Read time: 3 min

What is something major in your life that you’ve wanted to develop but keep running short on time?

• Starting a business

• Creating meaningful activities or adventures with your family

• Building muscle or losing weight

• Becoming an expert musician

• Learning a new trade or skill

Anything you want to accomplish takes time and effort, yet most days are filled with all the responsibilities that keep your world moving. What you expected to be free time scattered throughout your day or week is quickly filled with additional tasks, curve balls, or crisis.

I want to share something that has helped me begin to make progress in the big things I’ve been putting off. PAY YOURSELF FIRST.

Let me explain.

Have you heard a version of this quote? The idea is to take the first line item of your expense book to put money into your investments, retirement, savings, or other funds that will fuel your well being and growth. After you do that, then take care of the people you owe money to.

The greatest financial minds follow the principle of paying yourself first, but why stop there?

I decided to pay myself first, with my time.

Each morning, I began the day by tackling tasks that would help move my big thing along. In my case, it was starting a business. From there, I ended up adding too many things to each list and found myself finishing less than half of what I set out to do.

This is where the “three steps” element came into play.

I decided it was more important for me to know that I would complete three important tasks rather than hope to complete a huge list.

Okay. Here’s my challenge to you. I know you got this.

1. Decide which big thing it is that’s been looming over you

2. Tonight, write down the three most important steps to move it forward

3. Tomorrow morning, complete those three steps

4. Repeat #2 and #3 every day

A word of caution:

Don’t include MEGA tasks in there that actually require 10-15 steps and a few hours to complete. You’ll quickly get discouraged. If the next big thing is, let’s say, building a website. Then break that out into manageable tasks.

1. Secure a domain name

2. Research web hosting platforms

3. Pick a platform and sign up for a plan that suits you

From there you can add tasks for the following days and weeks to build out pages, set up links, tie in your social accounts, and enhance it from there.

I can’t wait to hear what big thing you’re tackling. It starts today. Let’s go!

Growth and development, both as a parent and a professional, is something I research daily. Each week, I’ll share content that has positively impacted my ongoing growth. I hope you get something out of them too.

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