Setting Goals: Planning for Success
Planning for success when setting goals and achieving them are very different things. Creating goals often comes from motivation. However, achieving goals comes from action and consistency. So what are some ways that we can ensure there are truly steps being taken toward our goals? Two simple steps can be extremely helpful with this.
Weekly Check-in
Start each week by writing down the three most important things you need to do to advance your goals. Take these three goals and split them into tasks to complete throughout the week. Creating detailed small steps with deadlines will help you focus on your goals and actually see results in due time.
Assess Progress
The next step is to observe your progress. At the end of each week, look at the tasks you have created for yourself and pay attention to how many of them were completed. Here are some questions to ask yourself when doing this:
- Of my weekly goals, what got achieved this week?
- If a task didn’t get completed, why?
- What were some difficulties in completing this task?
It’s important to remind yourself that a task not completed is not a failure! A task not completed should be a learning opportunity. Only quitting is failure! Just keep your head up and try planning for success with the tasks of the upcoming week.
This is the second part of this step which is basically to start over! Once you’ve assessed your progress, set new goals for yourself for the upcoming week. It also helps to make changes to goals you found challenging in the past week. This will help you stay adaptable and prepared to face future obstacles in the way of your goals.
That’s it! With these steps added to creating SMARTEST goals and planning your year ahead of time, you will be ready to take on any challenge you desire. Dream big and use this framework to build a staircase of smaller steps toward the finish line. Completion is as simple as never giving up.
