How Will You Achieve Your Goals This Year?
There is more to achieving a goal than just coming up with an idea and hoping that you can reach it. Don’t leave your success to chance. Here is our simple, five stage process that can help you to achieve any goal that you set yourself.
1. First think about what you want to change. Do you want to get a new job, lose weight, run a half marathon, buy a new car? Once you have your goal, you then need to think about what you have to do to make the change – the specific actions. If you’d like a new job, steps will include polishing up your CV (see our last newsletter for tips on how to do this); registering with recruitment agencies; deciding where you want to work and what sort of job you’re looking for, and so on.
2. Second, think about how you will measure the steps that you’re taking, to know that you’ve achieved them. Losing weight could mean a weekly weigh-in. If your goal is to get fitter, you might measure this by how far you can run each time that you run. Set yourself some clear milestones to help you along the way.
3. What will other people see? The third stage is to think about what others will see when you reach your specific steps and the final goal. How will they recognise your progress? Will they see you dropping a dress size, or walking to work more often? Plan milestones that other people will recognise and it will be easier to get their support.
4. The fourth stage is to think about what you could do to sabotage the changes that you want to make. What pitfalls might you encounter and how will you deal with what might get in your way? How will you save the money that you want to save each month, instead of spending it on something else? What can you do to prevent yourself from sabotaging your progress?
5. The fifth step is the fun one – plan your reward! How will you reward yourself for all your hard work? Think about rewards that will inspire you, along the way and at the end, when you reach your goal. It could be as simple as an afternoon off to take a drive in your brand new, open top car!
Take the time to work through these five steps and you’ll have a much better chance of achieving any goal that you set yourself.
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