Category: Goals

4 Steps to Big Goals

After my article last week on my process for achieving goals, several people asked about my process for creating goals. So this week, I will outline my annual goal setting process.

I have written many times about how goals should be big. They should reflect a grand picture of the life you want to achieve. Yet, they must also be achievable. This requires perspective.

Every year I spend time looking at the bigger picture of my challenges. Most of the time I am working tactical issues to achieve my goals. But to set the right goals, I need to step back and evaluate my plans strategically.

I spend time thinking about the future using several different frameworks. These are the four specific steps I use.

1. Goals by category – In this first step, I capture my goals in different categories. I use the 12 areas outlined in John Maxwell’s book, Today Matters. They are attitude, priorities, health, family, thinking, commitment, finances, relationships, generosity, faith, values, and growth. These categories are effective for me because they are values I want to develop. These could seem too abstract. An alternative is to use these eight categories: career, money, health, friends and family, romance, personal growth, fun and recreation, physical environment.

2. Goals based on time – In the second step, I capture my goals based on a time frame. Usually I evaluate five years, ten years, and in my life time.

3. Goals based on my strengths – We are most successful when we able to put to use our personal strengths. In the third step, I capture my goals for developing and using my strengths. My top five strength areas (from Strengths Finder 2.0) are learner, strategic, intellection, analytical, and responsibility. So I think about how I can best utilize these skills.

4. Goals from the perspective of others – This final step recognizes how my goals affect other people. I try to capture the goals that would be most important to serve the people, teams, and organizations around me. I look for alignment in my plans with the needs of others.

This may seem overwhelming, but I usually only use this process once a year. It usually takes a few hours, and sometimes as much as an entire day. For me, it is an effective method to put the coming year into perspective.

If you are interested, here is a link to the form I use to guide me through this process. It is going to be a great year!

Achieve Your Goals in 2017

The older I get the shorter my days seem to get. It is 2017, the start of a new year, and a great time to re-energize big plans, goals, and dreams for the future.

The challenge for most of us is keeping our focus on these important goals throughout the year. So many people have already given up by February. I want to review what you can do to help yourself achieve your goals.

Here is a quick glimpse at the process that helps me stay on track. If you want to know more about any of these just let me know.

1) Staying Organized – Maintaining focus requires having information, data, and results available. I mainly rely on David Allen’s Getting Things Done process for organizing my time and information. I highly recommend it. I have used it for over 15 years, and although I have tried many systems, I continue to come back to this system because it works. For me, one of the best features is the tickler file system.

2) Daily Planning – On a daily basis, I try to understand and capture what needs to happen next on my projects. An overall project plan is important, but I try not to get caught up in what needs to be done next month, until I complete what needs to be done today.

3) Daily Progress – On an daily basis, I allow 5 or 10 minutes at the end of my day to capture progress. I make notes about what I achieved, and my effectiveness. When necessary, this review results in a longer reflection session capturing a lesson learned.

4) Weekly Reflection – Most Saturday mornings you will find me reviewing my week, and planning for the next. I update my Getting Things Done system. I make notes about the highlights of my week, interruptions I encountered, and lessons I learned. This is a great time to make small adjustments in my project plans. It also helps me allocate larger time slots in my calendar where I can dedicate myself to project related work.

5) Monthly Review – This is my clarity session. Monthly I spend time to clarify in my mind all my goals and projects. It is where reality meets intention. It is a hard look at what I accomplished versus what I intended to accomplish. After this review I have a much clearer picture of what I need to do to achieve my vision for the next month.

That is my process. It sounds like a lot. I do struggle at times keeping these reviews when other activities and responsibilities get in the way. But I also have learned through experience that bigger goals and projects cannot be achieved consistently without this discipline.

With this process I am prepared for a great 2017. I wish for you the same level of success and joy!

Think Before You Act

Albert Einstein once said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” It is great advice. Unfortunately for most of us, we tend to jump right into problem solving.

This world is fast paced. Rewards come to those that are first. We feel we don’t have time to think, so we jump to action.

But our greatest resource is our mind. We tend to find better solutions when we take the time to evaluate multiple options. Thinking can stretch your boundaries and lead you to solutions that are not easily apparent.

For me, taking time to think lets me develop a plan. The plan itself is not important, but I become more prepared. It allows me to react quicker and more successfully when a situation changes. By creating a habit to pause and think, I can increase my odds of success. Heeding the advice of Albert Einstein can be the best thing we can do when we feel stress.

Develop Your Skill of Being Reliable

There have been times in my life where I missed an event or activity that I had planned to attend. I made a commitment and I failed to follow through. I will never forget the first time. I was 16 years old, and working in the stock room of a drug store. I was scheduled to work, but I didn’t want to go. I wanted to go out with my friends. At sixteen, it seemed more important than work.

The next day when I went back to work, my manager was not happy. He said, “If you decide to do that again, don’t plan on coming back to work. You will be fired.”

It was a lesson with a huge impact on me. It taught me about commitment. There are very few times I commit to something and fail to follow through. However, there are still times I commit, follow through, but lack enthusiasm.

Reflecting on this experience has helped me identify three things that keep me focused on dependability.

1. Understand why I decided to commit. What was my motive? Keeping the why clear in my mind helps me from wavering on a commitment.It also helps me say no to things that are not important.

2. Be accountable to someone. If I know someone will hold me accountable, then I will work harder to follow through. I value other people, and I don’t want to let them down. Accomplishing something for someone else is much more rewarding emotionally.

3. Determine how I may grow. If I know the benefit to myself, I will be more determined about success. Every experience usually provides learning and growing if we look for it.

If you sometimes struggle completing a commitment, maybe these three ideas can help.