January is synonymous with setting new goals. We often hear phrases like New Year, New Me, people embark on challenges like Veganuary or getting fit and lots of us, including myself use it as an opportunity to evaluate what we really want from the year ahead.Setting good intentions is great, they’re the starting blocks to achieving our goals, but ultimately 92% of resolutions aren’t fulfilled.The reason? Because simply setting goals isn’t enough.Just because we’ve set a goal it doesn’t automatically mean it’ll happen, we have to work for it. So, if we’re going to have any chance of achieving our goals, we have to first plan and then execute.Let’s take a look at how we can take our goal setting to the next level and actually accomplish our goals.
As I said before, setting goals is a great starting point as they give us something to work towards, but the crucial part is understanding how you’re going to get there.This is where the planning comes in.Think of the planning phase like a map, the road towards your goal, the desired outcome. It’s a long journey so you’ll need to break it down into smaller, more manageable stages. Applying as much detail and focus to each of the stages you need to reach will give you much more chance of success. For example, your goal may be to run a marathon in six months but instead of focusing on such a broad goal, it's better to break it down into smaller, more achievable phases taking into account nutrition, distance and building endurance.First define your goal, then consider all the factors that will influence you reaching it and encompass them into your plan.
Once you’ve defined your plan it’s time to take action!For lots of people this is the hard part, there’s a disconnect between the planning and the action stage. Try having a weekly focus, spend time on a Sunday night or first thing Monday morning planning your week ahead where you sett yourself specific challenges that will help take you closer to your overall goal.I recommend using a journal or diary to do this, something that I find works really well as you can keep track of what you’ve done. I schedule time for fitness, time for reading, personal development as well as work.Planning and doing all these things smaller things which are aligned to my bigger goals gives me constant progression towards them.
A key factor in reaching our goals is monitoring our progress. If it’s not measurable it becomes impossible to determine whether or not you’ve been successful.You are in control of your own journey meaning it’s up to you how big or small each of the stages is however, putting yourself under too much pressure and being unable to reach each stage could have an adverse effect on your motivation. Similarly, if you’re not challenging yourself enough it’s likely you’ll lose interest. Finding the right balance might not happen straight away but that’s why it’s important to take time to evaluate your progress and make improvements to your plan along the way.Achieving any goal won’t happen overnight, it takes hard work, commitment and resilience. The best advice I can give is to be thoughtful in your planning stage. The more consideration you give to your success plan, the stronger it’ll be.And remember, it’s never too late to start!
Prior to starting his current business with UW, Derek dedicated 29 years to Primary Education, serving as a classroom practitioner, an Advisory Teacher for Information Technology, and ultimately as the Head of a Primary School until 2014.
Register for my upcoming webinar and take your first step to obtaining financial security
