Achieving Your Goals: What Comes Next After Planning
Posted by Gavin Tan on
Believe it or not, planning is the easiest part of a goal-achieving process. All you have to do is identify what you want or need and write down how you’re planning to attain it. The achieving part requires more effort as it involves application and action.
Studies show that only 8% of people achieve the goals that they’ve set for themselves at the beginning of the year. It can feel overwhelming at times – as change often is – but you don’t want to be standing still in the same place as you are now in a year.
Once you’ve determined how you intend to achieve your goals, it’s time to get proactive and put your plan into action. So, if you’re looking to achieve your goals but have not moved past the planning phase, here’s what you should be doing after setting your goals in order to achieve them successfully.
Taking your first step
Once you’ve identified your goals and planned out how you want to achieve them in your time block planner, it’s important to not procrastinate. You don’t have to wait for the “right” time or day to start. Get started now and make adjustments as you go – it’s okay to make mistakes along the way.
If you wait until you’re “ready” or “prepared” to start working on your goals, you’ll never get started. Understandably, the first step is always the hardest one to take – you’re nervous, anxious about the outcome, afraid you may fail, and so on – but once you’ve taken that first step, the following steps will get easier as you go.
To help make this easier for you, write down a simple first step in your productivity desk pad for you to commit to. This will encourage you to start as soon as possible and get the wheels rolling towards achieving your goals.
Journaling your journey
Journaling your goal-achieving journey helps you to keep track of your progress and identify areas that can be improved. It also serves as a motivational tool to visually show you how far you’ve come and how much closer you are to achieving your goal.
Your writings are not limited to only your tasks and your progress; you can also journal your unfiltered thoughts while going through your goal-achieving journey. Writing down your frustrations, the difficulties you face, and your feelings of gratitude will help you declutter your mind and refocus on your goal-achieving process.
The MiGOALS time block planner allows you to time block your schedule, pen down your thoughts, list down your feelings of gratitude for the day, and much more. This planner also helps you visually see how you felt during specific phases of your goal-achieving journey in a side-by-side comparison so that you can change and improve as you go. It’s the perfect planner for those who hate having too many organisational tools.
Reviewing and adjusting your goals
Sometimes you may find yourself slowing down and not achieving your goals in the time frame you wanted to. Don’t feel defeated – this may be because your goals were a bit too unrealistic. Fortunately, you can review your goals and adjust them accordingly as you go.
Ideally, you should reflect on your goals weekly to see what you’ve accomplished that week and how you’re doing on your goals. Analyse your weak points, where you gave in to temptation, and where you failed. Then, note down a plan in your productivity desk pad to make sure the same thing does not happen the following week and set yourself one or two objectives to accomplish.
This way, you are setting yourself achievable mini goals each week that will take you closer to your end goal. It also keeps you focused on what you want to accomplish and reinforces why you’re trying to achieve those goals.
Being accountable
It can be lonely and overwhelming to work towards achieving your goals on your own – it may cause you to get demotivated easily or lack discipline in carrying out your planned tasks. Practising accountability allows you to make consistent, steady progress towards your goals.
There are many ways to hold yourself accountable; you can write down your goals and share them with a friend or go public and post them on your social media account. Either way, there will be someone to give you feedback, motivate you, and get you back on track if you fall back.
Continuing to completion
Goals aren’t going to achieve themselves just by planning – you need to put in a little bit of elbow grease. Even the smallest act gets you one step closer to your goal, so don’t give up when you encounter any obstacles along the way. Always keep the end result in focus and keep moving forward until you achieve your goals.
Remember, success is a journey, not a destination! With MiGOALS’ stunning goal setting and personal development stationery, you can stay on track and remain motivated throughout your goal-achieving journey. View our extensive collection of empowering planning tools that have helped so many people turn their lives around. Now, it’s your turn to make the change!