Short-Term Goals to Overcome Any Challenge | Jack Canfield

You know, we're living in a time when a lot of people are dealing with a lot of really big challenges in their lives. We're still dealing with the effects of a pandemic, and a lot of people are out of work and many businesses are really struggling. There's a lot of tension in politics and in our society, which means a lot of us are struggling with some very difficult situations in our lives. And that's why I'd like to teach you a simple way to use short term goals to successfully overcome any challenge, no matter how overwhelming it might seem to you right now. You probably heard the saying, God will never give you anything you cannot handle. Now, whether you call it God, the universe, or life, or source energy, this is something I deeply believe. None of us is ever presented with a problem that we don't ultimately have the capacity to solve. Now, it might require you to step out of your comfort zone and acquire new knowledge, develop new qualities like courage and perseverance, learn new skills, ask for help, or join up with others. But if you choose to believe it's possible and decide to make the effort, you can absolutely solve any problem. Here's the thing about difficult situations. They may present big problems, but they also present big opportunities. See, if the universe has put an obstacle in your path, it means it's time to learn the lesson that that challenge is meant to teach you. Because every challenge you experience either teaches you something or requires you to grow. It provides you with valuable experience and knowledge and wisdom that you can use to overcome that same or other challenges in the future. But in order to learn the lesson or the lessons that this difficult situation is trying to teach you, you have to first face that problem and deal with it head on. And the thought of doing that can often be overwhelming. That's because problems require us to grow. They require us to step out of our comfort zone and do something we've never done before. They put us in uncomfortable situations and force us to confront what may seem like our own inadequacies. And they show us where we need to grow in order to become the kind of person who is capable of solving our problems. And that is ultimately really powerful stuff, but can also be very intimidating when you're forced to do something you've never done before. You literally can find yourself in a situation where you have no idea what to do or even where to start. And that's why so many people try to avoid their problems and pretend they don't exist. But avoiding your problems almost always ends up making them far Worse, you'll get a lot better results and so much faster if you face the problem and tackle it head on. And the good news is no problem is so overwhelming that it can't be dealt with and solved. All you have to do is chunk it down into small manageable pieces and then deal with those pieces one at a time. So today I want to teach you a powerful method of using short term goals that will help you do just that. And this method is called the Rule of five. And it's a simple system that I've used for many years to overcome challenges and achieve any goal I've set for myself. And here's how it works. First off, identify the outcome you want to achieve. Now, if you're dealing with a difficult situation right now, maybe you've been laid off and you need to find a new job, or you're in a toxic relationship and you either need to heal it or to end it, your big goal could be to resolve that difficult situation. Whatever it is, I'd like you next to then brainstorm a list of all the steps you would need to take in order to solve that problem. Now, you might not know what those steps should be, and that's okay. In that case, one of your steps should be to do some research to find out how other people have solved that problem so you can follow in their footsteps. Now, once you've done some brainstorming, I encourage you to create a mind map that allows you to break down those steps into smaller steps if necessary. Now, mind map is simply you take your problem, you put it into the middle, come up with this, get a big piece of paper, whiteboard, whatever, and in the middle of that put the solution you want to have. And then you put all these little branching lines out. You can go online, you can find out all about mind maps, there's a lot of research out there, a lot of articles online, etc. But the idea is you think of every possible thing you could do that would help you get to the end of the goal that you want to have as a solution to your problem. And when you get all these little things out, then you're able to break each step into the bite sized chunks that you've written out on the page, and you'll find that this problem seems less overwhelming to you and you'll have a clearer path to success. Now your next step is to start implementing the Rule of Five to create an achievable plan to complete those steps. Now, the Rule of Five is simply the commitment to do five steps a day. So you're going to have this list of all these things you need to do and you simply have to take five action steps every day. So what I recommend is the night before you go to bed or when you're about to leave work, make a list of the five most important things you can do the next day to get you to the solution to this problem that you have. And then each day you're going to be working on