By Andrew May

Goal-setting is a positive, powerful practice when it ignites enthusiasm and provides you with clear direction. So, how do you avoid the New Year’s curse and move from writing goals on the back of a VB coaster in the early hours of New Year’s Day to actually making them happen in a logical, structured process?

Follow the 7 tips to ensure you succeed.

1. ask yourself the right questions

* Give some thought to what you really want and why you want to achieve it.

* How much does achieving this goal really mean to you?

* What are the benefits of achieving this goal? List them.

* Who else would achieving this goal affect or impact?

* Are you really prepared to do what it takes to achieve this goal?

2. involve significant others

Don’t keep your goals to yourself. Enlist the support of your partner, significant others, family, friends, colleagues etc. This keeps you accountable and also sets up your own little support group to keep you on track.

3. get anchored

Write your goals down on a sheet of paper, simplify them into point format and then put them in a place you will regularly see them. This might be in your diary, in the office, in the car, maybe even in the bathroom.

4. small bytes

George Miller, a leading psychologist, proposed that we can only deal with seven bits of information at any one time. Any more information and our minds start to wander.

So to be effective, you need to group things into memorable, manageable chunks. When you create your New Year’s Master Plan, keep your goals down to a manageable number and group similar areas.

5. set an annual goal-setting plan

After you have written down your specific goals, the next step is to work out a specific plan. Identify the key steps you need to take towards accomplishing each goal and assign specific dates for this.

Daily: Think about your major goals and what you can do today to help you move towards them.

Weekly: Invest valuable time at the start of every week mapping out how you are going to spend your time and where you are going to focus effort and energy in order to achieve your goals.

Monthly and quarterly: Make a list of all the major goals you want to complete every month or quarter. Divide this into different parts of your business and life. Then break these down into smaller components and work out what you need to do each week to get the job done.

Yearly planning: Conduct a review of your business and your life before New Year’s. I find December is often a good time to do this.

First of all, make a list of all of the great things you have accomplished the previous year in all aspects of your life. Next, make a list of the areas you’d like to improve or the goals that you didn’t achieve in the different areas of your life. Why do you think you didn’t hit these targets? What do you need to do differently moving forward to make this happen?

The yearly plan should be the umbrella for the quarterly plan, which will then feed the monthly, weekly and daily action items.

6. project the future – RAS

Review your goals at least every seven days, preferably most days. Don’t leave it for another 365 days. This helps activate the Reticular Activating System (RAS). The RAS is an inbuilt goal-setting device that tracks us towards our targets and filters the types of information we let into our internal system.

Regularly visualise what it is going to be like once you have successfully achieved your goals. How are you going to feel? We really do become what we visualise, so make sure you forward-project the right thoughts and paint a successful storyboard.

7. be realistic and reward yourself along the way

It is important to reward yourself along the way as you tick off your action plan. Give yourself a pat on the back for sticking to the process.

Human beings make mistakes so don’t beat yourself up if you lose focus. Don’t be a perfectionist – don’t expect yourself to be super-human. This is one of the simplest ways we can sabotage ourselves. Expect high standards of yourself, but if you don’t achieve all that you want to, at least you’ll know that you’ve worked towards achieving your goals with determination and integrity.
Following this structured process you are much more likely to achieve your goals. And when you’ve done it…you’ve just set yourself up for a happy, healthy and productive year ahead.

Andrew May is is considered Australia’s leading expert on performance and productivity and is the author of the bestselling book, Flip the Switch. Andrew speaks at conferences across the globe, mentors CEO’s and senior managers. He is published throughout national and international media, with regular segments on 2UE radio, Mix 106.5 Body and Soul and Channel Nine’s TODAY show.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 at 12:20 am and is filed under mind. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.