I hope things are going well and you are accomplishing your goals! How is your goal setting journey going? Are you having success?
5 Steps to Ensure Your Goals are Successful
Once you have set SMART goals, create a plan, and identified the potential roadblocks that could lead to failure, there are five additional steps you can take to ensure your goals are successful.
1. Communicate Your Goals to Others
First, communicate your goals to others. Tell people about your goals so they know what you expect to accomplish and the time commitment required. They will be much more likely to support and encourage you when they have a good understanding of what you are trying to accomplish. When you share your goals with the right people, they will likely help you and won’t become an obstacle for your to complete your goals.
One important consideration when sharing your goals is that you must be selective on who you share your goals with. There are some people that are natural naysayers. They constantly want to point out why things won’t work and why all ideas are bad ideas. When sharing your goals, don’t share them with these people. They will put you or your goals down and do their best to make you think that your ideas are bad. Instead, select people that will help and encourage you on your pursuit to complete your goals.
2. Select an Accountability Partner
Second, select an accountability partner. Find someone that will regularly check in with you and hold you accountable for completing your goals. When selecting an accountability partner, you’ll want someone that will push you in the way that you need to be pushed.
For example, you will likely want someone that can empathize with you on your setbacks, but has a similar temperament to push you in a way that is effective for you when you are starting to feel lazy.
3. Post Your Goals in a Visible Place
Third, post your goals in a visible place. Make sure you see your goals every day. They can be posted in your bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, office, or any other place that will make them visible every day. By seeing your goals everyday, you will have a constant reminder to work hard to accomplish them.
Just seeing them is not enough though. Do your best to read them each time you see them. Then think about your goals. Think about your progress so far and what you still need to do to accomplish what’s left of the goal.
4. Enlist Supporters
Fourth, enlist supporters. Although similar to the first point of communicating your goals to others, enlisting supporters is a little different. When you communicate your goals to others, you are letting them know WHAT you are doing with the purpose of making sure they don’t become a roadblock.
Enlisting supporters, on the other hand, is much more. When enlisting supporters, find people to be your cheer leaders. Their sole purpose is to encourage you when you go through rough times. They lift you up and help you continue to follow through.
When selecting supporters, be sure to exclude people that will tear you down and tell you that you can’t do it. Only select people that will encourage you and lift you up.
5. Block out the Resistance
And last, but definitely not least, number five is to block out the resistance. Whenever you want to stretch, improve, or become better, there is always resistance fighting against you.
That resistance comes in many forms and always attacks when you are tired, discouraged, and in your weakest mental and physical state. It comes in the form of other pressing responsibilities, people pushing their problems and responsibilities onto you, things not going as planned, good rather than great opportunities, and many other things.
What’s important to know is that the resistance will come, so create your plan to withstand it. Focus on steps you can take to move your goals forward in the face of the resistance. Also, you can create positive affirmation statements to say when the resistance is hitting you the hardest.
Conclusion
Now lets recap the steps you can take to ensure your goals are successful.
- First, Communicate Your Goals to Others
- Second, Select an Accountability Partner
- Third, Post Your Goals in a Visible Place
- Fourth, Enlist Supporters
- And Fifth, Block out the Resistance
By following these steps and working hard, you put yourself in a much better position to successfully complete your goals.
If you would like additional help setting achievable but challenging goals, check out my other videos in this “Goal Setting” series. Also, feel free to share your thoughts on how goal setting is going for you in the comments section below.
I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did and would like to watch more great videos just like it, please subscribe to the Leadership Done Right YouTube Channel and check out LeadershipDoneRight.com. Also, please like the video and share it with others! Until next time, go and be the best leader you can be!
Goal Setting Series
- #1: Goal Setting Made Easy — A Proven Goal Setting Strategy
- #2: Goal Setting: 5 Keys to Create The Effective Plan
- #3: 10 Reasons People Fail To Complete Their Goals
- #4: Goals 101: 5 Steps to Ensure Successful Goals
For goals, I always advocate the “day in your life”. You block out time each day to achieve your goals. Achieving your goals is a daily exercise. People reach their goals not because they have them identified and in a list. People reach their goals because they developed the behavior and habits to reach their goals.
There are exceptions, of course.
Hi Chris, great insight! I definitely agree that for goals to be successful, you must integrate them into your daily life and calendar. When you don’t do that, goals often fail.