Making Goals Happen

For most of us, when we get fed up enough with the current results in our life, we realize that we are stuck and want to break out of the rut we are in – we consider setting some goals.

Especially this time of year, millions and millions of people are writing down goals for themselves – yet for many those goals will sit in a drawer, get thrown out with the trash or only stick around for a few weeks, by the end of the month you will be back in the same rut by the end of January

How do we make sure that doesn’t happen?

The most common reason that goals do not become reality is that there is no associated daily action plan behind those goals. 

For instance…let’s say one of your goals for this month is:

GOAL:  To lose 5 lbs taking me from 180lbs down to 175lbs

First, the goal is specific, realistic and measurable…any goal needs to follow these criteria.  For instance, it is not useful to just say ‘I will lose weight this month’ 

Writing the goal down and reviewing it each day is certainly a great start…but to really put hooks into goal and make sure it becomes real, you need a plan including a set of daily actions to take as part of the plan.

For example, to realize your goal of losing 5lbs in the month you would identify 2-3 areas that will help you lose that weight:

• diet
• exercise
• motivation

Next, you get more specific with the plan:

• diet: – replace toast before bed each day with a piece of fruit, substitute a salad for 3 lunches each week, replace morning cereal twice each week with yogurt and fruit, replace all juice and soft drinks with water
• exercise: – get up 45-minutes earlier Mon,Wed, Fri and do a power-walk/brisk walk; 2 sessions of resistance training each week (build muscle to help drive metabolism), one additional aerobic activity each week for 40-minutes (biking, jogging, swimming, etc…)
• motivation: – commit to 30-min of meditation 5-days each week

Now, that starts to look like a plan doesn’t it?  Already you can begin to see the guidance on a daily basis in order to achieve (or even exceed) your goal

Finally, to really ramp this up and make yourself virtually unstoppable, turn this into a daily action guide that would look something like this…

1. Wakeup at 6:15 AM
2. Brisk walk until 7:00AM
3. Breakfast – yogurt (no added sugar)  and fruit with water
4. Lunch – salad with protein (cottage cheese, cheese, egg slices, seeds or nuts…)
5. Dinner – balanced meal of chicken, vegetables, lentils, etc…
6. 8:00PM – 30-minutes of meditation
7. 11:00PM – bed time with relaxing music (or other methods that help you get to sleep)

Think about how powerful having a detailed action plan like this is toward achieving your goals.  Suddenly, you don’t have to wake up and wrestle with yourself each day on how you will work toward your goals, it is all there in black and white, you just have to follow the plan.

You also have a way to hold yourself accountable – each day you have a way of measuring your progress toward the goal.  If you miss one day, pick it up the next.  If you miss a few days, then re-visit your desire to achieve the goal, alter your plan and go back at it. 

If you are tired of setting goals that never get results, then try expanding those goals into actionable plans – it really does work. 

If you want a more comprehensive, powerful action plan for truly Attracting Massive Greatness into your life including health, emotional mastery, stress management, confidence building – they keys to overwhelming achievement and happiness, pick up your own Blueprint inside Attracting Greatness.