How to Create a Game Plan for Your Goals
We
all have objectives we want to hit. This includes our personal goals
and our goals for our companies. Unfortunately, most of us never draw
up a roadmap for how we are going to reach our targets. When we look
at why this is, it usually comes from being overly ambitious. We
think we can just change everything at once, so we don't need a
step-by-step game plan. This is often why we don't succeed. Changing
your complete way of life is tough, and doing it all at once is a
sure road to failure. Instead, try this approach:
Step
1: Have an enormous goal but break it down into one habit to start.
Whenever
New Year's resolutions come around, I always hear a majority of my
friends say they are going to get in shape. They begin by listing all
the poor habits they have, and then decide to do a complete makeover.
Within a week, they go back to their old habits.
This
is because they have a goal but never broke it down. You need
challenging goals that you want to achieve. They should be big and
ambitious. The problem comes with the next step. You should not try
to change your complete way of life, but instead home in on one habit
to start. Why? Because changing one part of your life is much easier
then trying to do a 180-degree change in a day. Going back to our
get-in-shape example, let's take two scenarios. The first is the most
common, in which we change five or six habits at once and then after
a week go back to our old ways. The second scenario is that we just
focus on running every day for 30 minutes. The second scenario has a
much higher chance of success, and it will allow you to begin the
process of getting to that giant goal.
Step
2: Master that one habit.
Once
you decide on the one habit that will help you start moving toward
your goal, make sure you do it every day. According to scientists, it
takes 66 days to turn an action into a habit. Do whatever it takes to
get to those 66 days. An easy way to do this is to add your habit in
your calendar. Let your family and friends know that for the next two
months you'll be practicing this action religiously.
Jay
Papasan, a co-author of The
One Thing,
advises making use of time blocks. Block a certain point every day to
make sure this habit is done. Over time, your colleagues and loved
ones will learn to adjust to your new schedule. This step is the
hardest part to reaching your goal, but as you get closer to the 66th
day, it'll start to become much easier.
Step
3: Once mastered, add another habit.
When
you've mastered your first habit, the hard work is over. Now you can
start to add more routines in your life that will get you closer to
your goal. Remember to still stay with one action at a time. Our
bodies will be overloaded if we try to take on too many changes at
once. Also make sure that you keep the same focus on each new habit
you learn. Humans are not built for multitasking, and trying to work
on a change while checking your email or texting won't work.
Over
time, you'll find that adding more changes to your life will become
much easier. As with most things, the first time is the hardest.
Eventually, your body becomes programmed to adapt to these changes.
This will allow you to make transitions more smoothly. As you build
up these habits, your goal will start to get much closer. If I
mastered running for 30 minutes, that's a good start. After 66 days,
let's say I start to master eating healthy six days a week. Once
that's complete, I move to mastering weight training. As long as I
keep going habit by habit, I will reach my goal of getting in shape.
By the time I get to my next New Year's, getting in shape won't be a
goal but instead an accomplishment.
BY
AJ
AGRAWAL
http://www.inc.com/aj-agrawal/how-to-create-a-game-plan-for-your-goals.html?cid=em01014week43e
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