Goals
Break Up Your Goals
Breaking big goals into chunks will help you accomplish more.
A big dilemma regarding setting goals is to keep them powerful. We all want to accomplish things in life, but setting goals that are too general is going to make it difficult to accomplish them. It’s also going to be difficult to measure how you’re doing. The best approach is to break them into chunks.
Think of the chunks of your goals as action items.
These actions are measurable units that you put into milestones. You need to set them up in a way that holds you accountable. Otherwise, they won’t get accomplished.
Create Action Steps
Write your goals and action steps down on paper. Put them in a place where you can view them every single day. I prefer to use a planner that I keep open on my desk and I can take it with me anytime.
The Planner Pad is very unique in design and it keeps everything visible so I can see exactly where I need to take more action.
It’s okay to record them electronically as well, although some people find it difficult to keep both the paper version and electronic version in sync. It’s a personal preference. If you feel you can succeed with just one or the other, that is the way to go.
Dream Big and Mix with Action
It’s okay to dream big with your goals but be realistic about accomplishing them.
When you break your goals down into action steps and find they are not within your ability or skill set to accomplish within the specified periods, rework them until you find the right mix of actions or get the help you need to move forward.
Eliminate Frustration
Making the goals and actions too difficult will set you up for frustration when you’re not being able to accomplish them.
Evaluating how well you accomplish the action steps will go a long way in helping you succeed.
The set of actions will get you where you want to be. If you find you are stumbling on some of your action items, determine why and see if you can get back on track.
It is at this point you can recognize that you were too aggressive with the plan, and this will enable you to seek alternatives.
Keep Moving Forward Towards Your Goals
Move ahead with your actions and keep perspective. Understand that roadblocks are a natural part of the process.
If something worthwhile was easy, you wouldn’t need to have steps to accomplish it, and everyone would be doing it. It probably won’t be worth it either.
Overcoming obstacles gives people a sense of accomplishment, and it can help us grow.
In Summary
Setting goals is important. But creating action items related to them is the key to making them a reality.
It is much easier to perform smaller chunks of work than it is to take on a huge project and feel frustrated before you even get started.
Maybe you’ve heard this saying before...How do you eat a big salami? One bite at a time! The same goes for your goals!