goals and getting there
By DJ on Jun 24, 2008 in Business Tips/Advice, Productivity, Tutorials
We all make goals, mostly in our head. Do many of you actually write your goal down on paper? Make a commitment to it? Do you succeed in getting to your goal? A few tips here to help you achieve your goals that I have found to work.
- Have sets of goals. The biggies, the middles, and the day to day goals.
- WRITE THEM DOWN! Even the day to day ones. It makes them more “real” and gives you a quick review internally of them. It also commits you to achieving them, a bit more. But not really.
- Share them with others. Yeah, that is commitment. If you share the goal with someone else, you are more likely to work harder to get to the goal. To save face, to prove to them you can do it, to show them up, to share the attainment with them for a greater good. Whatever the reason, do it. Especially the importnat ones.
- Take a bit of time to look at the goal, and come up with mini-goals to get you on the way. Take a weekend retreat to be with yourself. Or an evening where you do nothing but look at the goal.
- Come up with practical, do-able steps to attain each mini-goal. Time limit? yeah you can, but that sometimes leads to stress and stress in a bad way. Unless achieving the goal needs to be done within a time limit. Then press on! As you go along the path of getting to the big goal, you can check off each step, each mini-goal. Do it on paper too! You’ll get a sense of accomplishment that while others may not understand, you will, and it will help you get to the next step. Often we humans need these little “tricks” to keep going.
- When you get to the goal, celebrate. Do something for yourself, but do it in a way that it does not degrade the accomplishment. No going out and getting shit-faced. Nah… I will often take a day off to go somewhere special, a movie, a store that is a drive away (these days it has to be a BIG goal to drive more than 20 miles for me), but I also share the benefits of my goal-attainment by dropping another $25 into Kiva. Or Heifer International.
There. So, what goal are you writing down today? Post it here. Then post it on your blog. Make a little sign and stick it to your computer monitor.
Do.It.
[ad]
Posts
naomi | Jun 26, 2008 | Reply
Great tips! I have all kinds of lists of goals written down. Short term goals, projects, long term future, someday/maybe goals. The more specific you are, the better. Writing them down is the first step to getting them moving!
Telling other people about them and making myself accountable helps me a lot too. I often set dates for goals which mean I have to push myself more, but in the end, it’s the tight timeframe that makes me move my butt into action.
aimeebucher | Jun 28, 2008 | Reply
I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I consider this post to be my personal invitation to figure out the details. One of my main business goals is for 123 Design Studio to be a fulltime business by August, 2018. I’m defining fulltime as the income equivalent of 35 billable hours per week for 48 weeks out of the year.
I need to take some time to think through all the mini-goals but I have figured out this year’s steps towards this goal:
1. Learn 1 new thing or make a major addition to my current body of web design knowledge every month. Last month I created my first WP blog. This month I am taking a class in SEO and used CMSMS for the first time. (This is an easy goal and one of the things I love about this profession: there is so much to learn and I absolutely love to learn new things!)
2. Figure out and maintain the family/work balance. This will also be an ongoing, life-long task. I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about this mini-goal for the last week or so - trying to figure out how to find that balance. With four boys ages 9, 6, 3 & 3 months, a workaholic husband, extended family obligations, and my business as well as other personal obligations it’s tough to find that balance. But, I think the key for me is this: Be Present. I have to refine this more, but I know right now that when I’m with the boys I’m thinking about work and when I’m working I’m thinking about the boys (or my lack of sleep. LOL)
So, there are my first two mini-goals toward the big goal. I am planning to take some of our vacation time later in July to really think through the rest of the mini-goals to get to the big goal.
Thanks for this post. It was just the kick in the pants, I mean encouragement, I needed.