Two Weeks into the New Year: Have You Changed Goals Yet?

by | Jan 16, 2013 | Business Process, Leadership Training, Management Training, Training

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Gaol SettingHere it is, a few weeks after New Years and some of you are very excited because you have been following your 2013 resolutions. You have a sense of accomplishment and look forward to continuing down this new road. Others have given up already and probably a 1/3 of you never set any new goals because you may think it is silly.

To those people who feel setting a goal is silly needs to understand that without an objective or goal, no change happens. Maybe you have been through this before and feel that setting goals never work. To you I say that you may want to look at how you set goals but more importantly how you set out an action plan to accomplish the goal.

To those who gave up, why did you? To you I would say that you have not invested enough in how the result will impact your life. If the goal is not worthwhile then letting it go is easy.

Instituting a change anywhere takes work. It takes effort. Anyone who tells you differently is lying.

Be careful of the phrase “time management”. That phrase gets tossed around so easily but it never goes far enough into why things need to happen or why they stop happening.

Setting a goal:

  1. The goal you set has to have some repercussion if you do not attain it. Not that you will be fired or something negative happens but you have to be invested in the outcome. If you do not see the downside of not accomplishing this goal then it will be easy to stop.
  2. You need to be specific in what you want to accomplish. Saying you want to be a top salesmen is not the same as you wanting to sell 50 units. The same holds true with “I want to lose 15 pounds” versus “I want to lose 15 pounds by May 1st.”
  3. Once you have a goal that you are invested in and have been specific in the goal, the next step is outlining “action steps” that you have to accomplish to get you on the path towards your goal. For instance, if you are going to sell 50 units, here are some things you may begin to work on.
    1. Review marketing materials
    2. Go through your database to create a list of the first 10 clients you will call
    3. Create a script for your sales pitch
    4. Make sure you are logging data into your CRM or tracking tool

Setting up these steps will allow you to focus on small accomplishments that bring you closer to your goal. If you do not have these steps you will end up looking at the goal of “selling 50 units” and may not know where to begin so you keep putting off action until something comes to you. Next thing you know you are way off pace.

Setting goals and focusing on small steps also allow momentum to be built so that you see small accomplishments which get you excited about each of the following steps

For those of you who are still attacking your goals from New Years, keep it up. Keep focused on what you are doing each day.

For those of you who stopped, it is not too late to rethink your goal and get back on the plan. Remember you had some initial desire for change, don’t give up.

For those of you who did not set goals, hopefully you see that all of your life is about goals and priorities and I hope this helps.