"Everyone has goals. The people who actually achieve their goals create routines. They build systems. They consistently take the steps that, in time, will ensure they reach their ultimate goal. They don’t wish. They don’t hope. They just do what their plan says, consistently and without fail. They forget the goal and focus solely on the process."
-- Jeff Haden
"Dreams are really important. They make us human. We dare to set nearly impossible goals. Yet all those imaginings are worthless without a process to help us achieve them. A dream, once born, quickly dies without a process to support it. Then a dream turns into a regret—and all of us already have too many of those. The key is to set a goal, use it as a target that helps you create a plan for achieving it . . .and then do your best to forget all about that goal. As I learned from James Clear, a leading thinker on the subject, the best use of a goal is to inform the process you will follow to achieve it."
-- Jeff Haden
"Having too many choices is also a problem. In a classic study, psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper set up a display table with twenty-four varieties of gourmet jam at an upscale food market. Those who sampled the spreads received a coupon for one dollar off any jam. On another day, shoppers saw a similar table, except that only six varieties of jam were on display. The large display attracted more interest than the small one . . . but when the time came to purchase, people who had seen the large display were one-tenth as likely to buy as people who had seen the small display.*"
-- Jeff Haden
"You’ll stay motivated when you find a process you trust and commit to working that process for as little as a week. Forget how far you need to go to reach your goal; just commit to following the process for a week. By the end of that week you’ll have made a small improvement: You’ll be able to run a little farther, or lift a little more weight, or speak with greater confidence, or perform a task more effectively. Whatever goal you set, you will have moved a few steps closer to achieving that goal."
-- Jeff Haden
"When you put in the time and effort, when you make improvements, when you gain a certain level of skill, you become the thing that you’re trying to achieve. “Becoming” feels wonderful because you’ve earned it."
-- Jeff Haden
"Successful people are great at withstanding temptation. Successful people are great at overcoming fear in order to do what they need to do. (Of course, that doesn’t mean they aren’t scared; that means they’re brave. There’s a huge difference.) Successful people don’t just prioritize; they consistently keep doing what they have decided is most important."
-- Jeff Haden
"If you aren’t achieving your goals, a lack of motivation or confidence isn’t the problem. A lack of motivation or confidence is actually the means to a solution. When you accept your weak points, when you accept your flaws, when you accept your imperfections . . . that’s when you can motivate yourself to make changes and improve."
-- Jeff Haden
"You don’t need to wait until you can find more time; you have all the time you need. You don’t need to wait until you can find more money; money never drives success. (Though if you so choose, money can be the result of success.) And you absolutely do not need more motivation."
-- Jeff Haden
"To accomplish anything worthwhile, and especially to achieve a goal others say is impossible, you have to work your ass off. There are no shortcuts. The only way is the hard way."
-- Jeff Haden
"When you savor the small victories, you get to feel good about yourself every day, because you no longer feel compelled to compare the distance between here and there. You don’t have to wait for “someday” to feel good about yourself; if you do what you planned to do today, you’re a winner."
-- Jeff Haden
"Incredibly successful people set a goal and then focus all their attention on the process necessary to achieve that goal. They set a goal and then, surprisingly, they forget the goal. Sure, the goal is still out there. But what they care about most is what they need to do today—and when they accomplish that, they are happy about today. They feel good about today."
-- Jeff Haden
