We’re well into the year where we began with hopes and goals to accomplish. I came across an article published by Business Insider that said 80% of new year’s resolutions (goals) fail by the second week of February. 8 out of 10 people have already stopped pursuing their goals.
If you’ve stopped, don’t feel guilty. You can still reach your goal(s). Here are 6 steps to first quarter success to get you back on track.
1. Make time to reflect on the past month.
Reflection is a key component your success when capturing goals. Reflection is the process of looking back and understanding your experience to move forward with new information on the road to success.
It’s an opportunity to look back and see what’s working and what’s not working according to plan. Look back in a way not to hurt your progress.
Humans typically focus on what’s wrong which contributes to losing the drive to attack the goal. I don’t want that to happen to you. Look at errors or missteps as learning opportunities where you continue with new information.
You want to be honest with yourself and value your findings. Reflection turns your experience into insight which is your fuel to move forward in accomplishing your goal.
When looking back, make adjustments and take action on those adjustments. You’re cheating yourself if you don’t make the time to think. You’re intuitive in your gift zone. Value sustained thinking because it will give you more intel on what’s either moving you forward or what’s stopping you from executing your plan.
Ask yourself reflective questions.
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What process did you use to accomplish your goal?
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What problems did you encounter?
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What will you change moving forward?
2. Prepare for success.
Anything you want to accomplish requires preparation. Write down all the things you will need to be successful in executing your plan as ingredients in a recipe. Ask yourself why is this important?
Review and prioritize your materials. The first priority ingredients should be things that will move you closer to your goal. Develop a plan with deadlines and mark the deadlines in a calendar.
Break your plan down into daily goals. You don’t have to know the whole process. Plan the parts that you know. You can figure what you don’t know along the way. Google is a great tool to learn on the go.
Plan what you can accomplish in a day’s time when setting daily goals. If you’re unsure about how long it takes to complete a task, schedule your day and time your accomplishments to get a feel for what you’re able to do. You can either use a kitchen timer or an app.
Take 5-10 minutes to write this down in a notebook or journal each day. At the end of each day, write a paragraph to summarize your days stating what you got out of the day and what you learned. Create a system/process to reach your goal. Plot your milestones on your calendar.
Review your observations and write them down throughout the day, prioritize your observations, and make corrections moving forward. Look for positive and negative patterns. This will help you keep you on the right path if positive and see the symptoms that slows your progress down if negative.
Ask yourself:
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What should I keep doing?
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What should I stop doing?
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what do I want to change?
Examine if you need to adjust your daily methods. Once you’ve made adjustments, write them down to remain accountable and include them in your plan for the next day.
3. Write down your crucial discoveries.
After answering the questions in step 2, you want to get perspective on your progress and improvements by asking yourself; what discoveries have I made? Activity is not productivity. Write down the things that kept you busy and didn’t move you closer to your goal. Write down the things that moved you closer to your goals.
Growth is not automatic. Give growth time to happen and give yourself a break if you make a mistake. Change takes time to stick. It takes on average 21-23 days to form a habit and routine.
Give yourself time for evidence of growth to manifest. Don’t get caught up in looking at what everyone else is doing. It’s your race! The fast doesn’t win it’s the person who strikes first. Inspection is the foundation of expectation. You must deal with yesterday to best discover tomorrow.
4. Plan the rest of your quarter.
Based on your reflection and discoveries, prioritize your goals and define what you to accomplish your goal(s). Make a list of what you need to achieve Ask questions to make changes based on your discoveries when you reflected on January.
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What must be fueled?
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Who is responsible?
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What do I need to keep going?
5. Schedule the things you want to accomplish.
It’s not real if you don’t have a plan. When planning your days, have up to 3 daily goals to accomplish that will get you closer to your main goal. Having more than 3 daily goals may lead to confusion and demotivate you to achieve. A daily planner is in the guide.
Do not have worthless meetings. A worthless meeting is one that doesn’t have a game plan at the beginning and no accountability at the end. Schedule meetings with an agenda and the desired outcome including who’s accountable.
6. Share your learning with an accountability partner.
High performers will tell you it’s not what you do when people are watching. It’s what you do when people aren’t watching that drives success. The late nights and early mornings grinding to reach your goals.
There will be days when you don’t feel like doing the work and are motivated to stay in bed. That’s when having an accountability partner comes into play. Your accountability partner will keep you on track by reminding and pushing you to keep going.
Make the meeting meaningful by sending an agenda to your accountability partner and have your learning ready to share at the time of the meeting. An example agenda may look like this:
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Good news (mention positive results from executing the plan).
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What was accomplished?
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What needs adjusting. Talk about things you want to change.
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What help to I need to move forward?
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What do I need to remain accountable?
In the comments, below, share your takeaways and experience. What knowledge and experiences would you add to the conversation?
Thank you for reading!
