Achieving New Year’s goals happens so infrequently that many people have given up on goals all together. However, the problem with making plans to achieve success isn’t in the goals, but in the ability to stay the course. Here are 5 tips to making your goals a reality.
1) Own your goals. Much of a goal’s power comes in the level of desire to reach it. Setting goals based on shoulds or what others tell you to do is a sure way to not succeed. Your goals should be something you’re 110% committed to achieving, and willing to continue to strive toward when it gets hard.
2) Redesign your day. Often goals require you take on new actions and tasks. But habits die hard, and pretty soon your day is running in the same rut it ran in last year. Achieving goals requires making the time and scheduling the actions into your day.
3) Track your progress. Goals can discourage even as they inspire. Their attainment can seem so far off and so hard to achieve that it can result in giving up. But if you track your progress, ticking off action steps and chronicling achievements along the way, you’ll reinforce your goal so it can continue to motivate you.
4) Do what successful people do. You’ve heard the question, “What would Jesus do?” as a way to guide behavior. You can use a similar approach to help you make the decisions that will move you toward your goal. Start by defining what people are like who’ve met the goal you want to achieve. How do they behave? What choices do they make? What do they focus on? etc. Once you have a good ideas of that person, as you work toward your goal, use it as a guide to making decisions and helping you stay the course.
5) Get a buddy. There’s a reason that mentors and mastermind groups are so popular. It’s easier to achieve things when you have others who can answer questions, give feedback and cheer you on. There’s no rule that says you have to work on your goals buy yourself. So find someone willing to take the journey with you. You’ll be more accountable and have more fun!
