Hi friend!
So you’ve set goals for yourself, wonderful! What’s the plan for success?
That’s a million dollar question in the world of goal setting. It’s such an important question yet not fully explored by many who wish to accomplish personal goals.
The idea of goal setting is much deeper than writing down a list of desired results that you envision for yourself in the upcoming future. Many people “set” goals without actually creating a plan to achieve them.
What people fail to realize is that creating a list of desired outcomes is just one part of the process. You are not done yet.
This is merely the first step, which is identifying your goals. There is a difference between goal identification and goal setting.
Goal setting is the plan of how you’re actually going to commit towards achieving those identified objectives.
This is the step that most people tend to fail at doing because they don’t have a mere clue on how to go about it.
If you’re serious about setting your goals, you need to assess how much effort you’re realistically willing to put into the process of making your goals come to life.
How much energy and effort are you willing to put before you burn out? How much is considered too little?
Finding the right balance is key in your journey because you want to make sure that you don’t give up as a result of burning out but you also don’t want to give too little focus on your plan to the point where you put it on the back-burner due to other priorities.
Being realistic about how much energy and effort you can put towards the process in a given time frame is also crucial.
If you’ve set for yourself a tight deadline, you may have to exert double the energy and effort to squeeze into the timeline that you’re trying to achieve. In which case, are you going to burn yourself out before you hit the end mark?
If your energy and effort is limited due to other responsibilities, that’s okay. When it comes to setting goals, everyone is different, lifestyles are different and responsibilities vary. A timeline that works for you may not work for the person sitting next to you.
Everyone is different so allow yourself to pace your plan at a speed and rhythm that fits your lifestyle, needs and responsibilities. The more you focus on your progress without comparing yourself to others, the more you can focus on your journey and your successes along the way without getting trumped.
Remember, goals that you set for yourself are yours only, not those around you. Stick to yourself, stick to your rhythm and be willing to accept the sacrifices and trade offs that you will need to endure to achieve your goal.
Be Creative in Your Process
A major mistake many people are guilty of is focusing on multiple goals at the same time. With school, work or home responsibilities, this added weight might just break you.
While it’s not impossible to do, it does require tremendous skill at time management. If you’re anything like me, time is a luxury we just cannot afford at this time in our lives. And, when it comes to energy...well, let’s just say that’s another limited resource.
For this reason, being smart about how you allot your time and energy is important. Prioritizing your goals is a great way in being smart about your time and effort.
The most common way that most of us prioritize goals is usually from most important to least important, which is not a bad technique. However, if you’ve set yourself a healthy list that you wish to accomplish, consider adding an extra step by identifying which of your most important goals are the easiest or fastest to achieve.
Now, let me clarify…A goal that is easiest or fastest in achieving is not necessarily easy when the goal is isolated. It all boils down to how much you’re willing to commit to the process. Is it a goal that requires less effort, less time, or less resources? Are you able to commit quicker?
Organizing your goals in a way that allows you to identify which important goals take less time or effort will allow you to better focus as you begin your journey. Be honest with yourself about your commitment to your goals.
If you are unable to commit, reflect on factors keeping you from committing. Is it really a hindrance that is out of your control or are the obstacles that you’ve identified choices made either intentionally or unintentionally (but controllable)?
When feeling stuck, open up to other resources that can help you gain a clearer mindset about your next steps. Write down your obstacles and do your research on potential solutions.
The internet is a powerful tool to search for solutions. See if others have crossed that same path of uncertainty that you’re going through and explore what they’ve found. There are many forums out there that can spark a light bulb or two in your mind. Take advantage!
If you are unable to relate to other people's journeys when searching the internet, learn about what you’re potentially getting yourself into. Knowledge is key y'all, the more you know about how to go about your plans, especially the pros and cons, the deeper foundation you will set in your commitment because your desire will either get stronger or weaker.
Now, the internet is not the only tool you can use. If you’re old school, there is nothing wrong with that. Knowledge is everywhere! It is on social media, in magazines and books! Get creative because at the end of the day, you have to put in the work to get what you want.
Invest in yourself, you’re worth it.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions and pick people’s brains. Sometimes in the process of pushing forward, we feel a strong force holding us back and sometimes this results from us narrowing our own mindsets about what we should be doing next.
When we drill a specific idea in our brains, it is difficult to see other options. Mentorship is a great way to expose yourself to brain picking.
