by Allison Hester, Publisher
In researching what the experts had to say on how to create goals and make them stick, there were some differences in methodologies, but the following strategy was pretty well implemented by all:
1. BRAINSTORM. Write down every goal you can think of, big or small. This article is about your business goals, but you can write down goals in all areas of your life. Often, our personal goals – such as wanting to lose weight or spend more time with our families – are actually related to our businesses. So take your time and be thorough. And dream big. The point of all of this is to help you maximize your potential in the coming year, so write a few that will be difficult, but not impossible, to achieve.
2. CHOOSE YOUR TOP 10. From your master list of goals, pick the 10 that are most important to you. That’s not to say you are going to totally disregard all the others necessarily, but this will help you prioritize.
3. DETERMINE YOUR KEY GOAL. Out of those 10, there should be one goal that is your key goal. It’s the one that must happen in order for most – or all – of the remaining nine to happen. In most cases, this is a financial goal, but not always. You may have to make more money to be able to buy that new car, or spend more time with your family, or volunteer more with your favorite charity. If one of your 10 goals does not seem like the key goal, figure out what your key goal is. What must you do to make the remaining goals – or at least most of them – happen?
4. WRITE DOWN THAT GOAL. Experts recommend writing that goal down at least once a week, preferably at the same time each week. Make it part of your schedule so that it becomes habit. Sound overkill? Perhaps. But study after study shows that people are more likely to achieve their goals when they write them down. Also, studies have found that those who tend to generally do better in business – and life – write down their goals. So just do it!
5. DEVELOP AN ACTION PLAN: Again, brainstorm with your goals, particularly your key goal. What has to happen to achieve that goal? Write down everything you must do to make that happen, no matter how small. Be as
specific as possible, place them in order of what needs to happen first. This will make up your action plan.
6. SHARE YOUR GOAL AND PLAN WITH SOMEONE. Accountability is HUGE when it comes to successfully achieving goals.
7. KEEP A DAILY TO-DO LIST: Finally, each day, write down (or log it in a phone app) a list of things you need to do. Come up with a system to indicate priority. Make sure you include one or two items each day that will put
you closer to your key goal. Maybe it’s just a phone call you need to make or an email you need to send.
8. FINALLY, MAKE IT A HABIT! While we all need downtime, it’s easy to get into the habit of wasting time just because we’re disorganized or unmotivated. When you have a few minutes in the day and you’re tempted to surf the Internet for nothing important, look for a quick item on your to-do list and complete it first.
