Three ingredients that will help you make real progress on your goals
Have you ever set yourself a goal with the grandest of intentions and all of the excitement to finally bring it to life and then found yourself cleaning the house, returning dead plants to Bunnings for an embarrassing refund and scrolling social media apps while watching TV in the background? That was me on Tuesday—the day after having my most productive Monday of the new year and feeling like I was ready to take on the world and nothing could stop me.
It got me thinking about how easy it is to ride the new year wave of setting goals, intentions and to-dos but when it comes to acting on them, things don’t always go to plan.
In my 12 years of business coaching, I’ve come to realise that there is no shortage of good ideas. Whether or not those ideas ever become reality comes down to the actions that the person with the idea does —or does not —take.
So how do you avoid inaction?
Focus, time and motivation are in my opinion three of to most vital resources for a creative entrepreneur, business owner or ambitious person wanting to take an idea and make it a reality. They are the key ingredients of a potent elixir that helps to spur one into action. They can’t be bottled, taken in tablet or smoothie form, but appear at times often completely unpredictably; and yet, seem to disappear as quickly as an ice cream meting on a 40 degree day if we’re not paying attention.
Without time, the right focus and ample motivation we simply do not take action. And without action there is no progress. No progress leads to stagnation, frustration, quitting, self doubt, self sabotage, in-action, settling for less and fear.
A littler progress is better than none, no matter how small. I noticed this in myself this week after going to the gym once this year (it’s only week 3). I already feel more confident that I can reach my fitness goals, am proud of myself for signing up and the sore muscles remind me that I’ve made some progress, no matter how small. Already I’m motivated to stick at it.
So why time, focus and motivation? How do we obtain them and attempt to hold onto them?
Time —
Makes the most sense right? You can’t take action if you don’t have time. The thing about this important ingredient to the magic elixir is that it’s easy to trick yourself into thinking that time is limited and that once allocated it’s impossible to get more of. The truth is that we allocate our time based on what we value the most and often we make those decisions unconsciously. We give our time to our habits, routines and let’s be honest, addictions— social media, phones, TV & distractions based on patterns of our past.
If you want to create something new for your life you have to create new ways of using your time to better allocate the hours and days in your schedule to alleviate enough time to take action on your goals. Time is abundant or as Mick Jagger would say, on your side— you just have to take charge of how you’re using it, decide what matters most to you and how much of it you are willing into invest in your goals.
Focus —
So now that you’ve decided when you’re going to spend time on your idea, you’ll need to harness your focus so as to execute the task at hand. The thing is, time expands when you’re focus is optimised so even if you only have a small about of time to invest in your idea to begin with, by optimising your focus you can stretch that time and get more done.
Have you ever noticed that when you get lost in a task and by the time you’ve finish more time has passed than you perceived? That is a result of the laser focus that you spent dedicated only on the task. Your focus warped time and time expanded.
The ironic thing about time and focus is that the less time that you have the more you tend to get done if your focus is right. Making focus an enhancer of the ingredient time in the elixir formula.
The more attention you give to optimising your focus rather than managing your time, the more likely you are to achieve the task at hand. Remember that we said that this is about making progress no matter how small. It’s better than staying stagnate.
Motivation —
I truly believe it’s not the idea that counts as much as the person who’s willing and able to act on it, consistently.
Motivation is by far one of the hardest ingredients of the elixir to cultivate and store. Inevitably we are all human beings that exist in an ever changing world riddled with variables mostly beyond our control. From the natural cycles of seasons, life events and outside distractions that make it increasingly hard to stay motivated to work towards an end goal.
It’s not to say it can’t be done, it just requires more effort than the other two ingredients in this recipe for success.
motivation | ˌməʊtɪˈveɪʃn | noun. a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way.
You’ll need to dive a litter deeper below the surface in order to cultivate motivation and work a little harder to activate the muscles and get it to work in your favour. Motivation requires you to break old habits and replace them with new ones that might not always feel right, easy or natural but when you give it time and focused attention you’ll tap into a source that will catapult you in a forward moving direction that will result in progress. Progress will feed your motivation and encourage you to keep taking action.
You can’t fake it but you can hack it.
How do I cultivate these ingredients in my life?
A Morning Routine
One the best ways to claim back your time is by starting your day with a morning routine. It doesn’t need to be a ten step, regimented proven strategy you saw on TikTok. Instead to should be something that suits you and your schedule and allows you to start with a clear intention of how you’d like to spend your time today.
For me this varies from a mediation, a workout, a few deep breaths before I get out of bed, a coffee in my backyard, reading, journaling or walking with a podcast. The idea is to carve out time, no matter how small where you can take a minute to decide where you will allocate your focus and how you will use your time to move you in the direction of your goals.
We so often fall into familiar habits of doing the same thing day in, day out without consciously deciding if what we are focusing our attention on and using our time for is what we want. When you start your day with a simple routine that puts you in the drivers seat of your focus and time you are more likely to steer your life in the direction you want to be going.
You might like to start small with a simple reflection reviewing how the day before went for you, what worked, what didn't , how could you improve, what’s your intention for the day ahead and what could you do differently to help you make progress?
Download: Morning Routine Guided Reflection & Journal
Read: Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, Dr Joe Dispenza
Lists, Goals and Plans
Each day our brains are processing thousands of pieces of information from the conversation we’re having, the media we’re consuming, our work, thoughts, feelings and to-do lists. In the midst of all that noise we’re expected to be able to tune most of it out and focus on tasks that often require a great deal of energy to be able to execute.
Writing out your goals and breaking them down into actionable plans and clear to-do lists helps our brains to get to work on simple tasks one thing at a time.
I’m a huge fan of lists, plans and goals! I have them on my walls, in my notes section, my journal and notebooks. Carve out time to zoom out and get clear on a specific end goal then make a plan as to how you’re going to get there. A clear plan will help you to allocate the necessary time, resources and energy required to take the steps that will get you there.
Get in touch for 1:1 Business Coaching to get an outside perspective and I’ll help you make a plan.
Last year I feel in love with vitamin IV Drips and NAD+ thanks to a chance meeting I had with Rosy from IV League Drips. Rosy was a guest on my podcast where we spoke about how she was one of the first people to really champion vitamin IV drips in Australia. Throughout the interview I was taken by Rosy’s passion for the work she does and interested to give it a go. I can honestly say that the treatments were game changer for me and completely shifted the way that I worked in 2025. I had more energy, focus, sleep and overall better health.
My partner and I did a 5 week NAD+ treatment plan and documented the almost instantaneous results from day one.
Over the years I’ve tried many different ways to optimise my health, focus, energy and motivation. I’ve tried meditation, manifesting, ice baths, vitamins and marathons.
I’m a big believer in getting help to optimise your body so that you can show up in your life and work with the energy you need to achieve your goals. There are many different ways you can enhance your energy and focus which will in turn expand your time and increase your motivation. Moral of the story is that you have to do what’s right for you — and for me it’s been IV drips which puts vitamins straight into my veins.
If you’re feeling a lack of focus, motivation — sometimes it could be physical and there are things we can do to help improve our health which will help us with our goals.
So there you have it, my top 3 ingredients to a magic elixir that will help you to take action on your goals and dreams this year. If you find yourself feeling stuck, distracted or unmotivated, take some time to consider what might be holding you back— time, focus or motivation? Noticing what ingredient you might need more of and implementing habits and routines that will help you balance out the tonic and get you back on your way.
For me personally, I find looking at my progress through this lens empowers me to take back control of how I’m spending my days and put practical things in place to keep me moving in the direction of my wildest dreams.
