Your goals – the goals you’ve been talking about,
the ones on your vision board,
the ones you can’t stop thinking about –
Those goals are weak.
Let’s Talk Goals
Let me clarify. I have a vision board filled with personal and professional goals that I look at every day.
I set goals for myself, my family, and my team.
I adjust and make changes to my goals as necessary.
Setting big goals for yourself is necessary for growth, and it can also be motivating. When you start visualizing the life you want, inspiration begins to creep in. Whether you lay out your goals on a board or in a journal, it doesn’t take long before ideas start flowing and your future life is looking better than ever.
But if all you have are goals, your vision board will remain the same year after year. Those untouched goals will begin to feel lofty and out of reach. Your vision board or journal will begin to collect dust, and the life you envisioned will slip away.
That’s why a goal by itself is weak.
Turn Goals in Commitments
In order to move forward and make progress toward the life you want, you have to turn your goals into long-term commitments. When you commit to taking action day after day, week after week, year after year, you begin to see your goal take shape.
Here are ways you can turn your goals into commitments:
Break it into Action Steps
Your goal is your finish line. In order to reach it, there is a lot you must accomplish along the way. Start with the goal, and then ask yourself, In order for me to accomplish this, what checkpoints must happen?
Depending on the goal, there may be many checkpoints. Once these are established, ask, What must I do on a daily basis to get to the first checkpoint? The second? The third?
Those answers to become your action steps to reach your goal.
Language Matters
Once you have an action step, you must speak it and believe it. Your language needs to be both specific and measurable when talking about your commitments.
Instead of saying, “My goal is to post more on social media,”
change the language to, “I commit to posting 7 times on all my social media accounts this week.”
The commitment is an action within a given time frame. This makes it more difficult for excuses to seep in because, at the end of the given time period, you either met the commitment or you didn’t.
Accountability
You hear it all the time, and there’s a reason. When you are held accountable, you are more likely to meet your commitments. If you are disciplined enough, you can hold yourself accountable with an unbreakable contract. If you know you need support, find or start an accountability group.
When the inspiration from your yearly goal setting activity wears off, you are left with a choice: complete the daily action item required to move forward, or stay where you are.
Your goals are weak, but only if they’re not attached to commitments.