(these are auto generated, so may be 80% accurate)

[00:00:00] Chris Furlong: Yo, yo yo, welcome back to the further your lifestyle podcast, conversations on lifestyle passions and hustles. My name's Chris Furlong. I am your host and I'm super excited to be back here, having the conversation with you now today, episode 59 and each week, I am more and more grateful of just actually reflecting on how.

[00:00:19] Chris Furlong: Podcasts is progressing. And just being able to see the small progress over each week, each day, even eight to think, now that I've been doing this for longer than a year, actually it's, I can't believe we're almost, we're almost halfway into 2022, but that aside, you know, really what I want to focus on today and it's going to be short and sweet because.

[00:00:40] Chris Furlong: Uh, as I mentioned, I'm very, very grateful of the progress that I'm having building out these podcasts. Of course, there's always that challenge of, we want more, we want to be growing quick or we want to be somewhere else, but at the same time, we need to be making sure we're taking the time to reflect and see that progress to date.

[00:00:56] Chris Furlong: And I have talked about this quite a lot, and I want to continue to talk about it because it's super important. Today, I want to talk about the reality of making progress and taking action and really just taking you through some simple steps that I believe is super important for you to understand and is going to help you progress that little bit easier.

[00:01:15] Chris Furlong: Now, before we dive into it, there is a couple of things that I kind of just wanted to just take a moment to remind you about, and that's why this episode is short and sweet. It's more of a, kind of a check-in. And just to say that. I want to tell you some things. And that is that, that today, this is a reminder that you have what it takes that, you know, you have the ability to make the change and to build what you want at the same time.

[00:01:40] Chris Furlong: You know, some of these things can be a little cliche. They can be a little, ah, yeah, a little fluffy or, you know, people say these things. It really all does start with you and taking some daily steps in some small inconsistent steps. That's all it takes, right? And the rest comes with the momentum. The rest comes with a snowball effect.

[00:01:59] Chris Furlong: The rest comes with that tipping point of once you get to that point where you've done enough, that things start to just take action. Things, start to just take momentum and things start to move in the right direction. I really just wanted to be able to have this conversation with you really, just to, you know, maybe it's to give you that boost, maybe it's to say, Hey, things are going to be okay.

[00:02:20] Chris Furlong: Or maybe it's just to maybe give you that encouragement. Some extra boost. But this is what's been on my mind and really what's been, I've been encouraged by this week. So I feel like I need, I need to share it with you guys as well. So the three-step process to make things happen, the three-step process to really progress and the three-step process, which it really is simple.

[00:02:40] Chris Furlong: But if you. You can actually get to where you want to be. And that might come over a short period of time, a long period of time. It will differ depending on what those goals are that you're pursuing. But this is what that three-step process is. Number one, identify with conviction, what you want now, what I mean by this is get it out there and own it and live to it.

[00:03:03] Chris Furlong: Right. And, and, you know, this might be. And I'm going to talk about the things that I'm doing, because that's what you know, is relevant to me. You know, setting ambitious goals and, you know, tracking to it and I've made it open. I'm very transparent with my goals around my reselling business, around this podcast, around my running and things that I want to achieve this year.

[00:03:23] Chris Furlong: I'm transparent about it because it helps keep me accountable. And that's the conviction that I can put out there. This is what I'm doing, and this is how I'm going to get there. Now, along the way, things might not work out now for my reselling. I have a goal to hit $60,000 in profit. Over 2022 in my running.

[00:03:41] Chris Furlong: I'm doing another 50 K I want to do 2,500 kilometers in total distance. I want to do two half marathons on average each month for 2022. Now, when it comes to this podcast, I set the ambitious goal to grow to 10,000 downloads. Now I'm about to hit 1000 for this year, or basically I've already passed 2,500 at the time of this episode, but the momentum, the snowballing is starting to happen.

[00:04:06] Chris Furlong: But that aside, what I'm trying to say is. If you have something that you want, whether it's a big goal, a small goal. If it's going to take a lot of work or it's going to take a little amount of work, you need to identify this. We've convinced. And make sure you know it and own it. Right. And I'm repeating myself simply because once you understand that the ability of actually putting things out there and wanting them to be part of your life, and this is where the step number two comes really important.

[00:04:34] Chris Furlong: Because if you want these things, you need to understand what is it actually going to take? And that's number two, which is break it down into progressional milestones. Be it daily, be it weekly, be it monthly. But understand what is required. Like, you know, we set these goals, we set these ambitions, we set these things that we want yet.

[00:04:54] Chris Furlong: Sometimes we don't even know what we're signing up for. We don't even know what we're committing to. People say, I want to lose weight this year. You know, I want to, you get the six pack or I want to lose 20 kilos. But then they realize that that means they're getting up at a certain time to hit the gym and they have to do 40 minute.

[00:05:08] Chris Furlong: Blood, sweat and tears because that's the only time they can do it in their daily routine. All they have to go for a run after hours because that's the time they've only got time to do the run and it's in the dark. They're not motivated. It's cold. Or, you know, people are wanting to build a side, hustle, start a business, and they realize that they have to do this.

