Yo yo yo. Welcome back to the Further your Lifestyle podcast conversations on lifestyle passions and hustles. My name's Chris, I am your host and I'm super excited to be back here having the conversation with you. Episode 165 today, and we're talking about those small steps that we can take to continue to make the progress. And this is a bit of an interesting topic for me personally, because I know personally that sometimes the path of progress, which I guess is a very common theme that I talk about on this channel probably indirectly, but sometimes also directly on the podcast as well but over the last few weeks I've been really pushing into it a fair bit more. But the reality is making progress or seeing the path of progress. It can become a bit blurred and we start to ask our questions is what am I doing? Is it the right thing I'm doing? Is it good enough? Is this going to work out? What if it doesn't work out? Sometimes you feel like you have a great day followed by a not so great day in terms of progress. How do we juggle all this? How do we make it all work? It is very challenging and that's really the topic today and I do have a simple answer to this, and I do have a simple answer to this, and that is no step is small as long as it is headed in the direction of where we want to go. And I think sometimes we need to make sure that if we are making the steps, let's make sure they're in the direction that we want to be going. That way, any progress we're doing is progressed for that bigger, longer term or future thinking goal that we have. So, with this in mind, today we'll be focusing on the intentionality of that focus and how we go about making small progress in the right direction that we want to go. I know it sounds simple, but sometimes we can really ruin ourselves when it comes, or really get in the way of ourselves when it comes to this kind of thing, and the key thing that I want to really make sure we understand here is that, even though trying to make progress, it can be a bit of a grind, the key thing here is how do we make progress even when things seem tough. So that's really the focus of today's episode.

Let's dive in, let's roll the intro. So I have six areas of discussion today that I want to break into, and the first one being it's not rocket science. A lot of this is all very straightforward, but the first one is the importance of showing up, and I think there's if we break this down into a couple of key points. Number one is consistency is key. Showing up on a regular basis, regardless of your feelings, is crucial. Now, this for me, it makes sense, but I get it. We sometimes don't want to do it. We have the self-doubt, we have the imposter syndrome.

I literally just went out for a run this morning, Yesterday. I felt a bit of an eagle, I had a bit of what I feel was a bit of an injury, and I've been stressing about it all night for the last 24 hours because I'm thinking does this mean I'm going to have to pull back? Am I going to have to go off my training plan? Does this mean I'm going to have to cancel some of my training runs or even some of the events that I'm doing? And the reality is I still showed up today.

I did take some measures to obviously be sensible about it changed the way I was tying my shoes, I did a bigger stretch, I did some strength exercises, I did a proper warmup. I did all these different things to make sure. Before we start panicking. Let's go do this run. Yesterday's run was a 25 minute run. Today it was meant to be an hour and a half, so it's a big difference. Anyway, I did all these things. I got out there and it was great. It was better than yesterday's run. I did 12K, 11K. 12k Yesterday I did, I think it was like 3K and this felt easier than the 3K. So the reality is, sometimes we just got to show up and be willing to give it a go.

The other point to this is part two of number one, which is imperfect. Action beats inaction, and this is the key thing here is like any step forward to make progress is making progress and is better than standing still. However, there is times we do need to take rest, stop, slow down, pull back, and that is also making progress, because it's giving yourself or your body the time, or your headspace or whatever, to recover, to rest, to make sure you're making the right decision. But the reality is your steps forward don't have to be perfect. You're going to tumble, you're going to fall over, you're going to scratch, but you're going to still make forward. It's better than doing nothing and with that in mind, as I said to you like.

For me, my best example of this is the running side of things, but the other part is the business Like. I get sometimes so stuck in my head of trying to make things perfect. Sometimes we just got to go and give it a go, see if it works. I remember purchasing my first big purchase for my business, like a wholesale order. I was terrified. It was like $1,500. I'm thinking what have I done? How am I going to pay for this? It was stressful. Since then, I've gone back and I think I've probably spent I must be just shy of $100,000 with the and over a span of a year and a half. The reality is you get comfortable when you do more of the uncomfortable things and then it just becomes normal, right? So that consistency is what is going to enable you to continue to show up, but also to make those steps further into where you want to be.

Point number two is intentionality and its impact. So, look, intentionality means having a clear purpose behind actions, right? If you know what your purpose is behind the action that you're trying to take, it does make it a lot easier to do. Why am I doing this? What is the purpose of it? Who is it being done? For when do I need to have it done by All those different things gives you some sense of purpose and gives you the ability to take control or responsibility or accountability of it.

At the same time, setting intentions turns small actions into significant progress. What I mean by this is you can set intentions all you like. You can say I'm going to lose weight this year, or I'm going to run a race, or I'm going to build a $100,000 business or whatever it may be. But you need to make sure those intentions are followed through with the actions that come with them. But I do find that as we set intentions, rather than just having goals like these ideas of ah, we dream to be like this or to have that, by setting the intentions, we naturally start to put into play the different things that we need to do to start to make that progress. Now to the point earlier, which is making progress consistently. If we do that, then we can start to snowball. We can build this snowball effect right. So by setting the intentions, by doing the small actions, we can start to make that significant progress.

