start the journey to becoming a certified personal trainer. How could I possibly give my all to both, and yield the best results?
In work, this has manifested for me recently where I have had a need to work 'on' my business rather than 'in' my business, and thus overpromised--mostly to myself--what I was capable of. The podcast, as you saw, fell by the wayside. I was trying to do proposals and onboard clients and confirm details, all while resetting my business branding and adding new music to the podcast. As a result, the podcast slowly, every day, lost priority. If I was honest with myself and chosen only that one goal, I would have seen that there was an opportunity for realigning the business goals with the actual reality of time.
If you are a leader of a team, consider your team’s current situation and identify any area where you could have the most significant impact by making a change. This is the area where you should instill your wildly important goal. This goal could be based on something that is broken within your team and needs to be fixed. Alternatively, it could be something brand new that could significantly improve your performance, such as a new product.
As with everything, there has to be a balance. We know that we are multifaceted people. There will be times when we have to juggle, but having the north star of one "Wildly Important Goal" helps us to stay focused on the long-term even when we have to take something else on.
I recommend picking up this book, it does help you rethink the way we work and consider alternative solutions.
That's the show for this week! Have you read The Four Disciplines of Execution? What did you think? I'd love to hear from you. Talk soon!
The Type A+ Podcast is written and produced by me, Beth Lawrence.
Our music is composed by Dan “Dilemma” Thomas.
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