New Year’s Resolutions. Many people make them. Most break them, forget them or give up after a while. Or they fail to achieve the full result they had resolved to accomplish.
Most of us feel that it is a fresh beginning each year on January 1st and that you have a whole fresh template to write anything you want on it. Perhaps you wrote down all the things that bug you about your practice or your job and resolved to fix each thing. Maybe you decided you needed to make more money and you wrote that down too. Could be that you decided to move the office or build your own building or something along those lines. A very common goal is to improve your marketing to attract more people to your practice. And so on.
All good things you have written down. Why do they often not get actualized?
Planning
The first step to successful goal making is proper planning. Naming exactly, precisely what you want to accomplish makes it a lot more likely to happen. For instance, if you say, “I want a new car,” that is a bit too general … what kind of car, what do you need the car for (i.e. is it just for you or do you have a big family; is it for highway driving or just short local hops; will you need to transport big items with it, etc.). Also, what is your budget? Can you get financing? What is your favourite colour?
The more precise you are about what you want, the more likely it is that you are going to be successful in getting it.
Timing
Next issue is the timing. When do you want to achieve the goal by? What steps need to be taken on the way to reaching that goal and when does each step need to be done by in order to meet the final deadline you set? Did you put these timelines in your scheduler or on your calendar where you mark events?
Accountability
The worst thing about goals is the actual doingness of them. Great that you planned it all out and set up the deadlines. But who’s going to be accountable for getting them done. Obviously you are since they are your own goals.
However, a “partner in crime” can be a helpful thing to have. This is someone to whom you report that you have achieved each deadline or step along the way and who will help you untangle things if you get bogged down. Especially for big goals.
Rewards
Hey, what is life without rewards for accomplishment. We certainly get enough penalties for failing to do things in the proper timeframes. What about working out a carrot for positive achievement of each step? And for the final big win of getting the entire goal reached? If you have people working for you on the goal, there should be rewards for accomplishment. Makes it more fun. Games and prizes are valuable tools to getting more done.
Go For It!
And perhaps this should have been the first point. If you have an idea of something you would like to accomplish, don’t be your own worst enemy and give up before you start. Don’t let negativity creep in whether just in your own head or other people voicing it. Keep your own reality on what you are going for and keep strong!