A quick little tip here is we want to maintain purpose and direction even on the bad days. There's going to be days where it sucks. You don't feel like you're making the progress. It didn't go as planned. You felt like you went backwards. You still need to take those days and leverage those days and show up anyway. That's the reality of it. If you don't, you won't get the experience behind your belt to be able to know, when you have another day like that, how to handle it. So it's super crucial.

Number three is progress on good versus bad days A good segue from the tip that I just spoke about. Right, there's always going to be high motivation versus low motivation kind of days. Both of them contribute to your success when it comes to progress. High motivation days are the days that are easy, the days that are great, the days that are exciting, the days that you want to be out there doing it or you feel good. The low motivation days are the sucky days. Something didn't go as planned. You didn't sleep well, You've got people annoying you, You've got issues occurring, You've got to make decisions, You've got problems coming at your stress. All these different things. You still got to battle through it.

Coming back to the point before small, intentional steps on bad days accumulate over time, and this is why it's so important that we still need to show up. We still need to do an imperfect action rather than inaction, because you're still going to make the progress. Think of it this way there's 365 days in the year, and I was actually explaining this to Carla, like she's currently about to start doing her learners and learning to drive. Previously, we were just learning on the year and I was actually explaining this to Carla like she's currently about to start doing her learners and learning to drive. Previously, we were just learning on the weekends. So every Saturday, that's only. It's only 52 Saturdays in a year, 52 weeks, right. But I said, if you have access to a car and you're going to go to the train station, we use your car, we drive to the train station and you're doing that three times a week, right. All of a sudden, we've gone from one day a week or 52 times a year to now putting an extra three days on top of it. So we've literally added three times more opportunity of passive and intentional and small progress that accumulate over time Makes a huge difference.

Overall, she's going to have 200 days of progress. Makes a huge difference. That's why we still need to do it. Some of those days are going to be great, Some of those days are going to be poopy, but the reality is you're still making the progress by navigating both these days. It actually is super key because, as I said before, the bad days are going to give you the experience of how to handle the bad days going forward. Have enough bad days. Those bad days aren't bad days anymore, they're just days. They're just things that you've got to deal with. They're just, they're going to come regardless, and then you'll have the real sucky days, which are worse than your bad days, because your bad days are just like oh, this is just part of making progress. So you, you climatize to it and you need to be into the thick of it and get comfortable with it. Otherwise, you will never be able to be successful in conquering those bad days.

Number four is the psychological benefits of consistent effort. Now, I like to think that a lot of this is just. It's a no-brainer. Consistency builds habits, it reinforces the positive impact, but more so, the positive mindset. Right, it's a positive reinforcement. You make action, you get a result, you feel good. Therefore, you want to do it again. It's like a puppy getting a treat it wants to do the thing again. It's happy to do the thing again because it's going to get a treat. Consistency builds that habit and we should do that and make that easy to happen.

Meaning, when you do something and you're not comfortable at first, put in mechanisms that helps reinforce the positive mindset and that might mean celebrating small wins, boosting up your morale or finding ways that you can continue to motivate it. I am going to spend one hour of working and then I'm going to spend 15 minutes of playing a cook game, whatever it may be. Do the things that are going to keep you motivated and help you make that progress. But at the same time, when we do make the progress, you'll start to see it stacks. You get into the zone, you get into the groove and you're like no, I'm happy to keep doing this because you're kicking goals, You're ticking off checklists, You're doing things that are actually feeling productive and when we do this, personal development will compound right and as you do that, your development will the small efforts lead to bigger results. And it's when you first tried doing something small. It was a struggle, it was a lot of effort, but as you do more of it, what I said before becomes effortless, the bad days become not bad days, they're just normal days, because that's just part of it. So the small efforts that took so long now they don't take so long, they're just second nature. The small things that used to take a lot of time, they no longer do, and they're small things that take little time and they still give you big results. So I think just, however, I didn't confuse anyone there, but the reality is, as you do more of these things, they become easier. Therefore, you're able to compound your ability, your interest and the results.

Number five is overcoming the illusion of the lack of traction. Now, this one is important because sometimes we don't tangibly or directly or physically see that progress. Now, for me, I like to. If I am making progress usually this is within YouTube, within running with my podcast and with my business I like to see things like graphically, physically, I like to see a bar graph or a line graph or something that shows me that it is making progress.

I think the first thing we need to understand is that you're always going to feel like you're not doing enough, because there's people around you always doing something, Whether that is them doing more than you or it's just the time that they're doing. It is irrelevant and that shouldn't really get to your head, but it does. I think we need to take a moment and recognize that we all have our lives to run and do and manage and figure out. Just because you might work from nine to five and someone else is working six to 10 doesn't mean they're working overtime. They might not have been working from nine to 12. And I understand that.

In society today we can see so many pressures or so many other people doing things which makes us think, oh, maybe we should do some more, or I don't feel good enough. I do this all the time. I feel like I need to keep doing more, I need to get ahead or haven't done enough. Today I'm doing so much and you do need to recognize and appreciate that you've done enough and then apply a level of patience and persistence with that, Because if we don't somewhat slow down to have the patience and the persistence of doing this daily without overdoing it, then you're not going to be set up for long-term success. We need to understand that this is going to take a long time.

