Congratulations, you have decided that you are going to change your life for the better. You have written down your vision for your future in each of the Seven Life Areas and you have written down your goals for each one. Two months have gone by and you are becoming frustrated because you do not seem to be making much headway on accomplishing some of your goals. Why not? You wonder. When you start working on a specific goal, something more urgent pops up and takes you away from what you were focusing on. Don’t worry, I have some strategies that will help you stayed focused and move you towards your successful life!
- Become Very Clear About What Is Required
- Create A Daily Schedule
- Prioritize Your Goals
- Visualize And Focus
- Track Your Accomplishments
- Celebrate Your Milestones
- Schedule Some Time To RELAX
BECOME VERY CLEAR ABOUT WHAT IS REQUIRED
This usually happens at the beginning of the New Year: people set their resolutions and goals and they feel that this is the year that they will change. They are optimistic that they will accomplish all of their goals and so the list is long. Why shouldn’t it be long, you have all year to accomplish them? Is that a reality though? Some of these goals that you have set will have several smaller goals that will need to be accomplished within them. This is where using my Personal Strategic Plan for the Seven Life Areas will really help you define your priorities. Your PSP will help you discern the most important ones for you to accomplish.
SCHEDULE IT
If you have ever studied the Franklin Covey Task Management and Time Planning, this should come easy for you. Ask yourself: what are your priorities? From the most important to those that can be delegated to someone else to accomplish for you. I like to use my Ideal Week Template for planning out my week. I then look it over every morning and evening, making sure that I am sticking to my priorities as other items appear on my schedule. My priorities are generated by my goals. I post my annual goals on my Master Calendar then I break down those goals into quarterly and monthly goals. I then break those quarterly and monthly goals into individual tasks and schedule them on my daily calendar. I will block out the time slots that I will actually work on these tasks, helping propel me forward towards their accomplishment.
PRIORITIZE YOUR GOALS
This is extremely important! Take a look at your goals every day. I carry mine with me in my iPhone and in my wallet. I look at my goals first thing in the morning and last thing at night. This helps me stay focused on what is most important. I assign my “Daily Top Five” to be accomplished that day and will even decide to delegate some of them out to someone else.
VISUALIZE AND FOCUS
I recommend doing this through meditation. Meditation helps you relax and as you visualize your goals it opens the door for The Law of Attraction and thoughts and images will appear in your mind, lining up the inner and outer resources to make your day move with intention. It is good to do a mini-meditation “refresher” periodically throughout the day as well. I like to say my daily affirmation every time that I start my car, before I put it into gear. This allows me to get centered on my goals for the day. I use my recording app in my iPhone to capture what I call my Million Dollar Ideas for me to later review.
TRACK YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
I will reference the Franklin Covey task management corse once again: before smart phones were around you knew who had taken the Franklin Covey Time Management Course because all the grads carried a daily planner with them. If you were to glance at their planners you would see a list of tasks, prioritized A, B, C, D and 1, 2, 3, 4 next to each task. If there was a check mark next to the task you would know that task had been completed, if there was a circle it was delegated to someone else. Tracking your accomplishments is rewarding! You actually get to see the progress that you are making. Now that most of us carry smart phones around there are many apps that can be downloaded that will help you keep track of your goals and your daily tasks. Some of the iPhone apps that I’ve reviewed include: Goals On Track, Success.bz Life Organizer, Success Wizard, and Power Goals.
CELEBRATE YOUR MILESTONES
Celebrate your progress! This will help you stay motivated. Imagine driving on a highway on a long road trip, reading the mileage signs that tell you how many more miles you have to go before you reach your destination. I know that I get more excited as those numbers get smaller, just as I get excited as I check more accomplishments off of my task list and watch my progression forward to attaining my goals. When you celebrate your accomplishments, even the small ones, this generates excitement and will continue to motivate you to accomplish more tasks and goals.
RELAX AND ENJOY
We all are working hard to accomplish our goals, personal as well as professional. Our goals are important, not just for us, but for the world as well. As we work on our goals, it is important to remember to relax and enjoy along the way, to recharge our minds and our bodies. I like to road bike, it fulfills me physically and mentally, as well as spiritually. I will schedule long bike rides, it is almost like a meditation for me. As I ride my mind is free to wander and thoughts are allowed to come and go freely. As much as I enjoy cycling there are some weekends where I will choose not to ride but to instead relax and enjoy my surroundings and the people that I am with. I may visit with my family, taking a weekend trip to see them. It is relaxing and recharging to recreate…re-create. This allows the body, as well as the mind, to recharge so that when you do get back to working on your goals and tasks, you will be sharper, more willing to accept the ideas that will flow in and out of your mind.
