Did
you ever notice that ACTION is an anagram of I ACT ON?! In this final
installment of the Setting Effective Goals series, I’m going to leave you with
food for thought about how you can take action towards your goals, because they’re
not going to achieve themselves!
As
a teenager, I would prepare for exams by creating wonderfully thought-out and
colour-coded study plans. Unfortunately, that's as far as it went most of the
time, because I wasn't experienced or disciplined enough to turn my great
intentions and planning into actual study! Only action will deliver progress,
but too many people fall into this same sort of 'paralysis by analysis', so
let's talk a bit about what you can do to get over this.
It’s
important that you put just as much effort into planning the actions as you do
into planning what you actually want to achieve. These days, I work backwards
from my goals. I know where I want to get to, so I figure out what things I
need to do to get there, what order they need to be in, when they need to be
achieved by, what risks or complications I need to be aware of and how the
actions will fit with the other things I have on my plate. Again, you need to be careful that you don’t
get too caught up in this, but it really
helps to think about it in advance.
There are two concepts from two fantastic books that I want to reference here:
1.
Control what you can control
Click pic to view in detail |
2. Focus your energy and actions towards the positive
In
the book “The Power of Full Engagement”,
the authors talk a lot about energy management. They make a great point about
how people try to make changes based on the behaviours they want to avoid. For
example, those wanting to give up smoking often spend all their energy thinking
about cigarettes and expend a lot of energy on “will-power” and discipline. In
fact, they will use far less energy and will have far greater success if they
focus on the positive behaviours that will get them to their goal - e.g.
exercise, some replacement activity, breathing exercises, etc. Then they can
measure progress and feel good about themselves instead of constantly fixating
on what they are missing and trying to resist.
They also make a very compelling
point about the need to move as much as possible to routine and habit. Habits
use much less effort and discipline than conscious actions, so when planning
for your goals, try to focus on creating habits (e.g. have set days and times
for repeat activities like going to the gym, reading a book, meeting people ,
etc.). That way it goes from having to force yourself to do something to being
something that you just do without thinking.
[Just as an aside, I
was sent this mindmap today, which presents the Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions.
If you want to put yourself to the test, you can use your newly sharpened
insight to critique what’s wrong with these goals and
how they could be more effectively written]
So,
that’s it for the Setting Effective Goals series. I’ve finished the (FREE!)
8-page Worksheet and I’ll send it to the folks who’ve signed up in the next
couple of days. Best of luck in 2013 and I hope my posts help you to get closer to success and
happiness, however you choose to define it!