We all have goals, dreams, and wishes for our careers and life. But too often, we fail to achieve them. We blame the economy, our bosses, and our family. We wait (and keep on waiting) until it’s no longer a viable goal.
What’s missing? Taking responsibility for how we create our goals. We allow our thoughts, ideas, and feelings to camouflage what we really really really want to accomplish.
7 Strategies for Achieving Your Real Goals
1. Ensure the Goal is Real. There are many guidelines for writing goals. Google them – Achievable, Measurable, Realistic, and With a By-When Date. Use this information to get you started.
2. Here’s the hard part: Goals should be ten words or less! I know, it seems impossible, but it isn’t. When you use too many words, the true goal will be camouflaged in vocabulary and will sabotage taking real actions. Shorten the goal to 10 words or less to be crystal clear and flat as a pancake.
3. Keep It Simple. When you become too wordy, you make the goal, dream, wish, or intention impossible to accomplish. We were all trained to be wordy (think of school when stating the simple fact wasn’t good enough … we had to write a paragraph or one-pager to get a good grade). Ask yourself, “What do I really really really want to accomplish?” For example, I want to get a job making six figures. However, the job must be remote, cannot require working more than 30 hours a week, and provide three weeks of vacation. This is no longer an actual goal.
Instead, ask yourself what do you really really really want? The new goal: “Get a job making $125,000 annually by 12-31-2024.” This has become simple and doable.
4. Clarity and Discernment. Ensure your idea will work as designed by reviewing the numbers realistically. Will you break even, operate at a loss, or be profitable? It requires more than “feeling it” and “believing it.” For example, flipping homes involves knowledge about buying the home, the cost of repairs and labor, closing costs, and the length of time it’ll take to sell (aka flip). Goal: Sell a home for a 30 percent profit in 6 months.
5. Listen to Feedback! Before launching your idea, talk with a knowledgeable person. Ask open-ended questions. You are listening for: What is missing in my plan or idea? When ideas are not working, sometimes, it only takes a simple tweak, and they will work.
The biggest challenge? Your emotional attachment to your way of doing something can get in the way. Especially if you’ve been thinking and rethinking and overthinking the idea. Feedback will guide you through it if you listen.
6. Then, Review the Goal. Fine-tune. While you don’t want naysayers to upend your goal, reviewing and considering their input before moving forward is important. Example: I had someone tell me it would take 2 years before I could get the funding required to launch a program. I listened, asked questions, and made slight adjustments to my plan. Then, moved forward. I launched the program in 13 weeks, and it was profitable. Here was my goal: Launch a regional event for career advisors by xxx.
7. Remember, when you’ve hit a wall, or someone is blocking you, it’s time to hire a coach. We all have blind spots that get in the way. By working with an executive coach and taking a qualified job fit assessment, you can obtain real insight into what is getting in your way. (Note: qualified job fit assessments have incredibly high accuracy and reflect who we are – they are not focused on how we want to be seen – which often gets in the way of achieving our goals).
Examples:
- Wanting to be a salesperson without the willingness and ability to close a sale on a consistent basis will limit your tenure as a sales rep. Instead, if you want to be in sales and be successful, get honest about your abilities – get the training required – now seek a job in sales that fits you!
OR,
- You want to be a boss. But on truthful reflection, the real goal is making more money. Since you are unwilling to do the actual work required to be an effective boss/leader, find a position that accomplishes your financial desires.
©Jeannette Seibly 2024 All Rights Reserved
Jeannette Seibly is a Talent Advisor/Leadership Results Coach with over 31 years of practical experience guiding leaders and bosses to improve their hiring, coaching, and managing practices and produce amazing results! And yes, achieving business success always starts with having the right people in the right jobs! She has been an Authorized PXT Select® Partner for over 32 years. Contact Jeannette to learn more about these state-of-the-art job-fit assessment tools or how to coach and manage your people to achieve incredible results.
A note from Jeannette: We all have goals, desires, and dreams we wish to accomplish. What gets in our way is that we camouflage our goals with too many words to describe them. This makes it impossible to achieve them. This week’s article focuses on simplifying and clarifying your goal to achieve the intended results. Want help discovering and fine-tuning your actual goal? Contact me.
Now is the time to get into focused action! Are there days you dread doing what is needed to manage your people, projects, and team’s financial performance? You’re not alone! Everyone has those days! But continuing to hide behind excuses only hurts you and your future promotability. I have extensive experience and wisdom guiding bosses and leaders to hire, coach, and manage their teams successfully – this includes getting you out of the way and working with and through people effectively to achieve the results required. Contact me to learn more about my in-depth, one-on-one, customized coaching programs.