If we didn't fail, we wouldn't gain the information we need to succeed. Overcoming fear of failure requires a modification in your mindset on how you look at failure. We've been trained in society to look at failure as a negative, when it is rather a positive. You will never uncover information required to succeed, if you're not willing to put Every goal we set requires testing to occur. Often we shy away from this part of the process because we fear failure. Putting those fears aside, testing to find the fail points provide valuable lessons on how to improve.
Unless you're willing to test what might not work, you'll never know if it will.
At the end of every quarter, I evaluate my progress and set up new goals for the upcoming quarter. This is the process I use in my STEPS to Success program. I have yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily goals. Goal setting is about taking a large goal and breaking it down in to smaller daily actions. Then tracking those daily actions to ensure you are on track to achieving your goals.
The benefits:
- Establishes self-discipline.
- Helps you avoid procrastination.
- Holds you accountable for your success and failures.
We all have our good days and our bad days. When you are tracking your actions, you'll start to notice a pattern. Once you learn a pattern for your bad days, you can then set a goal to help you have fewer. At the end of every day, as you are tracking your actions, celebrate what was achieved. This is an important part of training your mindset to think positively instead of being critical.
One of the biggest problems with setting a goal, is we don't spend enough time analyzing our daily actions which will determine if we will meet our goal. It's easy to make up one small action, it gets harder to make up a dozen.
The focus needs to be on taking one step forward. Cross that action off your list and then focus on taking another step forward. Establishing a goal timeframe is also important. It helps to build self-discipline. Regardless of what has been accomplished, having a set deadline will allow you to evaluate what went right and where you need to improve, to meet your next goal's deadline.
Using natural deadlines can makes things easier, but shouldn't hold you back. If you need to start a goal mid-month, start it. Adjust your deadline accordingly. Sprint at the beginning and end, and be a long-distance runner through the middle to maintain your momentum. About a week before your deadline ends, evaluate your progress.
If it looks like you're not going to reach your goal, then use the last few days to set up the next goal. If you go back to the first tweet, you'll see the changes I made in my profile to set up for next quarters goals.
These changes were made because I had three months of analytics I could study. I studied my actions as well as the results of my actions. I then modified next quarters goals based on my findings. So what did I modify?
- I added to my name.
- I added emoji's to stimulate visual interest.
- I created a new banner to highlight my books.
- I placed my top tweet in the banner.
- I took out notification and tip call to actions.
- I added hashtags for retweet clarification.
Now comes the testing. I have to maintain the actions of last quarter, to see if these changes will help to improve in the areas I'm looking to improve. Next I had to analyze what was holding me back.
As an author, my writing is either introduced by my reader or I have to introduce my writing manually. There are several action I do.
- I created three hashtags I use to help promote my followers content.
- I strive to daily go through and curate the best tweets from my followers and use these hashtags, along with my thoughts in a quote retweet. It's a win/win for both of us.
- I analyze who is enjoying my content. Those who have chosen not to follow me back, have shown me they are not interested in my writing and aren't my target audience. I will then unfollow them.
Because I strive to show appreciation to those who have connected with, I don't hesitate to unfollow. I am not offended when someone decides to unfollow me, if I have chosen not to follow back.
Unfortunately, notifications don't always show up. So it's important to daily manually go in and look for initiated follows and vet them. I'm confident that there are those who I have unfollowed who never received my initiated follow request.
Unfortunately, they hold me back from introducing myself to others to see if my writing is something they'll enjoy and engage. To not be held back, I have to unfollow those who aren't interested in my writing. These are tips of what I do at the end of every month and quarter.
Using the STEPS to Success program I created over the last ten years, helps me keep track of my progress. The e-book can be used as a writing prompt for your journal. The Journal or Toolbox can be your goal journal workbook.