“Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind”.
Your execution rate is the best measure of success when creating goals. A goal without a plan is just a dream. Therefore, we should put our ideas in writing and make them explicit.
Making anything clear involves organizing, streamlining, and establishing a framework to ensure our success.
Our goals remain fulfilled with a plan, making it easier to determine how best to allocate our time and what productive tasks we want to accomplish.
I love to plan, so I get excited about organizing my days, weeks, quarters, and years (assuming it makes sense that I became a coach). However, I am aware that many people need help with this.
The book The 12-Week Year is among the most excellent tools I suggest to someone just beginning their planning and execution journey, breaking the year into quarters and establishing small objectives for each while keeping an eye on your development and rate of completion.
The framework has a higher probability of success when it comes to goal fulfillment because it challenges our tendency to put off making resolutions for the new year in the hopes that, at some point during the year, we will experience a surge in desire that will allow us to finish all 20 of our intended goals.
In reality, most individuals and businesses only accomplish 30% of their yearly objectives by November. However, productivity rose by 50% in November and December compared to the preceding ten months! Crazy.
How can we improve our execution and prevent the never-ending cycle of resolutions?
1. Divide your objectives into more manageable, smaller portions.
When we make goals, we frequently go overboard, thinking that by the end of the year, we’ll have written a book, dropped fifty pounds, launched a full-fledged business, and visited three more countries.
How might these be divided into manageable chunks to lessen the likelihood that your mind will get overloaded with excuses to put things off? One vacation per year, five pounds per month, and a chapter a week. Just make things workable; you can always add more later.
2. Divide the year into manageable chunks.
A functional framework for a year can be a 12-week year but can also be divided into quarters, thirds, or even months. This enables you to adjust if anything is ineffective and actively monitor your progress without wasting too much time.
3. Establish your Motivation
In a previous newsletter, I introduced the idea of your WHY, and as a coach, I think about this a lot. It is essential to have your WHY in mind before you start anything to guarantee that you have something to rekindle your motivation when it wanes and that something is based on emotion. Your Why and how you feel about your goals are related.
4. Establish a framework for accountability
An African proverb states, “Go alone if you want to go fast.” Go together if you want to succeed. Community and support play a huge role in helping you reach your objectives. Did you know that studies indicate that setting up an accountability appointment with someone increases your chances of success by 95%?
Whoa! You can establish a regular meeting schedule with a life coach, contact a friend, or form a group.
Here’s one last question I ask my clients in sessions: If you feel like you’re not making any headway toward your objectives, please let me know.
Once you’ve identified your objective and turned it into a weekly action item, ask yourself, “How committed am I to completing this on a scale of 1 to 10?” The tricky part is now to be sincere with yourself.
If your score is lower than an 8, consider what you may do to raise your level of dedication to a 10. Is the aim being altered, the deadline being extended, or the goal being broken down even further (after realizing your WHY isn’t as internally motivating)? Work until you get a seductive 8 out of 10, then proceed.
Friends, now that the year is halfway over if your 2024 isn’t producing the results you were hoping for in January, I strongly advise you to read the 12-week year or at least try some of my suggestions.
Even as a planner, it helped me better organize my time and what I did with it. Remember that if you don’t plan, you’re planning to fail. I hope the next six months bring you all the success you deserve.
