Whether you’re planning your goals or your to-do list it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of things to do. Working through the process in order makes it easier to decide what to do next and makes it easier to measure your progress and see clear results.
These 5 steps will help you identify and prioritise your goals by helping you figure out exactly what you need to do to reach your goals and to complete tasks.
- How important is this goal? If a goal isn’t important, then you shouldn’t be wasting time on it. It doesn’t mean that all your goals need to be save the world type of goals, but they do need to have some level of importance to you.
- Does this goal require other goals to be completed? If you need or want to get something done before you can start your current goal, then you should be working on that! Make sure that you’re working on things that need to get done, not just pfaffing around because you’re nervous of making a big change.
- Does this goal need to be completed before another key goal? If you need to complete, or get halfway through, a goal in order to start working on other goals, then this goal is the one you should be focussing on. For example if you want to lose weight, and you also want to start presenting yourself more professionally then you should concentrate on losing weight before you buy a new wardrobe. Unless you really love shopping and have waaay more money than you need.
- What do I need to change to reach my goal? This isn’t just what tasks do I need to do, but what mindsets are holding me back, what habits or people will sabotage my success? Once you’ve figured out what needs to be changed, think up ways of working around it and minimizing the temptation to get back into old patterns. Being aware of your patterns and having strategies in place to overcome backsliding is half the battle when it comes to making changes. If you do slip, don’t beat yourself up, just note the lapse and what triggered it and keep on making positive changes. It’s a marathon not a sprint.
- What can I do today? / What is the next Step? These are the questions you need to ask yourself to keep moving forward. Then, list the steps in sequence and work through them one by one. Some days you might get a heap done, other days you might only get one or even none. However it works out as long as you’re keeping the process in mind, you’re making progress. Once you’ve noted the steps to be completed, add them to your to-do list as separate items if you’re motivated by crossing them off. If you’re someone who gets overwhelmed or discouraged by a lot of things on a to-do list, add the step as one item – you know what needs to get done for it to be finished so you don’t really need to write it all down again.
Once you’ve worked through the steps and reached your goal, reached a milestone towards your goal or just completed a major task, give yourself an appropriate reward then go back to the first step and start on the next goal. Make time on a monthly or quarterly basis to review what you’re doing and make sure that everything you’re working on is helping you to work towards the life you want. By regularly taking time to identify and prioritise your goals you should find that you’re not only heading in the right direction, you’re also likely to get there sooner.
