As the new year approaches, many of us start to reflect upon the past year and look at what we were able to accomplish. Maybe you even look back at your New Year’s resolutions from 2016, and see what you were able to accomplish over the last year or maybe where you had some struggles and were unable to stick with your goals. That is ok, because there is always next year, right? That is true, but what if I told you there was a recipe to achieving your goals and if you just stick to the recipe you will achieve more in 2016 than ever before – wouldn’t you want to know the recipe?
Well, here you go! I am passing along to you a successful 7-step “goal doing” recipe to achieving ANY goal that you want to accomplish. I learned this 7-step recipe from a great mentor of mine, James Malinchak. He discusses these seven steps in much greater detail in his materials which you can find at www.bigmoneyspeaker.com. Before we give you the recipe for success, first you will want to pick particular areas in your life in which you want to grow and then set a goal for each area. Some helpful areas of focus may include:
- Financial / Income
- Career / Business
- Spirituality
- Mental / Intellectual Growth
- Social / Community
- Family Life
- Physical Health / Well Being
That is just a short list to get you started. Now, let’s take one of these areas and demonstrate the 7-step “goal doing” recipe in action. Since it is nearing the New Year, let’s go ahead and set a Physical Health / Well Being goal. Let’s say you are like most Americans and gained 8-10 pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas and are ready to make a change in your life to lose weight and feel better. Here is the 7-step recipe your goal needs to go through:
- BE SPECIFIC: Write down what you want to accomplish and EXCACTLY when you will accomplish it. Using our example, you might say, “I will lose 10 pounds by March 29th, 2016 at 3:30pm.” That is how specific you need to be, have an end date (and time) you will complete the goal by.
- DEVELOP A PURPOSE FOR EACH GOAL: Find out what your red hot “Why” is for achieving your goal. Why are you so passionate about achieving this goal? Answer that question, and this will really ignite your passion to achieve your goal. Using our example your “why” might be, “I want to feel like I did on my wedding day and honeymoon and have that energy to be able to do the things in life that are fun and exciting again.” Having a purpose for each goal will really get you jazzed and excited to accomplish your goal!
- LIST OTHERS WHO CAN HELP YOU ACHIEVE YOUR GOAL: This is an area that is more often forgotten. It’s okay to ask for help accomplishing your goals. Think of these important questions – Who can help you achieve this goal? Or, who can serve as mentors to help you achieve this goal? For our weight loss example, your spouse could serve as someone that could help you achieve your goal by supporting your new nutrition habits. A Fitness Coach could serve as a mentor to hold you accountable to your workouts and your nutrition plan. Make sure you write a list of these people down and contact them, because they will help tremendously in getting you closer to achieving your goals.
- CREATE YOUR PLAN: What are the exact action steps that you need to take to achieve your goal? Figure that out, then work your plan backwards. As the great author Dan Kennedy was quoted as saying, “Start with the end in mind.” It is hard enough to have this enormous goal and looking up the mountain thinking to yourself, “How am I going to make it all the way up to there?” when you could just start at the top and work your plan back all the way to where you are today! They teach this technique at Harvard Business School and it is called Future Perfect Planning. So write down all of your actions steps and see yourself already weighing 10 pounds lighter by March 29th, 2016, then work backwards from there. You will be so much more excited visualizing yourself with the end in mind, and will be much more likely to achieve your goal.
- THINK OF ANY OBSTACLES THAT MAY COME UP AND FIND SOLUTIONS TO THOSE OBSTACLES: Again here is another overlooked step that many people never do. So when you do run into an obstacle there isn’t a clear, drawn out solution to solve the problem. As the author Sun Tzu famously stated in his book, “The Art of War”, “Every battle is won before it is fought.” Make sure you write down every single obstacle and solution to that obstacle before it comes up, and you will be so much better prepared to overcome any roadblocks before they happen. For example, let’s say you are planning a vacation 2 weeks before your weight loss goal. Are you going to eat out for every meal and be tempted to eat dessert after dinner? If you are, you will be doomed to fail with your goal. Figure out the solution before that even becomes a problem. Maybe stay in a hotel where you can prepare some of your meals at the hotel, then you will have more opportunities to eat well and not splurge.
- TAKE ACTION NOW! No, I do not mean write down your goals and just look at them every day, and meditate and one day your dreams will come true! That will never happen. I mean really take action right this minute! Ask yourself, which steps (see Step #4) will I immediately take action on, now? Start working your plan and don’t wait. This is a step that is so easy to procrastinate on, but please don’t. Take action now, if you don’t you will never see any results. Even if it is something as easy as hiring a Coach, buying a scale, or doing a great job of buying your first week of healthy foods – every little step you take now matters in achieving your goals.
- EVALUATE YOUR PROGRESS AND MAKE ANY NECESSARY ADJUSTMENTS: Always be asking yourself, “Am I on target with my goals? Am I taking the necessary steps needed to achieve my goals?” Make sure you are doing at least a weekly assessment of your progress, and if any adjustments do need to be made, make them! It’s okay to update your plan as things in life change. For example, if you have only lost 5 pounds by March 1st, then you know you only have 29 days left to lose the other 5 pounds. That means your action steps may change to where you are going to the gym 4 days a week now instead of 2 days. Or, you decide to stop eating out for the month of March. Whatever it is, make sure you update your plan and make the necessary adjustments.
So, your homework now is take one of these areas in your life and set a goal and take your goal through this 7-step “goal doing” recipe and I promise you will achieve whatever you set out and want to accomplish!
Good Luck and Happy New Year!
Acknowledgments:
James Malinchak, Author and Motivational Speaker, www.bigmoneyspeaker.com