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I didn’t start off the year with a podcast on goals, but I should have. I believe in the power of goals, and hopefully you do, too. Goals are what gets you looking ahead, making a better impact, and assists you in implementing your best plan. Yes, I am a huge believer in goals, but of course, we need more than a plan to see real success. Without action in your plan, you are all talk.
You can have the best plan in the world, but it takes action and proper execution to obtain the results that you desire.
This being said, it is the last day in March 2015, and maybe you haven’t began moving on your dreams for this year, yet. That means that one-fourth of this year is already over and you haven’t created the good momentum you need to see results. Your year so far might be the busiest time you have ever experienced in life and you are wondering where the last three months went. Or maybe you are on the other side of this, are already checking your goals off, and you are well on your way to making 2015 your best year ever. If that’s you, I absolutely love that you are seeing your desired results in your life right now!
But, if you are one of the people out there wondering where the last three months have gone and still don’t know quite where to begin to make this year great, I have three awesome tips for you. If you will let me, I want to help you take your foot off the brakes and show you how to begin accelerating immediately.
Here we go…
1. Realize just how much you want to accomplish your goals.
It doesn’t matter if your goals have to do with health in all areas, personal/fun, relationships, finances, or your career, you have to be “bought in” to take the first step. Without buy in, you will never be committed, and without commitment, your goals won’t accomplish themselves. But, when you decide you are in it to win it, your goals will begin to be fun, rather than some duty you sort of want to see happen.
2. Be aware of the magnitude of your goals.
Your goals are big. They are huge. They will impact you. They will impact a magnitude of other people. But, they will only have impact if you see them through.
3. See 2014 for what you gained from it, see 2015 for the opportunity it is, and see 2016 for where you will be.
Maybe 2014 was great for you. That’s awesome. You can continue that momentum into this year and keep building on your success. Or, maybe it wasn’t so great, and you need some big changes in 2015 to get things going in the right direction. Want to know the great news in this situation? You can begin right now!
The great decisions you make right now will change your life forever for the better.
That’s your answer to see even better results in 2016. When you start making great decisions now, you will reap the benefits immediately, but also in the days, weeks, months, and years to come.
No, the journey to accomplishing your biggest goals is hardly ever easy, but adopting these three tips in your own life will make the journey much easier.
Now, take these tips and apply them to accomplishing your goals, today. Please leave a review on iTunes if you enjoyed this episode.
A stand-out quote for me is this: “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” While it’s debatable who first penned it, it’s nonetheless true. And since it is impossible to offend Anonymous by editing his quote, I’ll take it a step further on the lines of what you’ve said above, Adam: “A plan without action is still just a wish.”
A couple more thoughts that I trust will further the discussion and encourage people to get those goals in motion. They aren’t new ideas, but core principles that rarely change, and which springboard off of your thoughts above, Adam.
1. Tell as many people as possible about your goal. If you aren’t willing to tell people, you aren’t serious about your goal. Telling people adds positive and self-directed pressure, because you invite people to ask you how it is going. It’s free motivation for you, and it’s effective.
2. Write out in as much detail as possible all the positive things about how your life will look when you have achieved your goal. And then re-read what you wrote often. Again, this is key (and free) motivation for you to stay on track and push forward when it is hard or when you don’t feel like it in a moment.
3. Break the long-term goal into short-term milestones that follow the SMART acronym. There are variations of what each letter of SMART stands for, but the one I find best suits personal goals (as opposed to corporate goals) is this: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. “I want to be famous!”, then, doesn’t meet many of these criteria. But “I want to lose 3 lbs a week for two months for a total of 25 lbs lost by May 31” — that meets all of the criteria.
The thing is, most people have probably set goals before and have read those three strategies. But then they thought, “Well, that’s silly. That’s for regular people who are susceptible to motivational hype. I’m different.” While I won’t debate that we are all unique, if a thing works — it works. And the bigger your goal is, the more important it is to do these things!
Lastly — before my Comment gets longer than Adam’s post! — a wise friend of mine shared this advice with me (and I devote an entire chapter of my book, “The Best Advice So Far,” to it):
You have to start from where you are, not from where you wish you were.
Don’t waste time regretting not having started sooner, or thinking about where you “could have been” if you had. Start now. Don’t tell yourself you’ll start next New Year’s at resolution time (which is completely made up and arbitrary), or on your birthday, or on the first day of the next month so it feels like a clean slate. Start right now. How? Write down your goal in detail. Write out how your life will be positively changed when you achieve it. Then tell someone immediately.
You can do this!