Take a look at your social circle and see who is a mentor figure in your life. Many times we have mentors right before our eyes and we don’t even realize it because we’ve never put a label to their wisdom. Dare to ask questions and pick brains. Their insight might surprise you or, more importantly, ground your decisions even more.
Be Selective with Your Goals
Instead of going after all of the goals you have set for yourself for the year or the months to come, be strategic on which goals you should work on first.
Fully committing to individual goals will allow you to give undivided attention instead of splitting your limited time and energy into multiple efforts. There is no golden rule that says you must begin working on all of your goals at once, so allow yourself the peace of mind to work at a pace that works for you.
Remember, you must find that balance where you’re not burning yourself out but committing just enough to propel forward. Again, it’s your personal growth, your journey… your time. Who’re you trying to compete with?
Breathe my friend, you got this!
An awesome tip to consider is practicing goal selection. Circle the top goals you wish to accomplish from the list that you created.
If you have less than 10 goals, try circling your top 2 choices that you wish to work on. If you have 10 to 15 goals, aim for the top 3 choices. And, if you have more than 15, circle the top 5 choices.
Make sure to choose your circles wisely and take this exercise very seriously. Commit to your circling so that once you have taken that pen or pencil and have begun that circling process, there is no going back.
Trust your intuition and do not go back on your choices. The reason for standing your ground is that oftentimes, we doubt ourselves in the decision-making process, which results in losing confidence at achieving a certain outcome. Eliminate the possibility of self-doubt.
Once you have selected your circles, pat yourself in the back because you are graduating to the next step, which is the elimination process.
Elimination? Yasss friend! Yassss! Keep reading to continue getting your mind blown. :)
Dare to Eliminate Your Goals
So you’ve identified your top choices, congrats! The next step in your process is to separate those that you have circled from those that you did not. Rewrite your circled choices in another sheet of paper.
Get ready….
Take a moment… close your eyes… and breathe....
Take in the moment, get in your zen zone.
When you have exhaled, without thinking, take your original list and either put it away, tear it, throw it away… or burn it (we all got different riddance styles, pick your evil! No judgment).
WHAT?! But you’ve worked hard on brainstorming that list!... Okay, hear me out before letting your hesitation take control.
In practicing selectivity, you are making a conscious decision that the goals you have circled are your utmost priority. They are your top priority either because they’re easier to achieve, quicker to complete, or the most significant to you.
Whatever your decision-making process was at that given moment, the decision was made. Own your decision, you sexy beast.
Eliminating clutter from your life, mind and soul will give you the upper hand in simplifying your journey. This will also allow you the opportunity to be more in control of making and maintaining better habits to pursue your dreams.
The reason this step comes after creating your initial list is because, naturally, everything on the first list that you created, in some shape or form, is important to you. Therefore, it’s excruciatingly difficult to get rid of things you care about because… well… there’s feelings involved whether we like to admit it or not.
Just because you care about all of those items on your list does not necessarily mean that all of them carry the same level of importance at this point in your life.
However, if you streamline your priorities, you’re eliminating the risk of falling in a pitfall where you’re rationalizing your goals and squeezing them in areas of your life that you truly cannot afford to in terms of time and effort.
Eliminating this risk means that you are also saving yourself from disappointment in the future by refocusing your efforts in objectives that have higher payoffs in the long-run and steering you away from potential distractions.
Stay focused! No distractions, even if it hurts a little.
Obtain the Right System
Your head may be right in the center of the game but if your system for playing your cards is not right, you may just be signing up for an unpleasant surprise.
If you have devoted a good amount of energy in identifying your goals, selecting the top choices and eliminating items you care about, you’ve already vested time and effort in your process. Don’t throw away the opportunity to succeed.
Place your goals in the right system. This means that you need to create the right environment to nurture your journey.
You should not be fighting your environment the entire time to meet your goals. Sure, there will be times when your environment may require some housekeeping or shifting and that is to be expected. However, this should not be the case throughout the entire journey.
If you find yourself constantly fighting your environment, meaning physical or tangible factors around you, such as location, social circle, etc., or intangible factors, such as your state of mind, then you may find yourself in a predicament where you may need to assess whether working towards that particular goal is realistic for you at that point in time in your life.
It is entirely possible that achieving the goal is realistic despite the challenges that you face but you may need to trade off or sacrifice certain factors in your life to move forward. And, this is no easy task, both mentally and emotionally.
