Planning is Where the Action Begins

The theme on most people’s lips is to set your goals for the year. I also will be sharing the goals talk but for me, goals are made all year round. We need to see results of the work we put in whether as an individual, as business owners, as a family or as a collective. We need to see movement. I make and complete goals all the time. This is why I am addicted to buying notebooks, I love to write down my many goals aka dreams, ideas and wants because I then can see what I am up against. Keeping them in my mind just hurts my head and eventually they get forgotten.

I have goals that I wrote down many years ago, I may never complete them but I will not reject them to the trash based on that. Right now I have goals I need to achieve, so they get my focus but my life could change direction. Or an opportunity could come forth that would fit the goals I’ve had for so long. I don’t know what tomorrow brings, and neither do you. Don’t disregard an idea or goal because it doesn’t fit your present position right now.

“The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.” ~ Benjamin Mays [tweet me]

Here’s how I attack my goals

I dissect my goals (no frogs involved promise) and I always have a reward put in place for when I get there too.

One important part of making your goals real is to write them down. It’s a simple thing to do but so many just don’t do it. When you take your goals from your head and place them on paper they become real and set in stone.

Once you get your goals down, it’s the time to bust those goals right open. What do I mean by this, isn’t it enough I wrote them down. Well no because you want to actually achieve them right? Then you need to bust open your goals to see what you actually need to do to make your goals aka dreams happen.

The way I tackle my goals is after writing them down on paper 🙂 I start thinking about the steps I need to take to complete my goal. If you get stuck and don’t know how to get from one step to the next step, don’t worry we’ll come to that in a bit.

Then you break down your steps into tasks. These tasks are what you are going to physically do to complete the step. Now if you have been struggling to get from one step to the next because its something you know nothing about. Then that step will be broken down into tasks that include research, talking to the relevant people to get you moving.

So even if you get stuck you, create a step and tasks to get you unstuck.

This is what my goal breakdown looks like:

As you can see each goal has steps, you could even call them milestones. Then each step has its own tasks. When you bust open your goals it makes them easier to achieve. Goals on their own can be scary, big and impossible to complete. Bust them open and see what is really needed.

The bigger the goal the more steps it will contain. Oh and don’t forget those awesome rewards to have to wait as you complete those steps.

“The most important thing about goals is having one.” – Geoffry F. Abert [tweet me]

What if one of my goals is super big

Plus has loads of steps to complete and each step has loads of tasks to complete, how do I even begin to tackle it?

First, take a deep breath, and look at your huge goal again. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Break your goal into separate goals. The idea of busting down your goals into steps and tasks is not to see how long your goal list will get. Its to help you to actually compete them. If one step has 10 tasks then that could take a long time to complete each step. Unless the tasks are mega quick & easy to do. You need to see results in shorter bursts, so you keep the motivation and the momentum going.  We don’t want you to stop because you become demotivated.

Goals are not the place to be brutal

Don’t be hard on yourself, make your goals, steps, and tasks as small as you need them to be. Only you know what you are capable of. Only you know when you’ll lose focus. So try not to let your workload reach those zones. Because when you start seeing those tasks being crossed off you will feel awesome and so you should be.

So with that in mindshare one goal, you plan on busting open and what will your reward be?