Recent Newsletters
January 2009 -
How to Actually Achieve Your Goals –
Part 1, Defining your Goals
Sometimes, life’s responsibilities and daily routines stand in the way of achieving even simple goals that we have set for ourselves. I’ve written this 3 part series to help you finally jump the hurdles and get you on the fast track to success and happiness!
Step 1 - Define your goals.
The first step to achieving your goals is to clearly define what those goals are. Start by identifying your top two goals. If you are having difficulty with this, prioritize which goals you want to work on first. You can always repeat this exercise later with the other goals on your list.
Step 2 - Steps to achieving your goals.
Write your top two goals on separate pieces of paper. Next, on each piece of paper make a list of all the tasks you currently know of that will help you achieve that goal. For example, let’s say you are starting your own business. Steps to achieving this goal may include defining what your business is ( are you selling products or a service?), determining your target market, and figuring out a marketing plan. Repeat this exercise with your second goal.
Step 3 - Organize your tasks.
Once you are finished listing the tasks you need to do to achieve your two goals, go back to your first goal and begin to put a plan together. Chances are you already have your plan written down, just not in order. The best method for putting together a plan is to start with you goal and work backwards. For example, say my goal is to meet my soul-mate. Referring to my list for that goal I might notice that the order of my tasks just needs to be changed. I may have included "go on dates" in my list as the first item. This task might actually be the last thing I do before finding my soul mate. Working backwards from my goal , I might also see that I wrote "Join a dating service". That would be the second last task. Before that I might need to identify what I am looking for in a soul mate so that when I start dating, I will know what is important to me. Continue to your arrange your list from your end goal to your first step. The last task you write (the first task for you to do) should read,"Today I am beginning my journey to reach my goal of (name your goal)."
Congratulations! You have just created your own step-by-step plan. Now lets give your plan an extra boost. Write a list of reasons why you want to achieve each goal. This will help make it real for you. By writing down concrete reasons to why you want something, you will help your brain store the information. It will help motivate you at those times when you hit a challenge. When you feel stumped, pull out your list and look at all the reasons you wanted to achieve this goal.
Keep an eye our for my next newsletter in which I will share with you Part 2 How to Actually Achieve Your Goals.