Again, how bad do you truly want it? Your commitment will be tested if you find yourself in this situation. Be strong if you truly want it and push forward as hard as you can but be smart when it is not the right time for you to pursue that goal.
Learning that you may need to pause on a goal does not mean failure and it does not mean it is the end of that journey. Again, pausing on a goal does not mean failure.
It simply means you’ve reached a growing moment in your life where you’ve acknowledged that you need a break. That’s called maturity. Own it. Just don’t forget to get back on track.
In creating the right system, you need to evaluate your daily defaults. How are you making good use of your time and energy?
When you wake up or in your free time, do you lose track of time in social media or binge watching Netflix? Or do you go straight into working on your goals?
While we all need a little break, be conscious of how you're structuring your daily activities, or defaults. The influences you allow into your life short-term does have an impact on your long-term outcomes. Therefore, look for and adopt a positive environment that supports positive habits.
For example, if one of your goals is to work on your weight and health, as this is a very common goal for many, then consider adopting an environment that reinforces the right mindset to become healthier. This may mean trading off hanging out with the buddies late at night to rest more and recover from your gym sacrifices.
If your goal is financial growth, consider adopting habits that will keep you from spending money on items or activities that will not return your “investments”.
A few tips to consider is getting rid of distractions and adopting visual cues that will influence good habits in your everyday structure. For example, if you’re trying to gain healthier habits, eliminating your kitchen or snack drawer of junk foods will minimize temptation. Replacing it with healthier but enjoyable options will visually remind you to stay on track.
Again, this is applicable to many goals but you need to be conscious and creative of manifesting the optimal environment to achieve those goals.
Measure your Progress
To know if you’re getting somewhere with your goals, you have to keep track. When creating your plan, decide how you are measuring your progress at attaining your goal.
I personally enjoy reflecting on the past to plan forward. I reflect on what actions I did last week and this week to see how much effort I should put in the following days.
For example, during crunch time at work, I sit down and track important metrics that my teams are responsible for in obtaining conversions of the products we sell. This means carefully looking at traffic across our sales funnel, the timeline with respect to deadlines and strategies as well as the staffing handling the heavy loads.
In doing so, I get a good idea on whether my team is making progress on the different areas in our sales funnel that matter at that given point in time. If the number in one area of our pipeline is not moving in the desired direction, I plan adjustments for the following week or days to come.
I measure past progress to plan actions that influence future outcomes. Being aware of what is happening allows me to be conscious of how I am managing and supporting my staff to achieve our team goals.
Similarly, the same idea can be applied to your goals. Building good habits in tracking your progress and improving your strategies at achieving your goals will allow you to be more conscious of your actions throughout your journey.
Even better, consistently tracking your progress will allow you to build an automatic behavior where your efforts in working towards your goal will not feel like you’re walking up a hill at all times.
Instead, allow yourself the opportunity to coast in a relaxing lake or pool on an effortless floaty (if you catch my drift).
The idea is to work smarter, not necessarily harder.
Tracking your progress strategically helps in identifying consequences to your actions that you may not otherwise detect. This is a tremendous advantage because you will find trends in behavior that you may need to improve or continue to reinforce in order to continue your journey with open eyes. Having a good sense of direction is crucial in achieving goals.
Not to mention, when you track your progress, the sense of accomplishment brings self-satisfaction. Your progression will become the motivator to continue pushing forward and the idea of a never-ending journey is stripped away (in a good way). In turn, you will reduce stress and also boost your confidence in your ability to finish what you started.
Conclusion:
In all, planning your goals strategically allows an opportunity to successfully achieve them. It’s important to be creative by organizing your goals, doing your research and picking brains in the process. This means not being afraid of mentorship if it will benefit you in the long-run.
Next, choosing to prioritize your goals and focusing on a few rather than many will allow you to refocus your time and energy more productively so that you can minimize the risk of burning out along the way. This will include sacrificing or trading off a few items on your list that may be of interest to you but not necessarily as significant during this point in time in your life. On the other end, it will also grant you the power to work on your most important choices at the moment.
Setting your goals productively also means that you need to obtain the right system to nurture your journey. Being in the right environment means that your mind will be in the right place and distractions will be limited. Lastly, it’s crucial to measure your progress. Knowing what you’ve been doing will give you the opportunity to tweak your techniques and gain fruitful outcomes in the future. Furthermore, it will also grant you the satisfaction of actively witnessing your progression rather than suffering a never-ending finish line.
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