How to achieve your goals effortlessly

I listened to a fascinating episode of the Dr Chatterjee podcast with author Greg McKeown. They talked about how we often have this idea of success being full of relentless work and sacrifice - and it doesn’t have to be the case. This is very relevant at the moment as a lot of people I speak to are close to burnout. Dr Chatterjee calls it the “endless cycle of ‘Zoom, eat, sleep, repeat’ where we are working twice as hard to achieve half as much”. 

McKeown has two books - How to Achieve Your Goals Effortlessly and his earlier book Essentialism. One of the things that stood out for me was McKeown explaining how when we’re stressed we can view competing things as having the same priority. He gave an extreme example of attending a meeting shortly after his daughter was born as the idea of letting people down was as important as such a milestone event. 

Most of us have endless to do lists both personally and professionally. He explains that it’s helpful to consciously have one priority for the day. On some days it might be a particular project at work, another day it might be having time to yourself. Focussing on one priority means that you’re more likely to achieve it and it’s easier to avoid being overwhelmed by all the other stuff. I think this simple idea could really help if you’re one of the many people who get to the end of the day and feel exhausted from being busy but also don’t feel a sense of achievement. 

A phrase I frequently use with my clients “ slow down to speed up” We can be so busy in doing mode that we can miss noticing more efficient ways to do the same thing. 

Does this ring true with you? Are you pushing yourself to exhaustion unnecessarily? There’s so much value in stopping, taking stock and then making an informed change. I hope this blog and podcast helps you to do that. 

https://drchatterjee.com/how-to-achieve-your-goals-effortlessly-with-greg-mckeown/