Your Effort is in Your Control

However much effort you expect it to take to hit your goal, 10x it.

If you think you need to talk to 5 people a day – find a way to talk to 50.

If you think you need to get 10 people in your Facebook Group each day, find a way to get 100.

If you think you need to write 200 words of your book a day – imagine what would shift if you committed to 2000 words a day.

The beauty of increasing your effort is that nothing else needs to change.

No one needs to give you permission.

You don’t need to wait for anything.

You have total control.

No matter how crazy the outside world gets, you always have the power to put in 1000% effort.

And it doesn’t have to mean putting in more time or hustling yourself into the ground.

You can win or lose a game of tennis in the same 90 minutes.

You can write 100 words or 1000 words in the same 60 minutes.

You can send the same email to 5 people or 50 people in 10 minutes.

I learned this lesson because of the wild ride that 2020 threw at us all.

I didn’t have a choice but to put in 10x more effort than ever before. Not 2x. Not a bit more. 10x more.

• I went down to the mall and asked strangers to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

• I posted in over 250 other Facebook groups.

• When I first started my Facebook group, I’m not kidding when I say I spent 3 hours a day, every single day for a month to grow it to 500 members. (I’ve got the excel spreadsheet of my effort if y’all want to see!).

I started believing in my ability to control my own results. Because I control my effort.

How will you put in 10x more effort for your goal this week? 

Journaling Question

What are you focusing on right now that is unhelpful for reaching your goal? What could you focus on this week instead?

It's Okay to Show Up & Screw Up

It’s better to show up and suck at what you do than to not show up at all.
It’s about building the habit of showing up.
Sometimes I write absolutely shocking blog posts. And you know what? I’m okay with that.
Because part of the deal of writing a blog post every day for two years is that some of them are going to suck.
I’m on board with that.
One day, I’ll be able to look back and see my journey.
I already feel like my work is 10x better than it was when I started blogging – EVEN on the days when it totally sucks. At least it sucks 10x less than it did before.
But that’s only because I keep showing up and giving myself opportunities to suck at writing a little bit less.
My new mantra: showing up and screwing up is better than never showing up at all.

Bringing the Joy

Personal update: I’ve been working on showing up from a place of abundance and joy and I’m in love with it.

A few days ago I wrote about How to Hustle and ever since then, I’ve been taking it to a whole new level. It’s SO good to feel good and take action FROM feeling good rather than taking action TO feel good.

I’ve been doing that by spending more time dancing, watching Queer Eye (how can anyone watch that show and not feel like a million dollars afterward?!), and hanging out with actual, real-life friends in person (aka, not on Zoom).

What do you do to bring the joy in your life?

How to Love Yourself AND Still Go After Your Impossible Goals

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A post shared by Sarah Arnold-Hall (@saraharnoldhall)

There are two kinds of value:

Intrinsic value, and achieved value.

Intrinsic value is the value each of us possess as beings. Babies have it, animals have it, even the world’s worst dictators have it. It can’t be altered by what we do in the world.

Achieved value is the value we create with our actions. We have the power to alter it.

So often, we confuse the two. In this video I’m sharing how important it is to separate them, and how to love yourself along your impossible goals journey.

Everything Can Change in A Year

I was doing my taxes today and I realised that this time last year, I was still making £7 an hour answering calls about lost cats at a call centre.

For real.

I had to double-check the dates because so much has changed since then.

I had one coaching client at the time. I had already quit two other jobs to go after my goals - and failed at my coaching business for two years straight. I slept on a mattress on the floor and did coaching calls at 11pm while my boyfriend was asleep in the same room.

Today, I have 17 clients and an epic Facebook group of almost 4000, and I got accepted into an elite mastermind as one of the youngest people they’ve ever taken. I'm my own boss and I'm the only one who pays me. I get to create my own schedule and take time off when I want to.

I’m absolutely bursting with gratitude for all of you who have been with me on this journey, and for my past self for believing in me even when it seemed like a pipe dream.

If you are where I was this time last year, this is where I tell you to keep going. Do not stop. YOU DO NOT STOP.

Even if it feels like it’s just ridiculously hard work to achieve your dreams right now.

