Are you a go-getter mom?
You know, you’re a mom who’s trying to crush this mom gig while also pursuing some big non-mom goals. You’re probably a big-picture thinker with loads of ideas and, perhaps you have this adorable habit of thinking of literally everything at once, getting completely overwhelmed, and then wanting to hide under the covers.
Yeah, me too.
Blending our go-getter ambitions with the responsibilities of motherhood can quickly lead to frustration because those big ideas tend to hit the back burner more often than not.
I think I’ve found a strategy to combat this tension between being a go-getter and a mom.
Motivational coach Tony Robbins says, “progress equals happiness,” and I think there’s something to that.
We big-picture thinkers have little trouble envisioning the finish line when it comes to our goal, but things can get fuzzy when it comes to defining the specific steps it takes to get there and how on earth we'll fit that into our mom lives.
Instead of crumbling under the weight of our ambitions, if we could break the action steps necessary into teeny tiny baby steps, we'd be able to enjoy a taste of consistent progress and a relief from overwhelming feelings.
For example, let’s say you’re a go-getter mom who just knows you’ve got a book in you. You’ve got something to share and more ideas than you know what to do with.
The logistics of actually writing and having a book published amidst all the mommying can seem almost impossible.
If you broke the task of writing a book into the tiniest of baby steps, like writing “two crappy pages” each day, as author and investor Tim Ferriss suggests, you'd soon find yourself making progress toward a big goal.
Everything can be broken down this way. Becoming super fit can look like: exercise for 5 minutes each morning. Becoming a painter could look like: Paint for twenty minutes each weekend. Becoming well read can look like: Read for ten minutes before bed. Paying off your debt can look like: Pay $10 each week towards a debt.
These are teeny-tiny steps but, but with each one you’re making progress toward your aim, and over time, you’re much further ahead than you would have been had you stayed in that overwhelmed state and never started.
Lowering the bar on quality and quantity in the beginning of a journey toward a big goal improves the odds of maintaining consistency and developing the positive habit needed to accomplish it.
With a healthy does of patience, knowing you don’t need your big goals reached tomorrow, you'll enjoy the satisfaction of making regular progress, all while you keep crushing it as a mom.
We can do this go-getters—one teeny, tiny, baby step at a time.
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