Miranda (00:00:00) – Welcome to coffee powered systems, equipping women with actionable steps to overcome, overwhelm and streamline business and life. So grab your favorite drink and come hang out with me. I’m your host, Miranda Merton. Welcome back to Coffee Power Systems. It’s the end of summer. I want you to grab a drink. I am joining with a little bit of water today. Pull up your favorite chair, pull up your favorite drink and come join me as we are back. And it’s about the end of summer where I am. I went out into my backyard this morning and saw my grass and looking at my backyard, it made me remember one of the goals that I had, which was to grow my grass. Now, low back story. I moved back into this house. We moved back a couple of years ago, actually. We were renting it out for about five years. We went to California, came back, and when I got back the grass was not grass. There were patches everywhere. There were dirt and mud, and it was kind of devastating.

Miranda (00:01:12) – So one of my goals was to grow the grass back. I was looking at the end goal of this huge thing. I was picturing in myself running around in the grass with Scout and, you know, maybe enjoying a fire pit, enjoying the night and not having to care about the mud and the dirt that was back there. But what I realized is that it’s freaking hard to grow grass. It’s really hard. And I learned more about growing grass in the last two years than I have my entire life. And I wasted so much money trying to get to the end before I even got started at the beginning. So that’s what I want to talk to you today about, because looking at my grass this morning reminded me of two things. The first thing was that it’s the end of summer or it almost is the end of summer. We’re wrapping up here. And then the second thing is that I fell short of this goal of growing my grass correctly. And although it does look a lot better than it did two years ago when it first moved in, I have learned a lot of lessons along the way, and it’s making me kind of rethink and reevaluate my goals.

Miranda (00:02:33) – And as we get to the end of summer, we wrap up another quarter, We start to think about our intentions and our goals that we’ve set throughout this year. You know, after we’re done relaxing at the beach, when the kids get back into school, you know, we’re done lounging around at the pool. It’s time to get back in and refocus. And we think Q4 is gonna be different. It’s always the next quarter. It’s fresh. Think about how many times that you have been so gung ho on your goals, whether it is January 1st or you have a big milestone birthday coming up or it’s Monday, you know, diet starts again on Monday, we have all been there. The excitement is real. We’re so excited. The planning, the freshness, looking at the future is always so much more exciting than where we currently are. And our current cells are telling our future selves exactly how it’s going to go down. And we are looking six months out, we’re looking a year out trying to figure out these things and sometimes we get way ahead of where we should actually be.

Miranda (00:03:50) – Over the summer I was reading a book called Joyful Productivity by George Cowell, and he brought up something that really hit home. He said that we should create a system of micro goals and then use those micro goals to then achieve our relevant milestones along the way to get to that big goal. So meaning the bigger the goals, the less we can accurately predict if or when we’re actually going to finish it. So instead of creating these big, huge goals like I did, I was like, I’m just going to grow with grow the grass and it’s going to be fantastic. We should create smaller micro goals and then we are more likely to actually complete those goals. So let’s go over a couple of examples of this. So for simplicity, let’s do a couple of simple ones. The goal, for instance, might be you want to run in the New York City Marathon at the end of the year, which I believe is in November. So if it is January, depending on your fitness level, that’s going to be a pretty lofty goal.

Miranda (00:04:58) – If you’re like me, where you exercise a couple times a week and you sit for most of the day, if your job is sedentary, then that’s going to be a pretty big goal. That might be a stretch goal. So you want to start with. Where you are, because if you look at the big end goal and you’re looking at November and you’re thinking, well, how the hell am I going to run that marathon, I can barely run for ten minutes at a time. You are going to you’re going to stop before you even get started. Looking at that big goal at the end is going to look very bleak because you know, you won’t be able to get there. So instead of looking at that big picture, what system could we create for that goal? We are going to create one small system which would be maybe run ten minutes a day. If you know that you can run ten minutes a day or maybe even five, you could start even slower and then work your way up small.

