Originally published at The Cube Monkey: Business Success and Personal Development

It is January 1, 2008! The beginning of the new year means a new beginning and new promise. I’d like to take this opportunity to discuss goals. On a yearly basis, you should evaluate your long-term and short-term goals. Determine your progress on each goal and then craft a plan to either achieve that goal in the coming year or make further progress toward achieving that goal.

Whether you are reading this on January 1st, July 1st, or December 1st, it is never too late to evaluate your goals and craft a plan to achieve those goals. Here is my simple 6 Step process to create and achieve your goals.

Step #1: Goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-based (S.M.A.R.T.).“Losing weight” is not a goal. A better goal is, “Losing 50 pounds in the next six months.” This goal is specific (you know what the goal is). You can measure your progress and determine success or failure. The goal is attainable assuming you craft a diet and exercise plan and stick to it. It is certainly realistic, yet challenging. This goal is time-based as it must be accomplished within the next year.

Step #2: Craft an Action Plan.How are you going to achieve your goals? List all of the steps necessary for you to successfully reach all of your goals. Listing goals are useless unless you know specifically how to achieve them.

Step #3: Create milestones.In your Action Plan, list milestones that will help you track your progress. Let’s go back to the weight loss example. If you want to lose 50 pounds in six months, you can create a milestone on the last day of each month stating how much weight will be lost by that date. Though this sounds exceedingly simple and commonsensical, most people, in my experience, fail to create meaningful milestones.

Step #4: Solicit support.You can’t do it alone. Lose the ego and realize that you’ll need help attaining your goals. List all the people who can help and what you will do to solicit their support. And remember, relationships go both ways. Make certain that you are helping as much as you are getting help.

Step #5: Be flexible and plan for contingencies.Life happens. Your best intentions could be sidetracked. If possible, contingency plan and most importantly, be flexible. If an injury forces you to stop exercising for a few weeks, accept the reality and move on. Such is life. A contingency plan might be to consume less calories since you will not be burning them off. You can at least maintain your weight while you are recovering and then start the fat burning phase once your injury is healed.

Step #6: Track your progress.Be diligent and make certain that you are measuring against your milestones. If you did not reach a milestone, how can you catch-up? Can you change your strategy to get back on track? Whatever you do, don’t lose hope! If you failed to reach a milestone or are shy of your milestone goal, stay positive and move forward.

These six steps seem VERY basic but most do not follow through on all six steps. I’m as guilty as anyone. I’ll start a weight training routine to add more muscle but I’ll fail to track my progress. When I don’t track my progress I don’t know where I am in terms of goal achievement and eventually, I lose motivation. I’ve only been successful at attaining goals when I follow each of these six steps.

I wish you success in 2008!

Ron
From The Cube Monkey: Business Success and Personal Development