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It’s Always a Good Time to Think About Your Goals

Every day is a good day to think about and set goals. These can be short or long-term goals. Many people write New Year’s Resolutions and view that as the time to set goals or challenges. A lot of those same people are the ones who let those resolutions fall by the wayside before February 1. The fact is there is no date or time frame that matters for goal setting. What matters is taking the time to think about your goals and then go about identifying the steps and related time frames to reach your goals.

Once you set a goal, think through the action steps necessary for you to achieve the goal. I suggest you put it in writing and keep it somewhere you see it often. This will allow you to see where you are on the road to the goal, as well as to adjust the steps. That’s right, you can change the action plan midstream to reach a goal. If something isn’t working or a step in your process ends up taking longer or shorter than expected, acknowledge it by revisiting and revising your plan.

If you don’t have a roadmap to reach a goal, how can you expect to ever reach that goal. The roadmap I have found to be most useful and works is turning goals into SMART goals:

  • Specific – target a specific goal or area for improvement.
  • Measurable – quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.
  • Assignable – specify what you will do.
  • Realistic – state what results can realistically be achieved.
  • Time-related – specify when the results can be achieved.

This works for any type of goal, whether personal or professional. What if you want to learn to play an instrument? Find an instructor good with beginners through your network or online research and take weekly lessons. And then practice, a lot. Even if it is fifteen or twenty minutes a day, scheduling time in your day should be part of your plan because then you’re more likely to practice.

What if you want to write a blog like this one? I schedule time into my calendar to write and edit, as well as to post and distribute. Sometimes I block out time to write one post and sometimes I write more than one at a time because I know my upcoming schedule is extra busy. Of course, it helps that I enjoy doing this, but if I didn’t take the steps I do, I likely would miss weeks at a time because life is busy.

The first step you need to take is to come up with a goal. The second step is to determine the steps you think will allow you to reach your goal. If you are not sure, talk with a mentor, a peer, or someone else in your life you trust. This can be about your actual goal, the steps to reach it, or both. If you come up with the steps yourself, run them by someone you trust because it helps to receive feedback from others on goals and action plans.

If you don’t set goals, everything will stay the same. If you think that’s okay, you should ask yourself why. It equates to being a lifetime learner and continually trying to improve personally and professionally. Try it and see what happens.

As always, this post and others can be found on my blog, Business Law Guy

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