How is your year going so far? How are you progressing in your plans for this year? Maybe you need to adjust your plan. Maybe you need to make new plans. A plan is an important part to your success. It serves as a road map to guide you towards your goals.
If you do not have one yet or you need to make changes to a current plan, here are some tips on how to do it.
Define
First, you need to decide what your goals are. You can start by defining your goals for each aspect of your life. Ask yourself these questions:
- Where am I in each aspect of my life right now?
- What do I want to achieve in this aspect of my life?
- How can I improve this aspect of my life?
- Why do I want to achieve this goal for this aspect of my life?
- How does this goal benefit other aspects of my life?
If these questions don’t work, then try to use your imagination. Ask yourself:
- How does it feel like to have a successful life?
- What does it look like to be the successful version of me?
- What are the things that I do when I have become a successful person?
Simply put, how do you define your success?
You can put your goals on a vision board to remind you of your goals daily. You will end up with several goals but you will need to prioritize. Decide which aspect of your life you need to take action on right now and which can follow later. Focus on 2-3 key areas so you don’t get overwhelmed. Remember, you’re taking baby steps to improve your life so choose the top 2 or 3 for now.
Divide
Now that you have your goals, you also need to define the milestones for each goal. These become your smaller goals which you can divide according to a schedule. For example:
- Long-term goal – the major goal that you need to accomplish in a year, or 3 years.
- Medium-term goal – the smaller goal that you need to accomplish in 3 or 6 months time to help you get closer to the long-term goal.
- Short-term goal – the even smaller goal that you need to accomplish each week or even daily so you can reach your medium-term goal.
When creating these goals, be sure to follow the S.M.A.R.T. method of goal-setting. This way, you can ensure that your goals are realistic and can be accomplished in a specific period of time.
Give yourself space to adjust to the new schedule. Don’t expect that you can just do it right away or perfectly each time. You’re the one setting your target dates so don’t be too stringent on yourself but don’t be too easy on yourself either.
Dedicate
You have your goals and you have a schedule on how to accomplish them. It’s time to put the effort into getting things done.
The short-term goals can be considered practice. These help to set you up for the medium-term goals and so on. Your short-term goals may consist of daily tasks that you have to learn to do consistently. Dedicate yourself to this and try not to miss a day.
You’re trying to discipline yourself into your new routine but don’t be too hard on yourself. If you miss a day, don’t beat yourself up about it and just resolve to do better the next day. You don’t want to burn out while trying to accomplish the goal. Of course, don’t forget to have fun while dedicating yourself to your goals.
Debug
While you’re trying to accomplish your goals, you may find out that some things don’t work well for you or don’t suit you. This shouldn’t stop you from going forward in your goals. This is the debugging process where you work out the kinks in your plan to make it easier for you to accomplish them.
For example, if you find out that exercising in the morning doesn’t work for you, then reschedule it for the afternoon or evening. Just replace your morning schedule with something else on your daily goals.
You will find that you need to do this constantly for your short-term goals. That’s why it is important to incorporate some time for adjustment when setting your goal targets. You may even need to reset your target date for some goals and that is just fine.
You can use this method for whatever goals you have, big or small, and in whatever path you are in your journey to success. The important thing to remember when planning for success is to be consistent. Keep showing up to accomplish your plan starting with your daily habits.
Don’t be too hard on yourself when you fail at times. Accept that some things won’t work out; try a different approach until it works out for you and keep moving forward.
Feature Image: Original Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels