There is something very compelling about writing your goals out by hand. Too many of us keep our goals in our minds and don’t actually write them down. The act of writing them down helps to cement them into your consciousness which in turn means they are far more likely to be achieved; which, after all is what we want!
Have you written your goals out for 2013? For some people this type of activity permanently sits on the “things to do list” as they never think they have time to do it. This year I spent 20 mins writing down my high-level view of where I wanted to get my business to by the end of 2013, and I did it sitting in my car waiting to pick my children up from school. It really doesn’t have to take long and it can have a very positive effect on your potential to achieve your goals.
How many times have you set yourself goals for the year and not met them? Having previously been in that position myself I’ve found an effective way of self-managing which has made a huge difference…
Once I have written down my definition of business success for the year I then write down what I would need to achieve in 6 months to be able to meet that definition, and then I break that down into a 3 month set of goals. I do this because I know my mind struggles to get motivated by something it has a year to achieve (I’m one of those people that work well under pressure so when there’s no pressure I struggle to get motivated) , but once that is broken down into a 3 month set of goals it becomes far more tangible and near-term. From that point it only takes another 5 mins to work out what I need to get done in each of the next 3 months to make sure I stay on track.
The outcome, within 20 mins, is a clear definition of where I want to be by the end of 2013 and its broken down so I know what I need to do in each of the next 3 months so I can easily start taking the necessary steps to achieve my desired success.
So the next time you have even 10 mins to spare grab a piece of paper and write those goals down. In fact, do it now!