checking off all those five things. So the next day make those tasks your top priority. And don't go to bed until you've crossed off all five tasks on your list. Now, to use the rule of five property, your daily goal shouldn't be too ambitious. The idea is to choose five tasks that you absolutely can get done in a day, given all of your other commitments, responsibilities and chores that you have. So if you're looking for a job, your daily task could be to apply to five different job listings each day, or to speak to five different managers who are hiring. Or maybe it's ask five friends to look over your resume and provide you with feedback on how to improve it. And if you're looking for love, maybe you could join an online dating service and swipe right on five potential profiles. Now, if you want to learn how to become a better ally for African Americans and addressing the racism and social justice issues that are out there now, maybe you could commit to reading five articles a day written by black writers. If you want to heal a broken relationship, maybe you could take five steps a day that would help you do that. Perhaps by reading helpful articles or reaching out to the person that you're having a relationship issue with by email, or creating a list of things you would like to say to that person. Whatever steps help bring you closer to your goal, making a decision can be a step. Now sending an email can be a step. Reading an article or watching a YouTube video can be a step. But by taking steady action in small bite sized steps toward your desired result, you'll be amazed at how much progress you can make and how quickly you can make it. And that's how you take overwhelming problems and use goal setting and the rule of five to chunk them down and solve them in little small bite size achievable daily tasks. And like I said, no problem is so big it can't be broken down into those bite sized tasks that you absolutely can't achieve. You know, I conduct an online coaching club with over 400 members in it and one of them recently said on a recent call that his biggest challenge was to leave his toxic relationship with his wife. Now they had tried to improve their relationship and they had failed and he was at the end of his rope and he knew he needed to leave the relationship in order to be happy, but he just couldn't imagine himself doing seemed like such an overwhelming challenge to him. How do I even begin? He said. And I said, well, it's simple. You book an appointment to talk with a lawyer. You don't have to make any big decisions or do anything other than that right now. One simple step, simply make the phone call, take book the appointment. Because once you've talked to a lawyer, you will have a much better idea of what your options are and what you need to do next. By the end of the day he had made that appointment, his next step forward was clear to him, and he began to believe that the happiness he desired is possible for him to achieve. Now, of course, because he was a member of my coaching club, he also got a lot of emotional support from the other club members and that really helped him make the decision to take the action he needed to take. So when you're identifying the steps you need to take to overcome your difficult situation and achieve your goal, maybe one of those steps will need to be build my support team. Because you're probably going to need the help and support of other people to achieve your goal. And getting them on board early in the process will help provide you with the encouragement and support you need to help you achieve results faster. And here's the wonderful thing about the rule of five. Every time you go to bed at night, with all five of your daily action steps crossed off your list, you will reinforce your perception of yourself as someone who takes action and get results. And that will boost your motivation and your self confidence and inspire you to take even bigger actions and create even more bigger goals and more actions that you can cross off your list. So that's how you can use the rule of five in short term goal setting to transform even the biggest obstacle into a totally resolvable challenge. All you have to do is have patience, stay committed to your goals and take small but consistent actions every single day and you will achieve your desired outcome. If you encounter any setbacks, as you undoubtedly will, you know they show up. Don't let it derail your progress. Simply take a deep breath and get back up and take action again. Because if you stay true to your dreams and you take steady, consistent action toward your goals, you will be able to accomplish any goal you can imagine. So the next time you're dealing with a big problem, I want to challenge you to instead to view it as an incredible opportunity to learn, grow, and become even more successful. Because the lessons you learn and who you become in the course of overcoming that problem could be life changing. And let me know your thoughts in the comments. So thanks again for watching and here's to being an unstoppable problem solver. Now, if you found this video helpful, please make sure to like it. Share it with a friend or family member who may need it. Make sure to subscribe to my channel for more videos like this one, and for some additional tools and resources for overcoming challenges and achieving big goals. Make sure to visit jackcampfield.com and also check out the links below.