1) Write down what you want to achieve and how you plan to achieve it. This is always the first step to achieving a goal and until you start writing down your goals, you will have a hard time making much progress. In the book What They Don’t Teach You in the Harvard Business School, author Mark McCormack relays a study conducted on the students in the 1979 Harvard MBA program. In this study, students were asked the questions: "Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?" Only three percent of the graduates had written goals and plans; 13 percent had goals, but they were not in writing; and a whopping 84 percent had no specific goals at all.
Ten years later, the members of the class were interviewed again, and the findings, while somewhat predictable, were nonetheless astonishing. The 13 percent of the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all. And what about the three percent who had clear, written goals? They were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97 percent put together. And this did not even include writing down an action plan. Given that you cannot always know exactly how to achieve a goal, just by writing down some ideas on how you might achieve that goal is a huge start, which brings us to our next point.
2) Figure out what you want to change; then list those items in order from easiest to hardest. If you know you want to lose weight, you can probably think of at least 5 things you are doing right now that would need to change if you hope to achieve that goal. This could be going to the gym, cutting out sugar, going to bed earlier, and so on. Once you have listed all of those things that you know will help you reach your goal, there is a second step that few people take. By listing these items form easiest to hardest, you have established a plan for success. Just start with the first task and work on it until it is part of your daily routine. This could be as small as drinking a glass of water every morning, or taking a 5-minute walk at lunch every day. Whatever it is, establish that habit first, then move on to the next. One of the biggest mistakes people make is that they have 15 different things they know they need to change, and they try to do it all at once. If you slow down, and focus on building habits you will find that in 6 months, you could have as many as 20 new habits and have made significant progress toward your goal, if it hasn’t been achieved already.
3) Win the play. Now that you have your actions laid out, it is time to get to work. But even a small behavioral change can be difficult, so break this action down even further. “Win the play” is a sports reference meaning that if you win every play, the game will take care of itself. This makes sense in sports, but we rarely take this attitude toward our lives or goals. If your goal is to walk 5 minutes a day, but you focus on the fact that you have to get that walk in for the next 365 days, it could not only be overwhelming, but you could easily get off track if you happen to miss one day. It’s not about the end, it’s about the journey. Focus on what you need to do this day, this hour, this minute. Are you doing what you need to do right now to achieve one of your goals? This doesn’t have to be a fitness goal necessarily, but maybe you want to spend more time with your children, or increase your income. Whatever it is, win the play and the outcome will take care of itself.
If you can follow these three steps you will have a great foundation to jump start your 2012 achievements. Change is all about small positive actions repeated again and again. When you build habits that move you toward your goal, it’s no longer about will power or time management, but rather a lifestyle that naturally helps you to reach your goals. So write down those goals, write down your actions, and then win the play every hour of every day!
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