“Good plans shape good decisions. That's why good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true.” --Lester R. Bittel, The Nine Master Keys of Management
I’m often asked “how do I stay motivated toward making a change?” While there are a few things I recommend, it ALWAYS starts with having a plan.
The best leaders have plans. The best sports coaches have a game plan. The most successful athletes rely on plans. You need a game plan if you want to be successful.
A plan helps keep you focused. A plan can be grounding when life throws distractions at you. And a plan gives you feedback so you can course correct.
To create your plan, I recommend you break your goal down into mini-milestones. For one thing, it’s going to help you stay motivated. Working hard toward something that doesn’t have an end-result for a year or more is not a very motivating thing to do. We need results, feedback and validation that we’re on track. And we need it constantly. Mini milestones create that for us.
Here is the best strategy I know for creating a clear, simple plan with mini-milestones:
1. Clarify the goal. Fast forward to a year from today. What do you want to be different? What do you want to have accomplished? Be as specific and measurable as you can. Write it out so you will know, with certainty, whether the goal is achieved or not.
2. Set 6 month milestones. Ask “What would I have had to accomplish halfway into the year to know for sure that I was on track to achieve my goal?” These are your halfway milestones. Write them down with the target date.
3. Set 3 month milestones. Once you anchor down your halfway milestones, you do the exact same thing again. “What do I need to have accomplished at three months to know I’m on track to achieve my six-month targets?” Again, write them down with your target date.
4. Repeat for 90 and 30 days. You can actually go all the way down to, “What do I have to do tomorrow?”
By working backward from the end result, you are more accurate in your planning and can clearly see what you need to have in place to achieve your goal.
Now you can add in your reality check. We tend to underestimate what we can achieve in the long term, and over estimate what can be achieved in the short term. With a critical eye, look at your plan. If your 30 day goals seem overly ambitious, make adjustments. Consider the draft of your plan. What adjustments need to be made to be realistic? Move the timeline around until it feels motivating and achievable.
The other key to staying focused is to keep the plan in front of you visually. I like to create “one page” plans that I can post on the bulletin board by my desk and refer to regularly. This gives me a line of sight to the bigger goal while also keeping me focused on the priorities at hand.
Idea into action: Set aside an hour this week and work through this exercise for just one of your most important goals for this year. Map out your plan and then, work the plan. Notice how much more energized and focused you feel once you’ve got a plan mapped out.
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