Plan To Make a Success of Your Goals

There are things you want to accomplish in this life. Some of those things are in the far off future, others are more immediate. Right now, all those goals are jumbled together like a pack of runners at the start of the race. And you don’t have a map to your destination. Step one is creating some sort of roadmap with an overview of long term and short term goals.

If I could accomplish anything

Start by creating a tangible map you can see. Get a piece of paper and write goals in the center then divide the sheet into four quadrants:

• 3 months
• 1 year
• 3 years
• Lifetime

Now set a timer for ten minutes and write down every goal you can imagine accomplishing within those timeframes both personal and professional. This is a wish list. Don’t restrict yourself to what you believe is possible. If you could accomplish anything what would you do? Who would you be? Where would you go. Let your imagination run wild.

Create a priority list

You have a wish list before you. Now go back to each quadrant and choose one goal from each one that will have the greatest impact on your life. These are the long-term and short term goals you are going to prioritize.

Homework for each goal

Break each goal into tasks that need to be accomplished for its fulfilment. Create a specific task list for each goal. Give yourself timelines for their completion. Make the timelines reasonable. Make yourself work for it, but not so hard that you’ll want to give up. 

Three month check in

At the three month mark when your first set of goals are at the finish line, go back to your original map. Spend five minutes reviewing your goals. Create a new three month goal. Review your priorities for one year, three years and lifetime. Are they still the same? If so carry on with your plans. If not revise those goals and carry on. By checking in with your goals on a regular basis you can keep yourself motivated and on track!

A Few Simple Steps To Make Your Days More Fulfilling

Some people have jobs that they absolutely love. Others detest their work with every atom of their beings. Most of us all fall somewhere in between. The days come and they go. Deadlines get met, obligations are filled. You spend another lunch hour listening to the office loud-mouth in the lunch room. It’s hard to get motivated with week after week of pretty much the same old thing.

You need to find ways to bring sparkle back into your days.

Give yourself things to look forward to outside of work

Yes, it’s true you spend eight hours a day at work, but there are many other hours to fill every day. Give yourself things to look forward to during those hours. Meet up with friends for coffee or dinner. Or to just hang out.

Volunteer your time with an organization that means something to you. Knowing your efforts are helping others goes a long way in helping put other less fulfilling hours of the day into perspective.

Learn to delegate

Sometimes daily difficulties stem from feeling like there’s simply too much to do in the allotted time. If there are things on your plate that can or should be handled by someone else, delegate. Focusing on what’s most important rather than trying to get through too many less significant tasks makes the days feel lighter and more fulfilling.

Don’t get pulled into negativity

There are people in every office who have gripes about everything. Avoid them. Don’t listen to or participate in office gossip. Minimize your time with people who have a bad attitude. Their words will amplify your small negatives into big ones. Plus, simply not hearing the complaints of others makes your own day feel lighter and more pleasant.

Give yourself reasons to be proud

At the end of the day before you head out, go over what you did well. What did you accomplish? What do you feel good about? Those accomplishments don’t all have to be work related. If you managed to find time for get out for a while for a walk or some exercise you can include that. Or the time you took to center yourself. Those too are accomplishments and deserve acknowledgement.

“Expect anything worthwhile to take a long time.” Debbie Millman

Learning to Cultivate Patience

When you ask people if there’s anything about themselves they’d change, an answer that almost always makes it near the front of the line is more patience. All of us have goals and desires and once we’ve settled on them we’d like to see them DONE as soon as possible. Yesterday would be nice.

What we can’t seem to get our heads around is that doing something worthwhile takes time. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Not every single worthwhile thing takes time and all things done quickly aren’t worthless. For instance, Paul McCartney dreamt the Beatles song “Yesterday” and scribbled it down upon waking in about a minute. There’s an example of brilliance finished – Yesterday! But in general, we’ve got to work longer and harder for our worthwhiles.

Time is the active ingredient in success

Let’s think about dinner. Sure, you can tear open a box of Kraft Dinner, boil, mix and have your meal ready in ten minutes. If you use the microwavable kind you can probably do it in a minute. That’s a perfectly serviceable dinner. However, if you want to have a worthwhile dinner experience you’ll read up on recipes. You’ll plan a menu, go shopping, cook, create ambience in the room, decorate the table. You will go to all kinds of lengths to make the experience memorable. All of that takes time. And  patience in the preparation.

The dinner experience can be extrapolated out in all kinds of ways. For instance, maybe you want to start running, but you’ve never run anywhere except to catch the bus. You might be able to run around the block right off the bat. And if that’s your first run, you’ll probably feel pretty good about that. But now that you’ve decided running is your thing, you have your heart set on the big race. A marathon.

Now you’re in preparation phase. You have to run every day. Set up a training schedule. Get the right shoes. Make a commitment to your running future. Unthinkable hours for the foreseeable future. When you finally cross that finish line after the race will all that time spent preparing be worth it? Absolutely.

Time spent is an investment in your future

Whether you’re looking to accomplish a specific goal, or land the right job, learn to play an instrument or become a motivational speaker, it won’t happen as fast as you wish. You will have to learn and practice and fail and do it all again. But all the time you spend doing those things is an investment in your ultimate success. Worth the time spent.