[00:05:26] Chris Furlong: There's all these different things that they have to jump through to get it set up and get it operating and get it happening. They might have to learn. They might have to educate. You want to start a YouTube channel while you're going to have to learn how to film, you're going to have to get comfortable in front of the camera.

[00:05:39] Chris Furlong: What I'm trying to say is we settle these ambitions. We settle these goals and that's, it's important to have that conviction and understand what it is. And then this next layer, as I've just said, in breaking it down with what those milestones look like, what's the effort going to take. That's when reality sinks in, right?

[00:05:56] Chris Furlong: And we start to realize this is actually going to be a lot of hard work, but when you do break it down, And some of it might be, if you do want to hit a certain goal, maybe it means you need to do five pushups a day, or you need to do seven kilometers a day, or you need to be selling $160 worth of profit per day, whatever it may be.

[00:06:13] Chris Furlong: I'm just using some examples relevant to myself. But when you understand that you can start. Is this possible. Now here, you need to be super careful because it's not about, it's not, it's not about thinking that it's not possible and then making your goal easier to achieve, but it's actually being realistic actually thinking, can this be something that with momentum.

[00:06:33] Chris Furlong: With effort and with conviction and time and effort that I'm willing to commit to. Is this something that I can make happen and work towards? And you know, the beauty about goals is it's not about that. You have to be perfect in achieving them. It's about progressing towards them, enabling yourself to grow, right.

[00:06:50] Chris Furlong: And by breaking it down into. Manageable chunks or I guess digestible chunks. It just takes the load off a bit, you know, by taking that conviction, breaking it down, you start to say, Hey, this, this is possible. I can do this. And you start to realize, are you actually passionate about this? Are you really wanting this?

[00:07:07] Chris Furlong: Or was it just this, you know, fancy idea, some excitement at the start of the year or what you're seeing others doing. And you're thinking I could do this too. And it leads me to my third point. You've got the conviction. You've got the understanding of what it's going to take. You see the progressional milestones that's required.

[00:07:25] Chris Furlong: So number three is action. You need to do it and you need to show up. And whether you feel it or not, this is when you need to do the work. You know, you've, you've put it out there that this is what you want. You've you've actually seen the roadmap to make that happen. Now you need to do the gap. Now you actually need to do it right.

[00:07:43] Chris Furlong: You need to show up. And I think the key thing here is it's not necessarily about. Focusing so much on the action do, do, do, and go, go, go. But actually the action of showing up, putting yourself in the position to actually make it happen. And a good example of this is running. Sometimes we feel tired sometimes.

[00:08:01] Chris Furlong: It's just, you don't feel like going for a run, but getting out there, giving it a shot one day. You're going to have a really, really good day. And if you're a Rene, it's going to feel great. You don't feel any heaviness. You, you don't feel any niggles or anything. You just run it. And it feels like a breeze and you get to run as high.

[00:08:18] Chris Furlong: Some days you're going to have really big sales days. Some days you're going to have things that just work some days you're going to push through the coding that you're doing. Some days that you're going to be able to achieve more with clients. Some days things are just going to work better. Right. And that's, that's the flow of it.

[00:08:34] Chris Furlong: But when that happens, you need to ride it. You need to make the most of that. You need to see that those come in waves because there's going to be low points and you still need to be willing to show up in those low points. And the sooner you understand about these low points, understand that they are going to come.

[00:08:50] Chris Furlong: You need to be willing to push through them. Right. And this is part of the action. The action isn't necessarily, you know, just doing exactly the same thing every single day. That's part of the routine, that's building the habits, that's building the momentum and that snowball effect, but you also need to be willing to push through you start to get outside of your comfort zones and use that as a way to take action, right?

[00:09:12] Chris Furlong: Because if you expect that you do exactly the same thing every single day, and you're going to have, you know, next level growth. There's some parts there that you need to realize. It's actually more about 1% per day. It's about doing a little bit extra per day and that little bit extra might mean you have to learn.

[00:09:30] Chris Furlong: You have to pivot, you have to adjust. You have to be uncomfortable, you know, and it's going through those days that are hard going through those days where things don't go into your favor going through those days where you don't have any sales going from those days where you feel sore going through those days where things just aren't working out.

[00:09:48] Chris Furlong: But the next day is a new day. It's a new opportunity. And I think where you might want to start thinking, okay, is there actually anything you need to be concerned about is when you're having a long period of lows, a long period of down, and I'm not to say that that's when you give in, what I'm saying is that's a chance to maybe reassess understand what's not working.

[00:10:09] Chris Furlong: Are you exhausted? Do you need to change it up? Do you need to ask for help? You know, taking action, doing it, showing up doesn't mean you can't ask for help. And, you know, setting these ambitious goals, setting these things that you want to progress through. Doesn't mean you can't ask for help. And that's the key part of it.

[00:10:27] Chris Furlong: The action, the action. Isn't all about you. The action is all about making it happen and how you make that happen is delegating getting the support, talking to someone, asking for help. And also it means reflecting and looking back and seeing what has been working, what hasn't been working and what do you need to be doing to be getting to that next position that you want it to be in your milestone.

