Achieving Your Goals
The beginning of the New Year is a time that most of us look back on the last year, take stock of the goals we set, our accomplishments and set new ones for the year ahead. As professionals, we know our goals need to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound). I'm sure most of you are familiar with the exercise START - STOP - CONTINUE that is often used with Strategic Planning. My guess is that we all can benefit with looking at the work we are doing and utilize this same exercise.
Any setting of goals or aspirations should start with what really matters most to us and align with our values. The gist of the START-STOP-CONTINUE exercise is to really look at what we need to START doing that we are not doing now that would best serve our goals or meet our client's needs. Second is to be able to STOP doing things that are not getting us closer to our goals, or not helping our clients. We cannot just add more mashed potatoes to our plate - we need to look at a what to stop doing list if we are going to add work onto our plate. Those two lists should be close in weight to each other to keep the balance. The third step is to look at our CONTINUE list, what are we doing that serves both our goals and our client's goals. We all can benefit with looking at the work we are doing and utilize this same exercise applying it to our goals as well.
Once we have committed to our goals, Harvard Business Review research tells us we can increase achievement by writing them down and sharing with others. If we do the above, and have an accountability partner, we can increase the odds of achieving our goals. A friend and colleague of mine, Lillian prints out her goals and puts them in a small frame by her computer. I love that idea and adapted it to put my goals in the notebook I use daily.
Another idea is to make your passwords contain a key word from your goal, i.e. veggies2017, or fitbit10000 for a health goal. Figure out what works best for you, tell someone and work towards your goals. Make back up plans for when we fall off the wagon, forgive yourself and get back on track. Good luck in achieving your goals!
