Are you feeling overwhelmed in your business? Do you often set goals & jump ship halfway through? Do you struggle with overcoming fear in business? I think a huge contributor to that is setting goals that are too vague. So how do you remedy that? By setting microgoals. Let’s talk about it!

Microgoals: The Key to Beating Overwhelm

I believe micro-goals are the key to overcoming fear in business and crushing your goals with confidence. A mistake that I see business owners making all the time is setting goals that are too broad or too vague. We’ll say things like, “I wanna grow my list to a thousand subscribers”, or we’ll say, “I wanna start a podcast”. And if you make that your goal, that can be overwhelming.

Time and time again, there have been things that I’ve wanted to do, like get an LLC for my business or get a business license. For some reason, I was so overwhelmed by the thought of getting a business license. But that’s because I made it this really big thing. I made it super vague and I didn’t break it down into micro goals to realize, “Wait, I can do this! I have everything that I need to do this.” And actually, if I just take a small, actionable step, something that I’m gonna have success with that is going to help me feel motivated and get inspired, that’s what you wanna do.

Overwhelm #1: Fear of Failure

So let’s talk about why we get so overwhelmed with our goals and have a hard time overcoming fear in business. I think one reason is that we are afraid of failure. And when we’re afraid of failure, then naturally we’re going to want to push back on that goal. We’re not gonna want to keep after it or get after it and accomplish that goal. When you’re afraid that you’re going to mess up or that you’re going to fall flat on your face, you’re way less likely to do something.

But if you go into it with the confidence of I can do this, I can achieve this goal, then there is going be a much higher success rate for something like that. So we need a big mindset shift to think, instead of, okay, I’m gonna fail at this, think I’m gonna succeed at this. And one way to do that, to help reduce that fear of failure is to set micro-goals.

Overwhelm #2: Not Knowing How to Accomplish It

Another thing that gets us overwhelmed when we set our goals is not knowing how to accomplish them. When we don’t know how to do something we will often avoid it or procrastinate on it. Procrastination is more often an emotion management problem instead of a time management problem. So you have to figure out, okay, why am I procrastinating?

Is it because I’m afraid of failing? Is it because it’s something that I just don’t wanna do? Or is it because it’s something that I don’t know how to do? If it’s something that you don’t know how to do, break it down into steps that you do know how to do to point you in the right direction.

Overwhelm #3: Not Wanting to Do it

Also, maybe it’s something that we don’t want to do. So what should you do? You should delegate it or automate it. See if you can automate that task in your business. Do you not want to post to Instagram? Automate that. Or delegate it or outsource it to someone else. Another thing that you can do is look back and see if it’s something that you just need to let go of together. Is it something that does not serve you or is it something that’s not going to achieve your goals or not get you to where you want to be? Then you can just let that go. It’s totally okay to let it go.

But what if it’s something that you are avoiding either because you’re afraid of failure or you don’t know what to do? How can we break this down into micro-goals that are gonna help us beat overwhelm so that we can crush our goals consistently every single time?

The Key: Micro-goals

Well, the key to overcoming fear in business is to sit down and break that goal down into small action steps. I feel like I talk about this so much on the podcast, but it’s because it’s so important. Break it down into small action steps that you know you can do.

So let’s take the start of a podcast example. Instead of saying, I want to start a podcast, what should you do? First, you have to break it down into steps. So you might want to make your action step first be I want to interview three podcast hosts that I know or that I admire. See if I can get three people and ask them about their process and get advice from them and figure out what the hang is for you.

Is it not knowing what tech to use? Not knowing how to come up with topics? Or is it fear of speaking in front of people? Figure out what it is that is keeping you from accomplishing the task and ask other business owners, and other podcast hosts, how they overcome that.

Break it Down into Actionable Steps

The micro goal would be to find three podcast hosts to talk to. That is something that is way more attainable than just starting a podcast. Brainstorm a list and then go through, pick three, reach out to them and then ask them to tell you their process. Lots of people would be more than willing to tell you their process. (If you’ve been wanting to start a podcast, by the way, I’m gonna be doing an episode on that very soon. So stay tuned for that)

The next step would be after you’ve interviewed people to figure out what your audience wants. Let’s break that down. Put a poll on Instagram, send out an email to your list, ask on your Facebook posts, put some question stickers up there on your, on your podcast, or reach out to your most common followers. Do you know those people who are always liking your posts and always in your DMS responding to things? Reach out to five people and say, what do you want to hear from me?

Give Yourself Easy Wins

We’re breaking down start a podcast into something that’s actionable. Something that you can do. Number one, find three podcast hosts to talk to. Number two, ask the podcast host about their process. Thirdly, figure out what the theme of your pod podcast is going to be.

So how do you find out what those micro-goals should be? You just need to sit with the idea and do a little bit of digging and say, okay, if I could break this down into the smallest possible steps, what would that be? And if you need to get even smaller, do that.

Ask Yourself How You Feel

So once you come up with a step, ask yourself, how do I feel about this step? If you’re feeling like, oh, this is easy. I can do it. Then that’s a sign that it’s a good micro goal for you to have. If you’re feeling, oh, this is scary. This is overwhelming. I don’t know if I can do this, ask yourself why you feel that way. See if you can dig in. Why do I feel like this is overwhelming? And go three Whys deep.

Ask yourself, why does this make me scared? And then come up with your answer. And whatever that answer is, ask yourself why again. You’ll come up with a deeper answer and then whatever that is, ask yourself why one more time. And then you have your deep desire. Or if it’s a pain point, ask why it’s your deepest pain point. That’s going to help you get to unlock those feelings of fear and overwhelm and figure out what it is that you can do.

See if there’s a way to break it down into something that doesn’t have those fears or those feelings of overwhelm associated with them. What is something that you can do that you can take action on that you can achieve right away?

Mindset is Everything

A huge mindset shift that I’ve had to make at my business over the last few months is believing that what I want is possible. And if you’re setting goals that overwhelm you and scare you, that’s good because it’s a sign that you’re getting out of your comfort zone. But it might lead to overwhelm and procrastination.

So you have to ask yourself, what is it that scares me? Why does this scare me? And how can I make this into something that I can actually achieve?

If you want more help on this topic, go to christijohnsoncreative.com/8 for How to Plan a Really Big Project Without Feeling Overwhelmed.

A Free Resource for You

Also, I have a free resource for you. It’s the top five goal-setting mistakes that I hear and see people making and how to avoid them. I really think you are gonna find some real value from this resource. I break it down and tell you the solutions to each one and being too vague is the very first one on there. But there are four more that I think will be helpful for you in terms of crushing your goals consistently. So head over to christijohnsoncreative.com/mistakes to download that free guide.

Don’t forget to Pin this to Pinterest!