- Taking Action to Conquer Your Goals
- Top 10 Ways to Be Accountable
Taking Action to Conquer Your Goals
Almost all of us have goals in life we’d like to reach, but many of us fail to see them through because we lack knowledge about how to get our most important goals out of our head and into reality.
Don’t let your goals become the kind that never happen. Follow these step-by-step instructions to create goals—and the actions needed to realize and complete them. By following this plan, you will be more apt to succeed at meeting your goals in your business and in your life.
1. Write it down.
- Many dreams are forgotten because we neglect to put them on paper. One day we’ll say, “Oh, yeah, I wanted to do that when I was younger.”
- No one says that you have to pursue all of the goals listed on the paper, but if you do choose to work towards some of them, you’ll remember what they were in the first place.
- One effective way to do this is to make your list of goals within a journal so that you have space for writing other lists that pertain to these goals as you work towards their completion.
2. Make a decision about the goals you’ve written down.
- Each goal has possibilities and difficulties. Begin a list of the pros and cons of each goal you wrote down in Step 1. This will help you narrow down your choices. Those with too many cons may need to be omitted from your list or at least moved to another list for now.
3. Are these goals for me?
- Now that you’ve narrowed the list of possible goals, how do you feel about each one? Take the time to list your feelings about the goals remaining on your list. Be sure to list positive thoughts, as well as any misgivings you may have. Decide which goals have priority now.
4. Create a plan for the goals.
- This goes for every goal, even if it won’t be pursued right now. Five years down the road, you may want to think about a business expansion or writing a book. When it comes time to look at this goal, you will already have a plan for achieving it. Each plan can be for a long-term or short-term goal. If plans for different goals mesh together, more than one goal can be pursued at a time.
- It might be smart, especially if this is your first time seriously working with goal planning, to focus on one or two goals right now and revisit the others at a later time. It’s always better to achieve goals in sequence than never reach any of them.
5. Divide and conquer in manageable steps.
- It’s easy to become overwhelmed when thinking about the big list of tasks required to complete a goal. Starting a business is a commitment of both finances and time. Remember, everything doesn’t have to be done all at one time. Steps or milestones allow for smaller goals to be achieved on the way to the bigger one. Outline carefully the significant points along the way to your goal.
6. Get moving.
- The hardest part is over. You have taken the time to put a plan in place and pursue the dream that may have lain dormant for years. Start with Step 1 and work your way forward.
- Taking action towards a goal does not have to seem overwhelming if you take the time to decide which goals are worth going after, plan the steps necessary to get to the desired result and simply get going with those steps.
- Before any goal can get off the ground, it needs a direction and a plan. Once you have the direction, it’s just a matter of checking things off your list until they are complete. Take things one step at a time and you’ll reach the finish line before you know it.
Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to weasel out of a commitment that we make only to ourselves. Sometimes all it takes is a promise to someone else to spur us to live up to our commitments. Here are the Top 10 ways to hold yourself accountable.
Top 10 Ways to Be Accountable
- Ask a friend, coworker or loved one to support your efforts.
- Have an accountability partner. Perhaps someone you see at trainings, or a work buddy.
- Set SMART goals (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and time-based). Then measure your results against them.
- Reward yourself. Make it really fun or pleasurable to achieve what you commit to!
- Work with a coach. A coach will remind you of your vision and commitments, and help explore your roadblocks to action.
- Create or join a “nag” group or a “dream circle”—any group of people you report to regularly.
- Keep accurate records and have others review them. For example, a bookkeeper could keep you accountable for producing monthly financials.
- Put money on it. You’ll get really serious!
- Publicly declare. Now your public reputation is riding on your word.
- Establish heinous consequences. Donate to an organization whose activities you abhor if you do NOT follow through on your commitment.
An executive coach can work with you to identify your current state (strengths, performance, and challenges) and the “perfect” or future state you wish to achieve. Working together, a plan/strategy is developed to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be. Meeting with your coach on a regular basis for support, guidance and encouragement you work through the co-developed strategy. The coach acts, in a totally confidential manner, much like a navigator and accountability partner while you take the actions necessary to achieve your goals.
As a coach, I don’t only work on the “what,” I also work on the ‘who,’ who you are and want to be. If you’re interested in exploring a coaching relationship, contact Bill Burtch at Harmony for a consultation at 901-272-7390 or [email protected]