People are gonna tell you that you should give up. I can't count how many times I heard the backhanded compliment “wow, if I were you, I would have given up by now.”

I remember reading transformation posts like this from other people – I’ve still got them saved on my computer.

It did feel possible. But also, it felt ridiculously far away with no pathway and no roadmap.

All I did was keep taking the next clear action.

Each small step is easy to reach from the one before.

It’s when we try to get to the top in one go that it feels impossible and want to give up.

All you have to do right now is take the next clear step.

That's what I'm doing to reach my next impossible goals.

Because if you never ever give up, you’ve got no option but to succeed.

I know it’s a cliché. But that’s because it’s worked for so many people that it has become one.

Never, ever, ever give up.

Self Love & Discipline

I don’t have to decide if I will show up for my goals today – because it’s not even a question. My actions are automatic.

But they weren’t always – my bestie Georgia will tell you she had to physically push PUBLISH on my first blog post for me because I had been procrastinating so much she couldn’t handle it anymore 😂

I was the WORST at getting up in the morning. I couldn’t get to work on time to save myself. 

When I stopped viewing discipline as restrictive, and started seeing it as the key to freedom, everything turned around.

You can be disciplined too.

Discipline is self love. It’s showing your future self how much you love her.

It’s doing the work in the morning so you can watch Netflix later, guilt-free.

Love yourself enough to give yourself the gift of self-discipline.

Find Waldo

Some of the best advice I’ve ever heard came from Kate White, ex-Editor in Chief of Cosmopolitan magazine:

When you want something, first find Waldo.

(Where I’m from, Waldo is called Wally (why did they need to rename him?) but you know the one, right? The guy dressed in a stripy red and white outfit from the children’s puzzle book?)

The idea is that there’s always someone who can give you what you want, or tell you exactly how to get it.

So often we try to do it on our own when if we just found Waldo, it would instantly make our goals 10x easier to achieve.

One of my clients had been trying to get work with a famous company for 5 months with no luck. We sent memos and emails and applied through their company website. Nothing. Crickets.

The moment she made contact with one of their employees, BAM – an instant referral to the CEO, who immediately offered her a job.

There is always a Waldo. Find them.

How to Hustle

Hustle gets a bad rap sometimes.

It’s said to cause burnout or exhaustion. But I don’t buy it.

Action isn’t what causes burnout.

Your thoughts and feelings are what cause burnout.

Because here’s the thing:

There are two different kinds of hustle:

1. Hustling from a place of lack

2. Hustling from a place of abundance

Hustling from lack = taking action to feel good

Hustling from abundance = taking action BECAUSE you feel good

You know you’re hustling from lack when:

• You’re feeling anxious and desperate

• Putting in a ton of effort feels painful and slow

• You’re taking action from a frantic, stressed-out place

• You feel like you have to force the outcome happen

• You’re micromanaging your to-do list

• You’re burning out

You know you’re hustling from abundance when:

• You’re feeling calm and certain

• Putting in a ton of effort feels easy and fun

• You’re taking action from an inspired place

• You know the outcome you want is already a DONE DEAL

• You’re doing it because you want to, not because you have to

• You never seem to run out of energy

The key to getting what you want with ease isn’t to stop taking massive action.

The key is to change the emotion that’s fuelling the action.

Before you take action, take 60 seconds to get yourself into a mental state of abundance.

Think about why your outcome is already a done deal.

Think about all the outcomes you’ve created in the past.

Think about why you are certain this is no different.

It will change the way you hustle forever.

The Decision To Be Disciplined

I don’t have to decide if I will show up for my goals today – because it’s not even a question. My actions are automatic.

But they weren’t always – my bestie Georgia will tell you she had to physically push PUBLISH on my first blog post for me because I had been procrastinating so much she couldn’t handle it anymore!

And I was the WORST at getting up in the morning. I couldn’t get to work on time to save myself. 

But when I stopped viewing discipline as restrictive and started seeing it as the key to freedom, everything turned around.

You can be disciplined too.

Decide that you will always choose the effort now to get the reward later.

Then you never have to make a decision about whether or not you show up for your goals today.

Because you’ve already decided you always will.