It’s about the JOURNEY (as well as the goal)

photo credit pdbreen

“To get through the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping” Chinese Proverb

So you know where you want to go? Once you’ve set your goals, the next step is to PLAN how to get there.

This is the step that is often missing in New Year’s Resolutions and goal-setting generally. It’s relatively easy to think about what we want, the destination, but often the goal seems remote, unattainable. Or, as mentioned in the previous post, it requires daily effort, daily decisions. Many goals founder on the rocks of daily life.

So the next trick is to make achieving the goals automatic. Take away that decision-making point – make the decisions now and plan out what you are going to do. This is about sensible motivated you-of-the-present safeguarding against tired, unmotivated you-of-the-future.

This is the real reason why you need to put you goals into positive statements, not negative statements. You can plan to DO something, but planning to not do something just leaves a hole and a question – if you aren’t doing that, then what are you doing? If you aren’t having the cigarette, then what are you doing? If you aren’t eating junk food, what are you eating? Too much decision-making at the “crunch-time” will increase stress….and potentially lead to failure as you become more focussed on what you are giving up.

So, if your plan is to give up cigarettes, plan to replace them with something else – chewing gum, knitting, blogging – something that can truly take the place of the time taken to smoke and distract you. Plan to avoid situations where you are most tempted – smokos at work, bars, that friend you always smoke with – but do it by planning something to fill those gaps. Perhaps you can arrange that you have a regular gym-date with the friend.

If you are planning to lose weight, plan how that is going to happen on a daily basis. Perhaps you could have a glass of water when you feel the urge to binge coming on. If you are planning to save money start a business, get organised, plan it out month by month, week by week, day by day, so that when the time comes, you don’t have to stop and work it out for yourself at the time, you can go to your plan, or your list, and just follow your own instructions.

Don’t make your plan unattainable – if you program every last second of your life you will undoubtedly rebel at some stage. If you plan to save every last cent over basic living requirements, then you aren’t going to make it. Set a realistic goal and if you exceed it – great! If you fall down one week – get back on the plan.

“It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters in the end.” Ursula K LeGuin

Want more on how to stay strong on your New Year’s Resolutions? This post is part of a series on goal-setting. Others are below:
Goal Setting – Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
Goodbye to old (bad) habits
The Harvard Business School Study…or urban internet myths
Being accountable

Request-line

photo credit Richard Giles

Now that I have handed in my final assignment for my MBA, I can get down to some serious blogging. Yes, it is fair to say that studying was somewhat a distraction from blogging (as opposed to the other way around).

As per a previous post, I am a compulsive goal-setter. It helps that I do strategic planning for my work, but I have also set goals for myself since I was a teenager. In my undergraduate degree, my Leadership lecturer told us about a study done on Harvard Business School graduates showing that those who had written goals were considerably more successful and happier in their lives. I was hooked.

So, in honour of the upcoming New Year, when everyone else (aka normal people) does goal setting as well (albeit sometimes with the aid of some liquid intoxicants), I am planning to write about goal setting. And given that I am already converted, I thought I’d ask others – what do you want to know about personal goal setting? And then, I’ll do the research and find out what it is you want to know.

So this is a bit of an experiment. If I get no responses – then I guess I’ll sob into my pillow for a little while. Then I’ll write something anyway. And as I am asking for input via the comments section of the blog….I guess it will be a little public if no-one wants to play with me! Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

But I’m hoping that you might contribute – and I’m hoping this can all be of use to you.

And I will look up that Harvard Business School study and find out the details.

Please post ideas, suggestion and requests in the comments section……