It may be November, but it’s never too late to set New Year's Resolutions for yourself. Think of them as more of end of the year resolutions! Take action today to achieve what you want for tomorrow. As they say, if not today, then when?
For many of us, coming up with and establishing goals is relatively easy. It’s the “focusing on goals” aspect that often trips people up.
So how do we achieve goals after setting them?
Stay Organized
A goal doesn’t become official until it is tangible, so be sure to write them down!
After all, who doesn’t love the satisfaction of crossing something off? Whether you keep track of your goals in an old school notebook or iPhone notes, find what works best for you and be sure to keep everything in the same place.
If you don’t know where to find your goals, how will you be able to reference back to them and track your progress?
Keep Things Simple
Don’t go crazy with your goals. You want them to be as realistic as possible. Sometimes it feels like we have a million goals that we are never going to achieve. If this is the case, focus on the few most important to you and hone in on them. Instead of setting a goal to simply "finish the project," explain how you’re going to finish it. What specific steps are you going to take?
Instead of generalizing your goals, break them down into smaller steps.
Challenge Yourself
It’s also important to challenge yourself. If you find yourself reaching your goals weeks or months before you thought you would, you’re probably being too easy on yourself. Instead, a strong and effective goal should take several months to achieve.
At the same time, you don’t want to be impossible. It’s important to find the middle ground between ambitious and reasonable.
Hold Yourself Accountable
Every few days or so, check in with yourself and your goals. Ask yourself, “How far have I come since I first started?” or “What challenges did I encounter this week?” If you’re not where you want to be, think about what steps you can take to change your situation. This means it is important to set quantifiable goals. If you can’t measure your progress, how will you know when you reach success?
Still not fully convinced? Check out these specific examples of how to change your goals into something challenging, effective, simple and measurable!
Instead of saving money, you can work to save the company $10,000 every ten years.
Instead of growing your company, you can work to gain three new clients every year.
Instead of wanting to learn more about marketing, you can learn more about marketing by searching for new, relevant topics via social media and Google.
Instead of gaining more social media followers, you can get more followers by researching relevant hashtags and figuring out which ones drive the most engagement.
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