“It’s funny how my organization stresses these big yearly goals and goes so far as to require us to report on our work every month. But they do not tell you how to make this work happen. It has been a frustration for me for quite some time.”
A woman said this to me earlier this year.
And I completely get it.
Very few of us were shown in a real way how to bring goals to life and make it all happen. (Exhibit A: the notorious New Year’s goal frenzy and… fizzle).
My philosophy, as you likely know by now, is that since everything comes back to time, we’ve got to tie those goals to your day-to-day schedule. Here’s what I mean:
▻ For each goal, schedule time right now to think through all of the steps you can think of that will take time to work through to make the goal happen.
▻ Estimate how long each of those steps will take you. Then double your guess for each.
▻ Tie those tasks to time by scheduling them in your calendar. (Note: The exact placement of those time-blocks in your calendar does not need to be perfect – you’ll likely move them, so don’t overthink it!)
(This is just part of the 6-step process I teach in my program to bring projects to life.)
Now, it’s important to be flexible here. For long-term goals, your plan may change as you learn more about what the goal entails and other life events happen. It’s still worth doing this.
Why?
▻ It helps you protect time for that goal in your plans. Even if plans change, we know the goal will require roughly X time, so protect it now so you’re not always scrambling to find time for it.
▻ It helps you get realistic. If you/your company set a lot of goals, converting them into what they realistically require shows you when it’s all UNrealistic. This helps you create more realistic goals on the front end – instead of spending the next year overwhelmed and frazzled by goals that were impossible to hit to begin with.
▻ You don’t have to memorize what your big goals are or how you’ll hit them. Your game plan – and built-in reminders to keep working through it – are laid out for you in a tool you look at every day. Less mental load!
Give it a whirl! And let me know how it goes!
