Planning For Success
Every single one of us has the drive to succeed. So why don’t we?
Sometimes we lack the knowledge.
Sometimes we’re overwhelmed and can’t think of what to do what is necessary in achieving that success.
It can be so discouraging sometimes to know what you wish to do with your life or your time but be not able to understand where to begin. It is one of one of the most difficult things in life when you have a goal but you do not in fact have the tools that you need to get there.
Nobody deserves to be discouraged in this way, and we can all conquer this challenge with time and persistence. And a few easy tips to help you start off your 2019 successfully.
Visualize Your Goal
The first step is the most difficult. You need to know what it is you want to achieve as clearly as possible.
I’ve discussed visualizing in prior blog posts.
Spend some time journaling and dreaming about what you want and where you want to be in 2019.
Setting Realistic Goals
Often, we have a general idea that we want to have money and are working at a job we love.
But are those your goals or are those the goals that you think you should have?
It’s essential to have goals that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time to achieve). Let’s dive a little deeper into the realistic part.
A realistic goal is one that you can achieve with the resources that you have. If you want to run a marathon but you don’t even own a set of running shoes, it’s not very realistic if your timeline is to sign up for a race in a month.
It is very realistic if you give yourself six months and find a good training program.
Another idea is to create smaller goals that you can achieve to build up towards a big goal. This will give you momentum and boost your confidence. Plus, it’s fun to achieve a goal.
Identifying Your Strengths and Weaknesses
We can’t be great at everything. Some of us are naturally strong starters, and others excel at finishing things.
Some of us know exactly what we want, and others are still trying to figure out what to eat for breakfast.
Spend some time thinking about who you are, and who you want to be. It could be something happened to you when growing up that stunted your ability to live the life you desire.
This could be the year that you let go of the past so you can truly soar.
And when you really identify your weaknesses, you can have plans for working through them, and then it becomes a strength.
You Love to Start Things
Most of us get very excited to start things, and then lose momentum when it starts to get difficult. Most people start a diet and then stop a week or two into the program because it’s not new and fun anymore.
There’s actual psychology behind this and you’re facing a wall.
To get unstuck, the number one thing you can do is be aware of your pattern. Spend some time looking back and identify where in a project you stopped progressing. Is there anything in common?
Spend more time researching your next project before jumping in. This connects back to having a realistic goal. You also should think ahead and identify any time crunches. This helps you set yourself up for success. And you can add in mini goals along the way so you can get the dopamine rush of achieving something
Finally, make sure this is really your goal. I’ve said it before, I know, and it bears repeating. You will be more motivated and committed to achieving something if it’s a goal that’s important to you.
How to Hold Yourself Accountable for Success
Momentum (and success) can only happen with consistent action. When you skip one scheduled event, it can sometimes snowball into dropping your goal entirely.
And maybe you don’t really want other people to hold you accountable. Sometimes it makes us feel like a child in trouble if we have that best friend remind us that we were going to make a healthier choice.
Plus, if we can learn to hold ourselves accountable, we will grow and be able to act in a better way in the future.
This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have a support network.
Friends can help us get insight as to what may be holding us back. And you can also create a group on social media to encourage one another.
Schedule Time
Often we have our dream, and then we forget to schedule time to achieve it. If we want to be healthy, we need to set aside time to shop and cook as well as time to exercise.
If we want to publish a book, we need to set aside time to write.
Often, we assume we’ll just find time during the day and that’s a mistake. Spend some time during your weekly planning to schedule an appointment with yourself to work towards your goals. Then at the end of the week, evaluate how well you did.
And remember, you can always choose to do better the next week if you missed your planned times.
Learning from Failure
If you didn’t have a good day (or maybe the whole week was challenging!), set aside some time to regroup your thoughts.
First, journal about what happened, and your thoughts as to what may have happened.
Then look for the lesson.
Maybe you tried to schedule too much during a week where there wasn’t a lot of time available.
Perhaps you didn’t have the information that you needed. How many times do we start something thinking we have everything we need, and then we find that we’re missing that one piece.
You’re not the only one.
So forgive yourself. Spend some time practicing letting go of negative emotions. And see if you can identify what triggered the failure.
Evaluate Your Progress
It’s important to be completely honest with yourself when you’re evaluating your progress. And that means being proud of yourself when you’ve taken action every single day.
Don’t get caught up in feeling badly that you haven’t done “enough.”
You’re continually learning. Mistakes are good. And you’re learning about yourself and how well you work.
Take some time to evaluate what you thought were your strengths and weaknesses.
Often we carry around little “lies” in our head from things that happened when we were young. But you don’t have to believe them anymore. You’re a wonderful spiritual being having a human experience.
Let go of what no longer works. Keep doing more of what does work. And spend some time reviewing each week.
My Final Thoughts
To achieve your goals, write down clearly what you want to achieve. Then work backwards to identify what you need to do to achieve it.
Let go of the past. You’re making a new path. Continue to learn about yourself and incorporate that knowledge.
If you don’t succeed, try, try again, as the saying goes. It’s also important to acknowledge when something isn’t working, release it, and move on.
Keep motivated by having smaller goals that you regularly achieve, and be consistent. Make sure you’re working towards it every day, even if it’s just to visualize yourself having accomplished it.
Below is a template that you can use to structure some 30-day goals. Copy it into your journal or use it online. Reflect upon it daily and try to do one thing to move yourself forward every day.
30-Day Challenge Template
What am I doing
I’m doing this because:
The one habit I can change to meet my challenge is:
The person I will be accountable to is:
I will contact them when/how:
My most likely obstacle to success is:
My most likely setback will be:
My first steps will be:
My reward for finishing this challenge will be:
