Be mindful when setting goals and looking towards outcomes.

A goal is something you can achieve through the choices you make—something you have control over: where you alone determine success or failure.

The outcome is what MIGHT come when you meet your goal. Often, the outcome is only partially dependent on you and your choices.
You might do everything right, hit some rotten luck, and get a different outcome. It happens—but that's not failure.

Example:

STAYING focused or present is not something you can choose to do. There is no muscle to fix your attention. Distractions will come and your mind will wander, willpower be damned.

What you can control, is how often and quickly you return your focus to the task at hand.

Your goal then, is to make the right choice in those moments. Maybe for a one-hour period, you will return your attention to one specific thing each time you're drawn away—maybe within 5 seconds of being distracted.

As you work on this extremely achievable goal, the likely outcome is your attention span will increase. To what degree is outside of your control, but even if you don't go full zen on us, it's still a success—and each distraction that still pops up is just another opportunity to make a good choice.

--

This isn't semantics.

There is tremendous power in how you phrase things—especially if you have a particularly devious critic running around in your head. That voice thrives when presented with little opportunities to get a sneaky jab in.

When you set outcomes as your goals, that voice licks its lips. It knows there are a million ways to fail. "What are the odds the story you write actually gets picked up? And then, what are the odds it becomes a bestseller?" I don't know—I guess it's a longshot.

When you set choices and actions as your goal, the critic has a little less ammo to work with. Even if it tries to get a word in, it is completely within your power to show it how wrong it is (and ooooh it hates being wrong). "What are the odds you actually sit down and write for 45 minutes every day for a month to finish this book?" Odds have nothing to do with it.