How Do You Become More Impactful?

Do you have days where you seem to be busy all day, working long hours yet no matter how much time you spend, you don’t seem to move forward on the important things? Life seems to be overwhelming. In our cutthroat world, where we’re continually expected to do more with less in order to remain competitive, this is a very common phenomenon. I’ve worked with clients in this situation who want to be more impactful both at work and personally. They feel like life has control of them as opposed to them having control of their lives. Sound familiar?

So how do you become more impactful?

1.Firstly, are you clear on what’s important and what’s urgent?

2. Have you set yourself one meaningful, important goal that will deliver greater impact either at work or personally? These types of goals tend to be “longer term” goals ie 3-6+months as opposed to something to be achieved within a day.

• Having something to aim for helps you to reorient and prioritise when you’re bombarded with multiple requests for your time and attention.

• Are you clear on the next steps and time frames that you need to take to help you achieve this goal?

3.Set healthy boundaries at work and in your personal life ie block off time to work on actions that will move you towards your goal.

4. Focus on one thing at a time. Resist the temptation to immediately respond to an email, phone call or someone coming to your desk. We’ve become so conditioned to being reactive - responding immediately to requests that it's easy to forget what’s important. You can always call back, respond to the email or find the person later when you’ve finished your task. Remember point 3 – healthy boundaries.

5. Focus on what you choose:

• What’s important to you? – Your goal.

• Having multiple goals means it’s difficult to stay focused - one thing at a time (point 4)

6. Choose what you focus on:

• There will always be competing priorities. Just choose the ones consciously and mindfully. For example, your major client asking for an emergency meeting is likely to be more important than finishing a report. Focus on the meeting and then go back to your report afterwards. Remember point 4 - focus on one thing at a time.

7. Check in with yourself and where you are in relation to your goal regularly. This highlights whether you’ve made progress - or not. It either means you need to refocus on taking actions that help you get closer to your goal; or you’re on track. Take a moment to celebrate your successes no matter how small they seem. This will help keep you motivated and keep going.

It all sounds rather straightforward and probably things you already know. So:

Why aren’t you as impactful as you’d like to be?

Do you have the right goal in mind? Do you have the awareness to intentionally focus on what you want despite the never-ending distractions and demands?

How important is it to you to be impactful? And are you willing to work with someone to help you achieve this?

Working with a coach can help you refine your goal so that’s it’s meaningful to you. This means you’re more likely to work towards achieving it. A coach will also help you become more accountable to yourself and help you clear your limiting beliefs so that you’re more likely to reach what you want.