Accomplish More With This App: Actionable Tips From Wantshes Founder And Team
Updated: Apr 15, 2020
It's a new day, and you wish your goal achievement game felt like the baseball player picture (thrill. energy. determination). Or like the one with the dancer (grace. triumph. joy).
But in reality, it's often more like: "Let me stay in my comfy bed a little longer" ...
When you want and plan so hard, it can be confusing to find yourself not making progress with your new year's resolutions or other goals.
In this post, let me share a few tips for how to stay focused and achieve your goals.
Mindset: personal tips
This is what last year taught me about a positive mindset:
1. Reflection and motivation are best friends
At the end of every day, I reflect on my day and think about it with gratitude.
> Great day? Perfect. I'm getting better and better - on to a greater tomorrow!
> Shitty day? I've learned. I'm still getting better and better - on to a greater tomorrow.
2. Being interested is always a win
I say "that's interesting! tell me more" - more often to people.
> Sounds like something I want to be part of? Great! Let's go do that.
> Not my cup of tea? I still learn what others do; we share inspiration.
3. "What can I do now?" Ask better questions
The trick is in the emphasis.
We can ask "WHAT can we do now?".
It's too easy to start overthinking about all options, both available and not available to you at that moment and delay action (actually doing something!).
But, "What I CAN DO", and even better, can do NOW, is a more empowering question because you know there's surely a some thing you can do. You know that you are perfectly able to carry on. And most importantly, the answer begins with action.
(Read the *footnote if you're interested in philosophy behind that)
With the positive mindset, how can I get started and really achieve my goals?
Our app was created to help solve this question. Here's my open and honest promotion - why I believe the app our team is building can help you and me with that, and how.
Action: Wantshes tips
Wantshes motivates you to start from the little things that make you happier
"With Wantshes, we don't want to encourage people to just watch someone else's good life and wishing they had something similar. Wantshes motivates you to get started. To take more time for the little things that make you happier", as Evgeniya ~ Jenny ~ our team leader and visionary for Wantshes, said to me in one of our conversations.
This makes sense to me. After all, when you choose to focus on these little things that sparkle joy and decide to share more happy moments with your favorite people, you fulfill your vision for a happier life.
When I use a goal setting app, the last thing I want to do is to get stuck in the scrolling-dreaming-procrastinating loop.
To help you maximize value from our app, I'll suggest how to spend your time on Wantshes app productively to achieve your goals in real life.
Here are the 5 steps to achieve your goals with Wantshes:
1. Think how your actions and activities help you to achieve your goals
I love that when you create a new wish, or a goal - wantshes, as we call them - you choose an action for each wantshes. This channels your energy into strategically planning ways by which you will turn your wishes into action.
For example, here are some of the things I have on my Wantshes:
I want to be strong and in great shape, so I start with “Latin dance class, GO” scheduled on Thursday evening
I also want to spend more time with my friend from high school. So, I plan “Coffee with Alice, DO” for next weekend
How about these French lessons I started taking before my dream trip to Paris? “French Food Vocabulary, LEARN”!
2. Achieve more together with your friends
There was this Quora thread where someone asked if it's a good idea to share your vision boards with others. While opinions differ, in our app (which is a bit like a mobile vision board) feel free to choose what works best for you.
I'm happy to share things that I read. Ideas for gifts I'd love to receive. Relationship wantshes, that's private for me. I'll share places I want to visit with my friends - so that we can go there together.
Choose to share personal wantshes, keep them for your eyes only ... or both!
It can be your personal battle or a social quest
Start exciting Challenges with your friends and accomplish more together
3. Give it another go
One of the most disappointing things with goal tracker apps for me is to see your goals expire/ left unchecked on due date if that's a traditional paper planner. On Wantshes, when I fail to complete wantshes on time, I can reflect why it did not work (do I need more time or skills to do it? Or maybe, I'm following someone else's dream, not what I really want?).
No worries! You can always change it, aim better and give it another try.
4. Learn new skills
Wantshes can be a great tool for everyone who wants to learn something new. Set multiple goals and activities that will get you closer to your desired mastery level. Then achieve them one. by. one.
This way you can make progress, get better at doing things that you love. Let’s say you’ve picked up a guitar. Add “PLAY Wonderful Tonight” as your wantshes, or get more specific: “LEARN D – F# chord change”.
When you complete the wantshes, you can store them as your achievement diary. Share your journeys to mastery and learn from others who are into the same thing as you.
5. Have your say and help us make Wantshes better for you
To make sure your Wantshes experience is the best, and the app really helps you to achieve your goals, the best thing you can do is to speak up.
Share your opinion, notes, comments, questions, suggestions on social media
Comment on this blog post
Review Wantshes on Appstore/ Google store
I'll do my best to answer everyone!
So, I hope that these tips will be useful to you to achieve your dreams and goals this time.
~~
* My reasoning in "what I can do" was inspired by this discussion about "what I can know" (pages 143-145 in the docs) from an old book on philosophy I found in a thrift store and that really motivated me.