How to Accomplish Your Most Important Goals

According to my calendar, there are only 100 more days left in 2011. Isn’t it amazing how time quickly passes? Are you on track to achieve the goals that you set in the beginning of the year? Perhaps your goal was to get in shape or to learn to speak Spanish. You may have wanted to reach a certain goal at work that would help you earn a promotion. One of my goals is to finish writing my book, “Tame Your Stress” by the end of the year. I’m making some progress, but I’m going to need to invest more time writing each day, if I’m to reach my goal.

It is not easy to complete huge tasks. They often fall into the category of “important but not urgent.” At times I have said to myself, “I will focus on this goal later. I will invest time and energy on this dream next month. This week I’m just too busy. I have to get though this other situation or finish this other project first, and then I’ll invest time and energy on my goal.”

If you’ve said these kinds of things to yourself, then you know how frustrating it can feel. The perfect time to start never actually appears. It can be easy to convince yourself that you will have plenty of time later. However, unless you do something different, you won’t achieve your goal. As Einstein said, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, yet expecting different results.

For the next 100 days I am going to spend at least 45 minutes each day writing my book. I will keep track of my daily progress on a chart. I will not allow myself to check my email until I’ve written for at least 22.5 minutes. If I write at least 45 minutes each day, I will be satisfied with that. By setting a more realistic daily goal, I will be able to regain enthusiasm and momentum on the project.

I encourage you to break up your goal into the smallest possible action steps. After you complete each step, give yourself a small reward to help you stay motivated. Before you know it, you will accomplish your goal. Why not get started today and don’t forget to share your progress with me.