[00:10:50] Chris Furlong: Right. And talking through it to yourself, understanding that this is what I want. This is what I'm going to do. So therefore I need to make it happen. And you reprioritize. Well, this conversation is both open, honest, raw, but it's blunt at the same time. And the reason why I wanna encourage you is because you are seriously and literally only one step away from changing your life.

[00:11:11] Chris Furlong: And that is because that first step that you take starts you on that momentum journey of being able to make this progress. Snowball that eventually, as I said, at the start, it gets to a tipping point. And things start to just fall into the favor of the things are working out. Things are moving quicker than you expected.

[00:11:27] Chris Furlong: And I know this because I've experienced it in different ways. And sometimes we don't see that momentum. We don't see that progressional point of, you know, tipping point or snowballing. If you don't understand what snowballing is, it's literally as a snowball rolls down the hill, it builds up and gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and it gets more momentum and it moves faster.

[00:11:46] Chris Furlong: And that's because things just start to work in the favor and it's the momentum it's physics. And I'm not going to go into that. But my point here is that if you don't take the steps forward, if you don't show up daily, if you don't give yourself the chance to be able to learn, grow experience, you know, take some levels of defeat, some things will fail.

[00:12:06] Chris Furlong: But if you don't take any of that in you can't experience it enough to be able to then take it, play through it, you know, and then crunch through it, play through it, crunch through it, and then actually go back out there and take action with what you've learned from that. And, you know, it's kind of like a filter.

[00:12:22] Chris Furlong: You need to filter the thing that's coming through and then go out and like, okay, this is what I'm going to do. This is the next step. This is the next action. And I'm talking so much about do, do, do this, this, this, that, that, that might sound fluffy, but let me break it back down to you. These are the three steps to make it happen.

[00:12:37] Chris Furlong: And for you to progress more this year, number one is identify with conviction. What you want, what do you want? What does it look like? Talk about it, make it very vocal. And it doesn't have to be about telling the world, but make sure you own it with conviction. It becomes part of your. Number two is break it down.

[00:12:57] Chris Furlong: Understand the progressional milestones. What is it going to take daily, weekly and monthly what's required and accept that with the conviction. Right? And number three is the action is actually doing it. You know what you want, you know what it's going to take. So now show up and get ready to go on a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, and it will happen.

[00:13:19] Chris Furlong: It will happen. I'm not saying I have the answers for what you need to do, because it's going to be different for everyone, but fully those. And remember to bring yourself back to why you're doing it, which is that conviction of what do you want? Why do you want it? Identify it and break it. I think I've been pretty clear.

[00:13:36] Chris Furlong: So look, I don't want to hop on any more on this. This was really to keep it short, keep it sweet. And just remind you. We have some nudge. We have some love and we've some encouragement, but at the same time, I want it to be realistic about it too, because these things, we can't have things if we're not willing to step out and take them.

[00:13:56] Chris Furlong: And sometimes that journey might be a long journey or it might just be a quick opportunity that is around the door, around the corner or a new door. That's open. So I hope you've been challenged by this. I hope you've been encouraged. And if you want to talk about this, if you think no, this isn't right, Chris, or you don't believe in this, or maybe you want to talk a bit more about how can you get that momentum or what are the things that you need to be understanding to break it down?

[00:14:19] Chris Furlong: How do I set those milestones? I'm more than happy to continue the conversation you can reach out over at Instagram, at semi a dam at further. Your lifestyle hit me up on Twitter. Further your life or send me an email. Hello, ad for the, your lifestyle.com. If you want to on YouTube, you can drop a comment as well, more than happy to continue the conversation.

[00:14:37] Chris Furlong: Look at the end of the day. If you want to talk about it, if you need some help, I'm all ears. I've got my hand up happy to help. And I'm very passionate about this because. You know, I want to see other people thrive. I want to see other people get to where they want to be. And sometimes we need to support.

[00:14:52] Chris Furlong: Sometimes we need a cheerleader and I talked about this just before that taking action might mean asking for help. And it's okay to do that. Really do appreciate you. It's been great to have this quick conversation and I'm, I'm really heated up by it because I'm passionate for you. And I want you to understand that once you do this, it is very rewarding.

[00:15:11] Chris Furlong: Please, please. If you're not too sure. Go back, listen to this. See if you can understand from this, you know, the things that you need to be doing, otherwise reach out for some help and let's continue the conversation. Otherwise you have a wonderful day. Cheers. Now, if you didn't know, we do have the podcast merge and this is where the key focuses.

[00:15:28] Chris Furlong: And Enamel pins. Now, if you haven't checked these out, make sure you do because the intent of these are really just to be a small token and reminder for you to charge on, to push on and to further your lifestyle, whether it is a gift for someone else to encourage them, or maybe to inspire them, or maybe it's a way to motivate yourself, or you can simply just make a purchase to simply support the podcast, which would be greatly appreciated.

[00:15:51] Chris Furlong: We do also have some sweaters and some long days, so make sure you check it out, link in the description and in the show. Really to appreciate it. Cheers.