Are you making yourself a priority?

How many times have you set goals for your business and ended up frustrated and disappointed that you didn’t achieve them?

It is so easy to get caught up in the demands of our globally mobile lives, our families and everything else around us. When we do that, we often fail to invest in ourselves.

But here is a tough truth – if you don’t make yourself a priority, you might never achieve those goals and make the big changes that you want in your business and your life. 

I am going to share with you my five steps to making yourself a priority, as well as the reasons why so many people fail to get things done and the most important thing to know to make it all work!

Click here to listen to the related podcast episode.

You can get more details on how to implement these steps in my free video series

STEP 1: Define your goals and priorities

What’s your ‘why’? What is your long term vision for your business and your life? You need to be sure that you are not chasing goals that don’t align with your overall vision. Being clear on your ‘why’ makes it easier to identify your priorities.

Once you are clear on your ‘why’, you can focus on your goals. Then you can start breaking down these goals into practical steps so you can start taking action to achieve them!

If you need more help on defining your goals and aligning your business with what you really want to achieve, check out these episodes:

Reflecting on your past year and planning your next steps

Aligning your business to what you really want to achieve

STEP 2: Assess how you are spending your time

How are you really spending your time? Is it on the priorities that really matter? Before you even start trying to achieve your goals, figure out where your time is really going.

Try for at least a week to observe and write down how many hours you are spending on each type of activity. Write a list of your main tasks e.g. household tasks, taking care of your children and of course, your main business activities, whether its sales and marketing, or actually delivering your product or service. You need to measure the number of hours you are really spending on these things.

The aim is to understand what is happening in your day to day life before you start trying to achieve business goals that might not even fit in to your schedule.

You might find that there is a huge gap between what you want to do and what you are actually doing! 

Click here for more guidance on how to assess your time!

STEP 3: Build your support system

If you aren’t spending the time on things you want to, where can you get help? If you are used to taking care of your family as you figure out your globally mobile life, you might not be used to asking for help – and for you to succeed, that needs to change.

For you to achieve your goals, you are going to need help. You need time to invest in your business and that might involve financial assistance. This is really difficult to ask for, particularly if you are not used to investing in yourself.

“If you do not commit and invest in yourself, you are not taking yourself seriously.”

Ask your partner to support you, and your family and friends. It is so important to realize that you can’t get to where you want to be without asking for help. It might be a few hours of child care or other household help or it might be a virtual assistant for your business, whatever works best for you. I know these conversations are difficult but they are so important.

Investing in support like this will allow you to really focus on your goals and achieve them much more quickly!

Don’t wait for life to be less busy, there will never be a right time unless you make the choice to invest in yourself and that includes getting the support you need!

For some more inspiration on this, check out my interview with author Mariam Ottimofiore who managed to achieve her goals despite being in the middle of a messy transition to a new location.

 Click here to listen to how she managed to stay on track.

STEP 4: Create an effective system

You need to create a routine and calendar that works for you! You will never magically find the time, you have to make time to achieve your goals. 

Not sure where to start? 

Check out my blog on ten ways to get things done and take control of your time

Create a work timetable that aligns with your life and business needs – this can also help you work out when you need additional support. Decide when you need to be able to have uninterrupted work time and schedule it!

My free video series has some more detail on how to do this.

Then you need to share your timetable with your partner, your family and your support system. Put it somewhere that everyone can see it so they know what you are doing.

STEP 5: Adjust to obstacles

We all know that life is messy and things happen that can upset our plans and our timetables. The difference between those who succeed despite this and those who don’t is how proactive they are in dealing with obstacles.

This is why it is so important to regularly check in with your progress and then take control of reviewing your deadlines and your goals. If you see that you can’t achieve it, then let it be YOU who determines the new deadline before reaching it, instead of letting time pass by. Taking control and adjusting your plans will allow you to continue to move forward rather than feeling disappointed and frustrated in the long term.

This is a habit that you can practice daily and weekly by evaluating your goals for the next day, next week, next quarter etc. so that you are able to adjust and cope with those unexpected urgent things that so often can come up!

As well as implementing these five steps, I want you to really think about your mindset. You need to put great systems in place but you also need to figure out if anything else is holding you back. So often I see procrastination, which is often linked to perfectionism, and imposter syndrome getting in the way of amazing, talented and capable people – like you!

Check out this episode where we discuss this topic.

Nomads, I hope this helps you take the steps you need to make yourself a priority and turn your challenges into opportunities.