How are you feeling about your goals for the year? Are you on track? In reviewing my goals for 2015, I have gotten completely off track on a few of them. My guess is, I’m not alone. Why do we get off track with our goals? Join me as I attempt to evaluate my goals and get back on track.
Do you feel satisfied in the progress you’re making on your goals? Like many of you, each new year I set my sights on next steps, progress, growth and achievements. I set BIG, scary goals. However, setting goals isn’t the hard part. Following through is.
Only 46% of Americans who set goals at the beginning of the year make it past 6 months. Establishing a goal review process can greatly increase your chances of following through on those lofty intentions.
“Do more with less” has become the mantra of today’s businesses. Sixty hour workweeks seem to be taking over. We complain about lack of time and manpower while more items stack up on our task lists. However, I remind you that necessity is the mother of invention. Allow me to introduce you to Parkinson’s Law and how we can embrace the pursuit of efficiency.
If Earl Nightingale was right that “success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal,” where does that leave me? As I look back over the goals I set for 2014, I see that I won some and I lost some. How about you?
I hate when I fail to achieve my goals. Don’t you? We often start a new year with new goals, feeling energized and hopeful. Then, by February, we’re into our old rhythms, overcome by busyness and left with little time to focus on the goals that seemed so important a month ago. Why do we lose focus? More importantly, how can we keep that from happening again?
Procrastination can get the best of us, at home and at work. The last thing I want to do after an amazing breakfast is wash the dishes. At work, I find myself procrastinating when I get behind. It becomes worse when I’m tired, lack focus, or feel overwhelmed. The funny thing is, more often than not, once I get started on a task at hand, I get on a roll. It recently dawned on me that I could be more deliberate in tackling the procrastination problem.
What separates the most successful people from those who are simply good at what they do? It’s not talent. It’s not even skill or ability. The true mark of great performers is that they consistently learn from and build on successes. Anyone, whether you lead meetings, serve customers, cook dinner or coach rec. league soccer, can learn to do the same. Doing so leads to consistently better performance. Who doesn’t want that?
