In a perfect world, if you could do just one thing – a daily habit – every day that would set you up towards your yoga business goals, what would that be?
And I’m not talking about drinking coffee – even though that morning brew does make the rest of the day much easier.
I’m talking about a daily habit that gets your brain rolling. An exercise– physical or mental– that puts you in the right frame of mind to get to the work at hand. It could be something that helps you focus, relax, center, reimagine, or whatever it is that makes everything else in your life easier.
Or maybe it’s a list of steps you can take to reach a long-term goal you have in mind.
Do you have that one thing? And how do you make your one thing a daily habit for success?
Because daily habits are the engine that moves us toward our yoga business goals.
When you’ve identified a goal or an outcome you want to work towards, what you need to get there is a system that will propel you in that direction and that system requires forming a habit – something that you do consistently day after day.
There is value in small things done consistently over time. Which means that our most basic actions and seemingly inconsequential routines are actually the key players moving our life in whatever direction it is going.
“What’s the ONE Thing you could do, such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary?”
How do you find your ONE Thing?
Everyone is going to be different and arrive at their one big thing by taking a different path. But here are a few ways to get started.
Determine your next big goal
The very first step to determining what your one thing is to ask yourself what you’re working towards.
I’m sure if you asked yourself right now, you’d probably already know the answer. Perhaps it’s to increase the number of clients you teach privately so that you can teach fewer studio classes and free up your time. Maybe your next big yoga business goal is to develop new income streams by taking your yoga business online.
So what is your next big yoga business goal?
This could include a long-term goal you’re moving toward or even just a new way of moving through your day. Whatever your goal is, make sure it’s clear, write it down, and move on to the next step.
Not sure what your next big goal should be?
Decide what daily habit you need to reach that big goal
Now that you have your one main goal in mind, it’s time to figure out what it will take to get there. What is the Daily Habit you must develop to achieve your big yoga business goal?
Not sure what that means? Here are some examples:
- Goal: Writing an e-book on how to develop a home yoga practice. Daily Habit: Writing at least 1000 words a day.
- Goal: Launching your yoga website. Daily Habit: Working through an online course that takes you through the process step by step.
- Goal: Increasing number of private clients. Daily Habit: Following a private client marketing plan to attract new clients (creating and posting content, gathering testimonials, offering incentives for client referrals, expanding the network for endorsements, writing blog posts that position you as an expert in teaching private yoga).
- Goal: Starting a blog. Daily Habit: The steps it will take to create and start a blog (setting up your blog platform, creating a content calendar, setting up your blog site, etc).
- Goal: Launching an online product. Daily Habit: Following the items in a product launch timeline to hit your deadlines (students surveys, product creation, beta testing, building your email list, email content, etc).
Get the picture?
As your goals change, you’ll also change the daily habit you dedicate time to every day.
The problem with how we usually set goals
If you’re anything like the typical human, then you have dreams and goals in your life. In fact, there are probably many things — large and small — that you would like to accomplish.
That’s great, but there is one common mistake we often make when it comes to setting yoga business goals. (I know I’ve committed this error many times myself.)
The problem is this: we set a deadline, but not a schedule.
We focus on the end goal that we want to achieve and the deadline we want to do it by.
The problem with this is that if we don’t magically hit the arbitrary timeline that we set in the beginning, then we feel like a failure … even if we are better off than we were at the start. The end result, sadly, is that we often give up if we don’t reach our goal by the initial deadline.
The power of setting a schedule, not a deadline
In my experience, a better way to approach your yoga business goals is to set a schedule to operate by rather than a deadline to perform by.
Instead of giving yourself a deadline to accomplish a particular goal by (and then feeling like a failure if you don’t achieve it), you should choose a goal that is important to you and then set a schedule to work towards it consistently.
That might not sound like a big shift, but it is. Productive and successful people practice the things that are important to them on a consistent basis – they create habits for success.
For people that are top performers in their fields, it’s not actually about the performance, it’s about the continual practice.
“Do Your Practice and All is Coming” ―Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois.
The focus is on doing the action, not on achieving X goal by a certain date.
The schedule is your friend. You can’t predict when you’ll have a stroke of genius and write a moving blog post or record the best take for an online class, but the schedule can make sure that you’re working when that stroke of genius happens.
Identify the distractions
There are certain things that interrupt the schedule – distractions. Identifying the big distractions in your life right now will help you recognise them as they come and consciously put them aside.
When you’re constantly inundated with distractions, you’ll never fully be able to sync into your creativity. You’ll always be stifled and left overwhelmed and over-stretched by everything in your life.
Maybe it’s scrolling social media, constantly checking email, or even cleaning the house. Whatever tasks, to-do items, or subconscious habits you’ve created that take up what could be a useful time in your day, it’s time to let them go.
Time block
- Your next big goal.
- The habit you need to succeed.
- You have a schedule.
- You’ve set aside distractions.
- Now it’s time to create space.
Setting up blocks of time on your calendar will make it more likely that you’ll actually start working. If you say, “Oh I’ll do it at some point today,” my money is on the fact that you’re never going to get around to it.
Blocking out those few hours in your calendar of uninterrupted time not only signifies to yourself that it’s dedicated goal time, but it also shows other people that you are in a “no distractions” zone. Block those times off as “busy” so no one can set up a meeting or a call with you.
This is your time every day to focus on developing your habit for success. Do whatever it takes to make this time sacred.
It’s about creating a ritual every single day.
Put in the work
All that’s left at this point is to make it happen.
It doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that.
Just show up every day and put in the work it takes to accomplish big yoga business goals.
And don’t forget…
- Have fun. You need that spark of delight and joy to help keep you going when times are challenging.
- Stay accountable. Tell your friends, family and students about what you’re doing and keep them posted on your progress.
- Give yourself 60 days. On average, most of us need 60 days to form a new habit. Give yourself some time.
If you want to be the type of person who accomplishes things on a consistent basis, work on developing daily habits and then give yourself a schedule to follow, not a deadline to race toward.