Miranda (00:05:58) – Yes, that’s the point. It’s supposed to be a small micro goal that we know that we can achieve. And then as we get better, as we work harder at that, then you can add on to the micro goal. Maybe, you know, after two weeks you work up to 11 minutes. After four weeks, you’re up to 15 minutes. And as you increase those, your progress increases and before you know it, your stamina is increasing and you are going to make your final goal. Do you need more structured help in your business? Subscribe to Coffee Perks, where you’ll get weekly tips, hot finds and actionable articles and podcast episodes to help you automate your business and reduce tech overwhelm with purposeful productivity. I see the same thing from entrepreneurs like you every day. Progress stalled because they get stuck in the tech. Don’t let tech keep you stuck. If you’re ready for a little extra help in your business, visit Miranda Merton. Com forward slash coffee perks to sign up for free. So another goal could be to write a book.

Miranda (00:07:06) – That’s another one. I have your system for that one. Instead of looking at the big picture, you’re going to say, maybe you want to write 500 words a day or 250. Wherever you are, start where you are. If you look at the fact that your novel needs to be 50,000 words, that you eventually have to write, you are going to quit before you get going and you don’t want that, so you want to create again and achievable micro goal that’s going to likely help you inch toward that big end of year goal because as you’re writing those 500 words every day, you’re not even going to be paying attention and then you’re going to hit 10,000 pretty quickly and then you’re going to hit 30,000. And before you know it, that novel is going to be done. These micro achievements not only give you the results that you can see, but they also help you to create more meaning in your life and at the end of that big goal, there’s always going to be another step. So if you get a little deeper into the why of all of your goals, you’ll likely find some more purpose, clarity or growth or something that you want to achieve that’s going to make yourself even better if you make yourself just 1% better every day.

Miranda (00:08:24) – Micro goals and systems are going to help you get there, thereby helping you achieve that process. So if we go back to my original goal, my original goal wasn’t to get better grass, get green grass, it was actually to be living in a better quality of life on the weekends, you know, having a better backyard, which would lead to me spending more time outdoors, getting fresh air, exercise, spending time with the family. That is a bigger end goal than just having green grass. Going back to the novel goal, it’s not just to write a book. It’s not just to say that you wrote a book. It would be maybe you want to leave something back for your family or your kids or just to leave your mark on the world so that there’s some piece of you to leave behind or something that you can look at and say that you’ve actually accomplished. So those reasons are ultimately better than just having green grass or writing a book. Those bigger purpose goals are what is going to keep you going.

Miranda (00:09:26) – How can you create systems or micro goals around your business goals? So I want you to take a look at one of your bigger goals that you currently have, whether it’s income related or product related, maybe it’s health related, whatever your goal is for the quarter. And think about what are some micro goals that you could use or you could create to ensure way step by step toward that bigger goal. Instead of looking at the giant, huge, hairy, scary goal. And then I want you to take it a step further and go beyond that goal and really dig into the why of your goal, dig into your end goal, and then chances are that everything will lead to your end goal, your purpose, your growth, your clarity. And that’s what we are trying to get to or trying to dig into your purpose goals so that you can make a bigger change and knowing that will give you a bigger reason to complete those micro goals. Because if my goal for the grass was just get green grass, it’s a lot easier for me to give up that goal if it doesn’t, if I don’t do it because who cares at the end of the day, right? Who cares about the green grass? But if I actually look at it and say, Hey, I want to spend more time outdoors, I want to spend more time with my family on the weekends, that is a bigger goal and that is going to make me want to do the grass step by step.

Miranda (00:11:00) – And of course, instead of trying to do the entire yard, maybe do it in little patches, maybe I plant the seed one weekend, maybe I do the fertilizer the next weekend or however it goes. You know, just smaller goals to help me achieve those bigger things. So if you are looking for a simple way to organize your goals into those micro smaller goals or systems, I created a Google spreadsheet for you. It’s actually four different tabs. And I also created a notion one, if you prefer notion. If you go to Miranda Merton. Com forward slash goals the link to both of those will be on there. They’re just $7 for each spreadsheet. But if you cannot swing the $7 there’s also a freebie on that page that’s just going to be helping you How to break down big goals into smaller tasks in how to figure out how to do your goal hierarchy, and then also how to put that into your project management. Or a spreadsheet or your software, whatever you have and whatever you are using.

Miranda (00:12:05) – So again, that is Miranda merton.com/goals. That is all I have for you today. I will see you next time. Thanks for listening to Coffee Powered Systems. You can find links to everything mentioned in the episode. Down in the show. Notes are on the website at Miranda Merton. If you enjoyed this episode, rate and review it in iTunes or where you enjoy listening so others can find it too. And join me here next time.