This month on the blog we have been talking about our goals (aka “dreams with a plan and a deadline”)… but how many of you are wondering how to actually make that plan come to life or make progress on our goals? Is there one thing we can do to make sure we make progress? Or is there a specific system we can use? Afterall, we have been here at this juncture almost every January. How do we make this year different?

Truthfully there is no one right answer to these questions. In part it depends on each of us individually and what we need to help us succeed.

With that said, here are just a few ideas to consider:

• Accountability. This is the biggest thing for me when I’m working on achieving a goal. I need accountability. That could be a friend or colleague helping me stay on track, being involved with a group who meets or check-in periodically, or it could be making my goal somewhat public (which motivates me to work to achieve it since others know about it).
• Including ample detail in your plan of action. I have found that the more time I spend fleshing out the details of my plan the better results I achieve. For example, I try to think of obstacles and challenges that could come up and make plans to work through or around them.
• Honesty. It is vital that you are honest with yourself when you create your plan of action for your goals. (For example, don’t plan to go to the gym 5 times per week if you have never in your life even gone to the gym once per week. That’s being a bit unrealistic. Instead create a plan that gradually builds you up to that 5 times per week at the gym.) If we aren’t honest with our selves we set ourselves up for failure, which in turn causes us to scrap our plan all together and call it quits for the year.

Again, these are just a few ideas to consider. There are also tons of goal setting programs out there that offer ideas and processes you might find helpful as well. The bottom line is, it pays to take the time to find what works best for you so you can experience success with your goals every year.

If you have other tips that you found work well, hop on over to where this blog is shared on Facebook and let us know in the comments. We learn so much from one another through idea sharing. Can’t wait to see some of the things you do to help you achieve your goals! Namaste.