I bet you have heard your entire life, that you need to set goals and go after them. Just about all of us do have goals, it could be graduating from college, getting a certain job, landing a promotion, getting a raise, asking that cute friend of a friend out on a date. Having the goal is great, but it rarely does much for us. Why you may ask? Most people who set goals never spend the time to understand how they are going to obtain it. If you don’t know how you are going to achieve a goal chances are you will not achieve it or if you do, it was by luck, or just a function of your day to day life anyways. Stay at a job long enough, chances are you are going to get a raise. Obtaining a raise within 6 months is a completely different story.
Every goal that you set should have an associated roadmap and a deadline for achievement. Creating a roadmap is pretty simple. The way you do this is as follows.
- Review your goal. What is preventing you from achieving your goal today. Understand what are the barriers to achievement are so you can understand what is really involved in achieving your goal.
- Break the barriers down. For each obstacle, identify a plan of attach for overcoming the obstacle. This could be as simple as starting a special savings account and auto depositing $20 dollars a week into it. 3 years later you have $3120 plus interest to knock down your obstacle and you were probably minimally impacted by the weekly deposit. The main thing point here is, every obstacle can be over come by chipping away at it. Figure out a way to take small steps in the right direction, soon enough the obstacle will be behind you and the goal will be that much closer.
- Identify the quick wins. What can you do today that will help you get closer to your goal. Can you sign up for a class, join a toast masters club, begin outlining your book. Whatever it is, start today. There is no reason not too.
Once you understand what it takes to achieve your goal and you’ve started working towards it, the goal becomes a tangible thing that is attainable. As long as it remains a goal in name alone, chances are, you will never get there.
Make your goals real, create a roadmap for achieving them.