If you're working an extra two hours tonight on just stuff that is light, is that really going to make a significant change to your momentum progress. So if I spent two hours a day and it meant that I was going to get two weeks ahead, sure, it's worth it. But if you spent two hours a day, but you spent two hours tomorrow and it really makes no difference whether you do it today or tomorrow, because it's really just like you've got to do it for tax or whatever, it's not going to get you ahead. I understand that this might be the best time that you can do it, and that's a different conversation. But what I'm saying is don't just do things for the sake of doing things, if that makes sense.

And the other point to this, when it comes to the lack of traction, is sometimes we get stuck in understanding is this important or not? There's things that we have to do because we're bound to do them, as I said, like tax and things like that. But then there's things that we need to figure out, to choose to do. Is it to delegate it? Is it to stop doing it? Is it to how do we make it easier to do? Or we just have to do it because that's part of the process. So sometimes those we don't feel like, oh, this isn't the exciting stuff, this isn't really making much change or much impact. If you think that, maybe review what it is you're doing and really understand is this actually going to gain traction for you? But I think you'll find sometimes it's just because it's mundane and maybe it's just not the exciting stuff, but usually a lot of these things are helping you make progress.

All right, number six is practical application. Look, there's a number of different things that we can do. Here is practical application. Look, there's a number of different things that we can do. Here is, for me, I think, applying daily routines. This encourages that intentional progress. Have a fallback plan, have something that you can refer to, have something that you know that can keep you stable and grounded to stay on path and on track and to where you want to be going. For me it's a little different because I run my own business, I work for myself. I need to be true to these points or these times. Now, if you work for someone else, you're going to have different times of the day where you're going to have to put in your daily routine for whatever it is you want to do for yourself. Now at work, we have daily routines. These days are meeting days. These days are whatever right you have to do certain reporting, or you might have to do a certain action, or days in the office, days out of the office, all these different things. They help with making progress and they keep structure. So the same thing applies with whatever it is that you're trying to do to make progress in.

I think the other thing is making sure you leverage tools or techniques for tracking and reflecting the small steps. One thing which I probably regret doing when I was working in the nine to five as a consultant is tracking my key performance indicators on a weekly, monthly basis. And I'm not going down to the detail of stats, but I'm saying, like, what was the significant thing that I did week one in this year, what was my key takeaways? And building up some sense of what was a pro, what was a con, what was something I could do better on and what was a win right All these different things. So that way, as you go through the week or go through the months, you've got information to reflect on, to see what you've actually been doing and how that makes you feel. But also, when it comes to performance time, people can say, oh wow, this guy's been doing a lot. So you've got to find ways to track, but also to find ways to reflect on these small steps as well, and I think that the final point here is to stay motivated and focused during the challenging times.

Finding ways to do this. It might mean you have to lock yourself in a room. It might mean you have to put on some favorite music. It might mean you need to give yourself I'm going to do an hour of this and then have some downtime for 30 minutes afterwards. Or it might mean turning off notifications. Whatever it is, it might mean getting into your jammies. It might mean setting yourself up for success because you know how you feel and if you know it's going to be a tough day, you have to find a way to do something rather than do nothing. That's as simple as it is.

So we've discussed a whole number of different points here, right, We've talked about the importance of showing up. We've spoken about the impact of intentionality. We've spoken about how do we make progress with good and versus the bad days and how do we leverage those. We've spoken about the psychological benefits of being consistent and having that consistency and effort. We've also spoken about overcoming the illusion of the lack of traction. Sometimes it's a bit blurred. But also, how are some of the practical applications that? Or what are some of the practical applications that we can apply?

I want to reinforce with you that every small step that we take, when we take it with intention, it does really contribute to our overall progress or success. You've got to bank the wins each day. Sometimes the wins are going to be small points. Other days you're going to get mega points. If we were using a pointing system. I encourage you you've got to embrace this mindset, to look at it from a different perspective and take on the approach of being intentional with steps in your own life, Because I can't do this for you Only you can do this for you. But I can give you my thoughts, my opinion, my ideas, my examples, my experience to maybe help you see the purpose or the benefit of doing this and really making sure that you suck it up on the tough days. You push through, you show up, you find a way to give it a go. Even if your best on a bad day is 50%, even if your best is 20%, you're still making 20% more progress than if you didn't do anything at all. That's what I've got for you today.

If you enjoyed this, please share it with someone else. You can leave a comment. You can reach over. If you did enjoy this, please share it with someone. If you wanted to reach out and continue the conversation, you can jump over to the YouTube. Leave a comment. You can jump over to the YouTube. Leave a comment, leave a message. Let me know what you do to make small progress on a consistent basis. Otherwise, if you do have any questions, more than happy to answer any questions or continue the conversation if you just want to have a chat about anything that we did discuss today. Appreciate you being here. You have a wonderful day. Cheers you.