How did you spend the first week of the new year?
How did you spend the first week of the new year?
If you were like many people, you spent it doing some pretty common things such as catching up on emails and going to some standing meetings, many of which probably began with people trying to remember why we have this particular standing meeting. It’s understandable. There is a clear draw to your inbox, particularly when you don’t have clear goals that help you focus your attention.
If you haven’t spent time putting together your goals, and having those goals drive your actions, then your first week of 2015 likely didn’t feel highly productive. But, week 2 provides you another opportunity to build a plan with purpose. Answer these questions for yourself. You will have to ask them for each of your goals.
1. What is the outcome you want to achieve? This might be self explanatory.
2. What part of your life is this goal relevant for (health, family, financial, etc.)? This is useful because you can see a pattern and find parts of your life where you might be missing goals. For example, if you don’t have a single goal for health, well, then you aren’t likely to have it.
3. What are the benefits of achieving this goal? Why are you pursuing it? Make sure its really important to you.
4. What obstacles do you have to overcome to achieve this goal? Know whats in your way and use that to help drive your actions. Mine is almost always time availability.
5. What skill or knowledge do you need to acquire to be successful in this goal? Most goals worth pursuing require a little self-improvement.
6. What people or groups can help you be successful towards this goal? You don’t get any extra points for going alone.
7. What are your actions steps to be successful? What will you specifically do, and by when? The more detail here the better. Nothing happens without action.
8. How will I keep track and ensure my own accountability towards this goal?
So, its week 2. Are you going to wait until week 3?