Here are a few tips to make NY
goals a reality --
1. Accountability. If you make yourself
accountable, then you may be more likely to
achieve your goals. If it's weight loss, say, then
you might want to get a partner or a group that
you are accountable to.
2. Self-monitor. Here's another trick that works
with goals. If you just set a resolution or goal,
then don't check in with yourself time and again,
then how will you know how you're doing. Set the
goal, then set another to check in regularly. The
accountability can also help here. For instance, I
meet with a small group once a week, and we will
have specific sharing dates where we talk about
how we're doing with the goals we set and shared
at an earlier goal-sharing meeting . The schedule
varies, but we check in every three months or so
on average. This year, we plan to check goals
status once every six weeks.
3. Set big goals, and make smaller ones that get
you there. Big goals seem huge, and yet small
goals that move you in the direction of them are
more easily achieved. For instance, if you want to
finish writing a book in 2003, then set some
smaller increments as goals, too. A chapter a
month, perhaps. Or a scene a week. Whatever seems
logical and which you can achieve with some
challenge. At the end of three months, you then
have some attained goals in your "done" basket.
Another example is setting small financial goals
toward the bigger goal of putting a down payment
on a home.
4. Be specific. Nothing so vague that you can
easily weasel out of accomplishment. For instance,
a vague goal might read something like this:
Get out more query letters (or, sales pitches,
business brochures, cold calls, dinners cooked at
home, etc).
A more specific goal makes you more accountable.
Change the above to: Get five query letters (or
insert appropriate item) out each week, for a
total of at least 20 a month. The specifics need
to include the HOW of getting the goal
accomplished.
Here are some other ninny-goals (NG), with their
better counterparts:
NG: Lose Weight
Better: Lose
eleven pounds by July, so I can wear the shorts I
bought for my trip two summers ago when I was 11
pounds lighter. That means I need to lose about
two pounds a month. I will do this by exercising
four days a week before work, and using the
recipes I find in my "light" cooking magazine
instead of settling for fast food because it's
convenient. I know I will need to plan, and will
take a list when I food shop, and this is
something I'm willing to commit to.
NG: Learn to introduce myself and my
business better.
Better: Make
up an "elevator speech" of about thirty seconds so
I have something punchy and informative prepared
for those times when I need to say what I do.
Then, practice the speech every logical chance I
get. Analyze how the speech went and record the
results in order to alter as needed.
NG: Be a better mom.
Better: Nix
that favorite curse word that pops out whenever
the kids spill soda on the rug. ay "fiddlesticks"
instead, even if that means correcting myself and
saying "fiddlesticks" after I say the bad word.
This way, it will become habit.
NG: Spend more time with my family, and
learn to put my work down.
Better:
Designate Sunday as family day, and don't answer
the business line, or email that day.
These are just a few samples. The idea is to
figure out what your goal is, then be specific so
that you can accomplish it. Vague goals are just
New Year's resolutions -- the kind that remain
there, year to year.
At the end of the year, you could be looking back
over the twelve months, feeling proud of your
growth as a human being and the accomplishments
you've achieved (whatever the important ones are
to YOU). I'm aiming for that satisfying endpoint
as my highest goal this year.
Happy New Year.
Sheri McGregor
www.motherswhodream.com
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