By now, if you are like 98% of the people, you’ve slumped on your 2018 goals. Do you still remember them?
I find it interesting that people use a marker like January 1st to start their goals. When I create a new goal, you know when I start? Today! Whether it’s January, July, or December, it’s always “today”, and today is the day to begin.
The truth is, to make your goals become a reality, there are certain structures you must put in place to support yourself; otherwise, you are already sabotaging your effort.
Get Yourself a Time Tracker
You need to track time. How do you truly know how much time you are devoting to your goals if you don’t see the time you put into them? Whether you are using an app or simply writing down beginning and end times, you need to concretely see how you are using your time and if your time is being spent on the actions that will move you towards your goal. If you don’t do this, your mind creates stories about how much time you really spent on an activity.
Personally, I use Atracker, recommended by Tim Ferris, which is a free app—$4.99 for the extras. All I have to do is hit start and stop, and it tracks my activities, shows me my day in a nice little graph, etc.
Start a Goal-Setting Journal
A few simple steps: write down your goals for the year, break each goal into four cycles—of three months each— and break each three-month cycle into 3 groups. Those groups contain the things you need to do each month. Once you’ve got your months, break each month into four weeks. Then, you know exactly what you need to do this week to reach your year-end goal.
Track Your Activity
Every day, write down what you must do today and do it. It can be simple: run on a treadmill for 20 minutes, read 10 pages of a book, spend 15 minutes tucking your son into bed and speaking with him, etc.
Goals are overwhelming because we are looking ahead. How do we walk a mile? One step at a time.
As I tell the students in my school, all you have to do is do your homework today. Then, when tomorrow comes, do your homework again. Do this every day, and you’ve become the kid that never misses doing your homework. Take it one step at a time. The bonus is that your daily homework makes you learn—in this case, moves you towards your goal—and the next thing you know, you’ve accomplished your goal!
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