TINY TIPS // EXPERIMENTS
🛍️ BUY THE BOOK: TINY EXPERIMENTS | How to live freely in a goal-obsessed world by Anne-Laure LeCunff
TRANSCRIPT
Hi and welcome back to Tiny Tips with Krissi Thomas.
Hey, you know, I was thinking, I talk a lot about mindset
that's really what my whole purpose is here, with the You Can method.
Something I find interesting is that we live in this goal obsessed world. At least in the United States.
And, don't get me wrong. I like to set goals for myself, and what that means to me is setting my mind on something that I want, that I desire, and then going after it.
So, Sometimes a goal can be a milestone, sometimes a goal can be just something you are reaching for, and in that reach is the carrot, which keeps you moving forward.
I read a lot, and I love neuroscience, because I’m fascinated with how our brains work.
So when I came across the book, Tiny Experiments, how to live freely in a goal obsessed world by Anne Laure LeCunff is a wonderful observation in how we look at goals in our fast paced world.
The way she goes about this idea is less about goal, and more about conducting experiments. This creates a different mindset when setting out to achieve something.
Let me explain using the SMART Goal way.
A quick refresher on SMART goals: It has to be…
specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound or timely. Where, Anne talks about a PACT that you make with yourself And I love this idea! PACT stands for
purposeful,
actionable,
continuous,
and trackable.
So the mindshift is allowing yourself to make a statement like this: I will do BLANK for BLANK long. Versus, SMART goals having an end state.
Let’s break this down:
So purposeful allows you to free your mind of fixating on the outcome. Which is what a goal is, right? You're fixated on the outcome. Where, If it's purposeful, like, that's all about the journey, right? You are excited about the journey through, sometimes even more than the outcome at the end.
How many times have you ever heard athletes, elite Olympic athletes talk about how they made it to the top, won the medal and then what? They don’t know what’s next because they’ve been fixated on an end-state. So then they feel lost.
Where something purposeful allows you to enjoy the journey and even the struggle in the journey. It also implies that it continues on.
Next up is actionable,
I talked about this in another tiny tip, but it's an action that you personally are reliable to do.
So what that means is based on where you're at in your life,
what chapter of life you're in,
you're creating actions that work for your lifestyle, your life.
So if you're a brand new mom, and you're having to wake up in the middle of the night, not getting full sleep, you're tired, and your only purpose in life is to love on this baby
Your actions are very, very different than somebody like me who's almost an empty nester at 54, with independent kids.
So your actions, are reliable to you. You know what you are able to do. Not what someone else is doing. What someone says you should be doing.
They are actions for YOU and only YOU!
OK, next up is continuous,
I love this, because it compounds onto your actions
All this means is what is the thing you can commit to continuously for the timeframe you’ve given yourself. It doesn’t mean you have to do it everyday. It goes back to the actions you’ve set out to do.
For example, I love to write but haven’t been doing it as much as I like to.
I've gotten away from it, and I think it's because my own mind is getting to the point of if I do this, what will I get from it? That’s the goal-driven mindset talking. So I have to change my mindset too.
Think of it as setting up a training program for yourself that works for you and your life.
So, if my pact is to write 1 newsletter per week through the end of the year, that is something I can do continuously on a weekly basis.
This is different than me stating I will gain 1,000 subscribers by the end of the year.
Do you see the difference?
We don’t have control over likes, follows, subscribers.
But what we do have control over, is our effort in doing the thing!
So think to yourself:
The pact to myself is that I'm going to do the thing no matter what the outcome is. I'm doing the thing, because in life, when you do the thing, whatever it is,
what you want will follow.
And that's where faith comes in and you just know that if you have an assignment from God, if you know it's in your heart to do something, because you love it, you just know this is what you're supposed to be doing.
Then the outcome is irrelevant.
It really is, and I know this is very hard for people to understand, because we do live in a very goal obsessed world.
But when you strip that away and you think to yourself, what do I love to do?
Then what would you be doing?
Think about it. What’s the thing that you don’t get bored doing? What’s the thing that people always come to you for?
Maybe that’s the thing for you to begin and create a tiny experiment doing it. A PACT.
And then the last one, trackable
So think about that. That's very different than measuring something. When you're tracking something, it’s repeatable.
So using my writing example
I will write every Monday for the remainder of the year in order to publish my newsletter once a week.
Or 4 out of 7 days a week I will write and edit so I can publish my newsletter every Friday through the end of the year.
So this is different than measurement.
You’re tracking something you can do continuously to see if it works. Just like an experiment.
And what do we do with that tracking?
We look at it and we go, hmm, am I consistent? Where did I fall down? Where was I excelling?
versus something being measurable which is based on performance.
We're not looking for performance.
We're looking for consistency here.
Something that you can track and say, I know I'm doing the thing, because ultimately when you do that, you keep getting better.
That is the forward movement that I talk about all the time. That's the tiny step forward.
If you're consistent and you do it, and you're tracking it, even if it's not your best effort,
if you're still doing it, you're still doing it. And that's important.
So, Unlike smart goals, which are 100% set up on a fixed outcome, this is giving you permission to think things through,
and create an environment that works for you, that you want to do,
and that you're not beating yourself up for not reaching a goal, or milestone
Instead, you're celebrating that you're doing the thing.
And you're moving forward,
no matter how slow or how fast that does not matter.
Are you doing the thing?
So, I think this is such a huge part of training your mind to believe in the outcomes you want.
A fixed mindset won’t get you very far. Partly because it’s fixed on an outcome versus the journey.
But Abundance. Growth. Positive mindsets. That’s where you’ll shine.
I lead with an abundance mindset because I know, there will always be enough, Things will happen, things will come to me. God has my back. I'm never worried.
I don't worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will worry about itself.
I just keep doing the thing and know that God in my life will reward me for that, whatever it looks like.
To sum this up – try a PACT for yourself.
Make it Purposeful
Actionable
Continuous
And Trackable
Give it a go. It’s a tiny experiment! Nothing to lose and everything to gain!
I hope this helps. I hope it made sense. I’ll link the book, Tiny Experiments in the notes below so you can pick up a copy, too!
One last thing
I would love it if you share these tiny tips with your friends, your family, your coworkers or anyone you think might find these helpful.
This helps me grow my small business in helping you see how beautiful your mind is and that you can do anything you set out to do.
Because I believe YOU CAN
All right. ‘til next time, God bless y'all.