Are you tired of hopelessly planning goals that you are almost certain you will end up failing to accomplish, New Year’s Resolutions that you rarely complete and getting to the end of the year feeling underwhelmed about what you actually did?
It is usually the case that, for most people, the majority of goals do not go beyond paper and planning and never materialise. There are various reasons for this, but all of them have effective solutions that can help you achieve more.
Create a Motivating yet Feasible Plan
It is tempting to get lost and start planning everything that you may feel you want to accomplish in the year, even to an unrealistic degree. Do not fall for this trap. As much as idealisation is important to make you dream and get inspired, you have to outline what is possible and achievable to make you truly motivated and committed instead of dispersing your focus and getting nothing done. A good plan will give you a focus target, save you time long term and reduce hardships and mistakes by anticipating concerns.
Defining appropriate, concrete and measurable goals
You must pick a goal that is attainable and you may need to break it down into several mini-goals if it is something somewhat challenging. The key is to make it concrete and measurable whenever possible.
If you are one of those people who wants to get fit and never actually get around to doing it just by saying it and thinking about it like that, it might be helpful to break it down in small chunks that address the reason why you always end up postponing it (e.g. perhaps defining a concrete metric on specific gym equipment of your liking).
Like many people, I also wanted to become fitter and improve my health but the idea of going to a gym doing robotic motions day in and day out did not seem sustainable for someone working a corporate job with long hours like me or remotely fun at all after a long day so I addressed that. Instead, I chose a specific sport that I always wanted to try with a feasible one-week schedule and the “Get fit” goal turned into “Get to an Intermediate Level of Aerial Hoop in the next 5 months with weekly practice”.
Outline something realistic that is still exciting and take into consideration the mental hurdles and plan around them from the very beginning.
All my life I wanted to be somebody. Now I see I shoud have been more specific.” Lily Tomlin
Plan for shorter periods of time: ditch annualized plans and adopt periodization
If you really want to achieve more and better you should never plan around the entire year. Giving yourself a year for a single goal is a dangerous trap that convinces you that you have plenty of time and makes you never get around to what you want to do.
Have you ever noticed that most times you complete a task in however long you are given to complete it? The idea here is that the same reason that makes you push and complete a 15-page paper in 2 days when you had four whole weeks to do is the same reason why you should also think in short deep bursts of focus and activity. The book “The 12 Week Year” by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington explains this idea perfectly and explains the reason why we should rely more on periodization than annualized thinking:
“One of the things that gets in the way of individuals and organizations achieving their best is the annual planning process. As strange as this is going to sound, annual goals and plans are often a barrier to high performance. […] There is no question you will do better with annual goals and plans than without goals or plans; however, we have found that this annual process inherently limits performance. […] The fact is every week counts! Every day counts! Every moment counts! […] Discard annualized thinking and watch what happens.”
For that reason, it might be wise to plan your goals in quarters, trimesters, and months and if they are small enough, you may only need a few weeks. It may also be helpful to work seasonally when it comes to certain hobby-related goals. Periodization not only can give you a stronger push to complete them due to your timeline but also allows you to re-evaluate and adjust your goals as you go.
Remain Consistent
Prioritize your goals
In order to achieve your goals you actually have to sometimes to make decisions on what to do with limited time. In those times you have to make your most important targets a priority. Otherwise, they will end up in the backburner and every time you chose something else over them, the easier will be to continue to disregard executing them.
Calendar-blocking
One of the many ways to prioritize goals is to make time for them and schedule them alongside your other obligations.
An effective way to plan is to calendar-block and allocate that time in advance for your different activities.
There are several tools that you can use for this (e.g. Google Calendar or iCalendar are free options that absolutely do the sob) and you can even set reminders and alarms a few minutes before you have to move on to another Task.
It is also key to calendar-block in a realistic way, with some empty slots in case a task takes longer than usual. It is not necessary and for most people, it is not productive at all to input every single to do on a calendar.
Use a calendar for commitments, not for an ideal day on your to-do list with a lot of administrative tasks and non-essentials competing and sabotaging your main pursuits.
This way you will have a clean and motivating schedule that will motivate you instead of making you feel overwhelmed.
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Seek Accountability
If you are someone that struggles a lot with following through plans, all of the above might still not be enough to push you forward.
Because of that we have to get more creative and play into excitement, guilt and need for connection. Even if some of your goals are Personal or you do not want to reveal them, it might be incredibly helpful to have a few friends that you can share your progress and excitement with.
The idea is that the positive reinforcement of excitement from you and others alongside the potential embarrassment of then not doing what you say are going to do will push you to stick to your commitments.
For me, this has been incredibly effective for the few goals that are more challenging and for which inner motivation and commitment is not quite enough to ensure I show up.
Evaluate and Measure your Progress
After all the effort of planning and sticking to habits long term, it is also necessary to be able to look back at the progress.
This is a chance to readjust your goals if necessary or simply to reap the benefits of accomplishing them
Don’t be afraid of the date and time and celebrate your accomplishments properly!
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