Strategic Planning and Prioritizing

Setting goals requires strategic planning and prioritizing. If you just write down a bunch of goals without any real thought or plan of action, it may take a while to accomplish them, or unfortunately, you may not accomplish them at all. It is easy to forget without an actual plan, but a real system is essential to your success. 

Set a Personal Goal

What do you want, and why do you want it? Take time to visualize why you want to accomplish this goal. Is there a real meaning behind it? Is the meaning behind it truly worth your time and energy? Is the why about you or someone else?

To prioritize your time and plan to achieve your goals, you must be honest with yourself and figure out the why to these goals as well – this is how you will know the next steps for every goal that you set.

Break It Down

Determine the steps necessary to make it happen. Break down this big goal into baby steps or small daily goals that will ultimately allow you to achieve the big, hairy goal.

For example, if you want to complete a triathlon in a couple of months, what would you need to do? How would you break down your daily schedule to ensure you have the training and skills to succeed at completing the triathlon?

Most likely, you will schedule in good sleep and eating habits, while also creating daily tasks that will increase your swimming, running, and biking times slowly but surely during the training period.

Set Habits

Determine the necessary habits to achieve your goal. Setting habits will make achieving your ultimate goals easier. What can you do every day so that one day you will do it without thinking? That’s the power of habits. Just like you can have a bad habit, you can also create good habits.

Maybe your goal requires you to get in eight hours of sleep each night, or you want to meditate each night before bed. Whatever it may be, there are little things you can set to make it easier. You just need to be a bit creative and be willing to turn everything you want to do into a habit.

Map Out the Process

Be specific in how you will take each step and create each new habit. Determine what obstacles might get in your way and figure out the solutions to these obstacles. Identify which steps are a priority and which are secondary. Document steps, deadlines, and the success of each as you go along.

Create Your Daily Plan

Set out the specific actions you need to take every day to reach your goals. Each day before you start your day, create a daily plan of action.  Remember, even very small daily tasks can make a huge difference. Want to get more steps in every day? Set the intention and put it in your schedule.

This way, you have a visualized plan of action and know what you need to do each day before it even starts. There may be some roadblocks along the way, but at least you have a roadmap to guide yourself back to the right path if needed.

Only you hold the key to unlocking your full potential, setting proper goals can help get you there. While this may seem overwhelming and easier said than done, it is as easy as plotting your realistic course and following it. Eventually, achieving your goals will seem second nature to you.