A Simple Practice to Help Reach Your Goals Faster

As the summer days wind down and we prepare to welcome fall, I made a decision to clear out some clutter in my home office. I found a stack of papers that had lists of ideas and things that I wanted to do someday.

I was pleased to see that some of the things written on the list had been accomplished, but many of them I had forgotten about.

The list of things I want to do always seem to outnumber the hours I have available to devote to them.

I am practicing a new concept as we head into the new season - CONSTRAINT.

The dictionary definition of constraint (Oxford) is "a limitation or restriction". The sentence provided as an example says it all - "time constraints make it impossible to do everything". This couldn't be more true.

When we attempt to give our attention to everything we don't accomplish as much as we could if we set priorities and limited our focus to 1 or 2 things.

Constraint helps to provide the focus and discipline necessary to achieve the outcomes we desire. 

Practicing constraint requires:

• saying no to taking on additional tasks and responsibilities that would compete with our top priorities
  
  
• minimizing distractions that would fragment our focus and attention
  
  
• scheduling dedicated blocks of time to make meaningful progress towards our goal
  
  
• commitment to the top goals prioritized for a dedicated period of time (30 days, 6 months, etc.)
  
  
• awareness of when we are taking action (or inaction) to sabotage our success
  
  
• a willingness to let go of thoughts that whisper in your ear that you need to be doing more

It is not an easy practice, but the investment of time and energy to cultivate the skill of constraint is well worth the effort. It will pay off priceless dividends. The more you practice, the better you get at building the muscle of sustained focus to reach the goals you set for yourself. Prioritizing what matters to you helps you make the time to complete the important tasks and not just the urgent tasks (putting out fires).

So, I'm curious what your experience has been with practicing constraint. What helps you to constrain to 1 or 2 top priorities?