Unleash Your Potential #27 - Staying on Track

Douglas: Welcome to the Unleash Your Potential Blog, what question can I answer for you today?

LifeLighthouse: What strategies can help me stay on track with my goals? 

Douglas: Thank you for sending in this question! Goal management is a frequent topic with coaches of all types. The reason it comes up frequently may be because people seek out coaches to help them move forward in a place in their life where they feel stuck and goals are a big part of getting unstuck.  In this blog, I have written about goals specifically four times (11, 17, 25) and tangentially another three times (4,18, and 20). I encourage you to go back and review those entries, but in the meantime, I am going to go ahead and provide another perspective on staying on track with your goals.

Goal setting is important and challenging work. However, it is also the easy part. You can sit down and write some clear, actionable SMARTR goals but that is only the first step. The real challenge is taking those goals from development to achievement. While there are many things you can do that will you stay on track with your goals, I suggest you LEAP into action!

Little wins – Big goals are an awesome way to build motivation, but they can also become unscalable mountains very easily. Once you have the big, audacious goal, you need to break it into manageable steps so you can celebrate little wins along the way. When my wife and I go on hikes (which we only do sporadically), we often get through the hikes by celebrating when we get another ¼ mile, or just over that next hill, etc.). If you withhold celebrating until you reach the finish line, you may lose steam along the way because the goal just seems too far away. Take time to celebrate the little wins.

Evaluate your progress daily – Goal tracking is another great way to keep moving forward with your goals. Keep a goal journal or find an app for your phone. Every morning review your progress. Knowing that each day you are taking steps toward goals keeps the finish line in view.

Accountability groups – Goals are hard and they are even harder by yourself. Find or create an accountability group. This does not have to be people working on the same goal as you (although I find weight loss specifically is a whole lot easier when I am working on it with someone), but this group is a way for you to keep each other honest about your goals. These are people who are going to be willing to challenge you when you aren’t progressing toward your goals, ask you questions to help you get past challenges in achieving your goals, and celebrate with you when you have those little wins along the way. Find your people!

Plan for success – Routines are powerful. They work because once you get into a routine, you don’t have to think about that process anymore. If you have a morning routine for getting ready for the day, you probably don’t have to think about it because it just happens. The same is true for progressing through your goals. One technique that I have found works for me is breaking my work time into chunks. I look at my planner and split my work time into 1-hour blocks. For each hour I work on one of my goals. Each day I know that I am going to have at least one hour to make progress. If I find extra time, I may add another hour, but I know that every day I am going to have at least one hour for each goal. It is part of my routine. When I am starting a new goal, I write those routines right in my Google calendar and turn on the notifications so I am reminded that the time is coming. When I am focusing, the current version of Windows I am running as a “Focus Assistant” which is just a time that stays visible no matter what I am working on to remind me when I have gone over one hour (I have a habit of going down rabbit-holes so I need an alarm to remind me to start AND stop). Regardless of what specifically works for you, the lesson is to PLAN and develop a ROUTINE around working on goals.

There it is. Time to get started. Write down your goals and then LEAP into action!

I hope my answer sheds some light on your question. If you want to dig into this concept further, I encourage you to reach out and set up a conversation. In the meantime, check back tomorrow for the next question in the Unleash Your Potential Series!

Be Well!

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