"I don't focus on what I'm up against. I focus on
my goals and I try to ignore the rest." - Venus
Williams
It’s
another New Year and everyone is setting and/or reviewing their goals for the
year. The New Year signifies a fresh start and an
opportunity to start life on a clean slate. It
is important for us to have goals in life; to achieve something, no matter how
small. But this doesn’t come easy. A lot of adults, not to talk of teenagers,
find it difficult to pursue their personal goals to a
successful conclusion. And this could be as a result of our lack of patience,
intolerance for delayed gratification, or the fear of public ridicule. So
frustration easily creeps in at the first signs of failure.
1. Spend quality time
alone with God developing your goals
Get alone in a quiet place by
yourself away from the distractions of life and begin to seek God’s face. Put
away your mobile devices, shut down the computer and turn off the television.
Tell your family and friends this is your set time for seeking God’s face to
hear His directions and you do not want to be disturbed.
2. Define your goals in
writing
Take your pen, paper and a
Goals Matter! Planning Sheet with you during your quiet time. Record in detail
the goals you desire to accomplish. When you begin to define your goals in
writing, make sure they are SMART: Specific – Measurable – Actionable – Reinforcing –Trackable.
Written goals will help bring better clarity to your life. When you document
your goals you create a road map to focus your directions.
3. Create measures
to success
Now that you have defined your
goals, the next step is to create ways to measure your progress. It is not
enough to say I have a goal, but you need to have a way to measure your
progress. You define your measures for success by:
1. Term
(length of time): Short
Term (within a year); Medium Term (within three years); Long Term (over three
years)
2. The Life Area: spiritual,
relational, physical, social, financial, mental or professional.
3. Dates: Start
date, target completion date and actual completion date.
Adding these measurables to
your goals brings a greater energy and excitement to achieve them.
4. Define possible
opportunities for success
What are the potential
opportunities that will bring you possible success or someone connected to you?
Is it a job promotion, a more lucrative career, a new investment or a great
business deal? One very helpful technique would be to list several
opportunities for success in accomplishing a particular goal, like three to
four opportunities. Your list will become a huge part of your motivation
to achieve your goals when times of discontentment, discouragement and doubt
come.
5. Identify obstacles to
success
Now that you have spent time
alone developing your goals, you have written them down, set measures to
success and defined possible opportunities for success everything should be
smooth sailing, right? Wrong! Obstacles will come to attempt to distract and
detour your goals plan. You may be able to identify some of the obstacles in
the beginning, but some will come out of nowhere. You may think your life
will be easier if you stay in your comfort zone, but opposition will come even
if you stay in your comfort zone or not. So, identify at least three obstacles
that you feel may try to prevent you from achieving your goals. List the
potential obstacles that you have identified for each of your goals on your
Goals Matter! Planning Sheet and begin your journey of overcoming them to
successfully achieve your goals.
6. Breakdown goals into
manageable action steps
When you have a large goal that
you want to accomplish, the best thing to do is break your large goal into
smaller more manageable action steps. If you focus on the enormity of the large
goal it can become too overwhelming. If you try to do the large goal all
at once it can lead to certain frustration and quick burn out. But if you take
the large goal and break it down into smaller measureable action steps, you set
yourself up for success because you make your large goal more obtainable. Our
Goals Matter! Planning Sheets have a section where you can list at least ten
smaller action steps with a begin date, target completion date and an actual
completion date. Taking the time to break your goal into smaller manageable
action steps will put you on the right road to your goals success.
7. Identify people, resources
or skills needed
What resources or skills do you
have or need to acquire to accomplish your goals? Who are the people you will
need on your team to help you achieve your goals? You may have to take a class
or do an in depth self-study on a particular subject to educate yourself on a
new skill or re-educate yourself on an old skill that you will need. Trust me;
you are going to need help from others. Don’t be ashamed or too prideful to ask
for help. You can’t do it alone. You will need the support, encouragement and
someone to share ideas with. Identify and acquire the resources, skills and/or
people you will need and go to work.
8. Demonstrate a
progressive attitude
Setting goals is easy, but
achieving them is a different story. You must find a way to implement a
healthier routine to yield the results you desire. No matter how small or big
the goal you set, you must create and implement new habits. How do you expect
to achieve your goals with the same tired habits you have failed with year
after year? Nothing will change unless you make daily changes. You will
continually fail to achieve your goals if your daily habits do not change. Forming
new habits is hard. It requires daily action. The promise of rewards will drive
you in the beginning. But if you don’t remain consistent and committed, after a
couple weeks, your drive will fizzle and you will return to business as usual.
If you want your new habits to stick, believe you can change, and take action.
9. Take action
What actions have you taken to
turn your goals into reality? Once you have a written goals plan, it is time to
take action. It is your responsibility to make daily decisions to do something
to move forward. You can’t wait for the right deal, the right people to support
you or the right situation to happen before you take action on your goals. You
could have written the most captivating, compelling and challenging goal
possible, but if you don’t take a course of action to implement your plan, your
goal will remain just a wonderful dream. Once you have a desired goal, you can
use our Goals Matter! Planning Sheets to properly set your goal in detail and
then take immediate action.
10. Monitor your goals
regularly
As you move forward with your
goals, you will need to periodically monitor them. It is important to know
where you stand in your goals progress in order to make any necessary
adjustments or changes. Monitoring your goals regularly will give you the
view of where you are and whether or not you are on the right course to
completing your goal. The Goals Matter! Planning Sheets are great documents to
regularly monitor where you are on your goals progress.
11. Reward yourself
They say, “all work and no play
makes you dull”. During the process of reaching your goals you need to
implement rewards that follow key steps in your action plan. This will enforce
your desire to move forward to the next step on your way to accomplishing your
big goal. Make your goal achievement a fun and exciting process. Even your
minor victories deserve applause! You can establish bigger rewards as you
accomplish more steps to your overall larger goal. This recognition will
enforce where you are going and provides an incentive to get the job done.
12. Keep moving forward
Know that when you take action,
opposition and obstacles will try to take you off course. They will come at you
daily with a relentless arsenal trying to hinder your forward progress. I
admonish you to:
a. Commit to your specific
goals path regardless of setbacks, challenges or failures.
b. Continually surround
yourself with people who will encourage your forward movement.
c. Consistently show up every
day to do the work necessary to achieve your goals.
d. Confidently operate in your
abilities, talents and gifts.
e. Courageously fight through
the temptation to quit.
In order to achieve your goals,
you must make sacrifices, commit to daily, overcome challenges and work your
plan. No one can do it for you. It is your responsibility.
"When you reach an obstacle, turn it into an
opportunity. You have the choice. You can overcome and be a winner, or you can
allow it to overcome you and be a loser. The choice is yours and yours alone.
Refuse to throw in the towel. Go that extra mile that failures refuse to
travel. It is far better to be exhausted from success than to be rested from
failure." - Mary Kay Ash
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