So you’ve read the previous post, You Must BAG It with your Goals, and now you’re ready to get rolling with your B.A.Gs (Bold Achievable Goals) and probably create your own goal planning party with a few of your close friends.
2009 to mid 2011 were challenging years both personally and professionally. Ranging from job changes, wedding planning, lost friendships, a flooded house and illness of a few close family members. I decided that something had to give and was determined to get serious about doing things differently and become intentional about accomplishing things.
In preparation for the goal planning party, I started out by making sure that we were prepared. I created a document and had guidelines as to how the session should proceed including the best way to stick to the goals and achieve success. Let’s get started!
Write it down!
List Goals
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You must right it down or type it up. No matter how big or small the goal is, make a record of it whether you choose to write it the traditional way or type it and save it. Taking it one step further, wherever you record it, you must write the date you type or wrote it down. You will find that you achieve some goals quicker than you thought and others longer but regardless of the time frame you will feel good.
It’s also important to know that your goals can be written down at any time. It’s not a one time thing. In fact, when you start writing down and accomplishing your goals you will be adding more to your list. Just remember to put the date you’ve added it to the list.
Be realistic
In your BAG IT sessions, you might write down goals of varying lengths. Some might take, days, weeks, months or even years. Just remember to set realistic time frames to achieve your goals. If you don’t give yourself enough time to accomplish your goals, you will become discouraged easily because the goals aren’t being accomplished as quickly as you want. You will also crash and burn very quickly if you try to do too many things at once. There’s no rule that says all your goals you’ve listed must be completed within in one year.
It might very well be that some goals will take at least 2 years to accomplish but the reasoning is if you start making the small steps now you’re well on your way to achieving them. There are some goals on my list that are ongoing but I list them anyway because I want to be able to check to see if I’m working towards achieving them. For example a few of my ongoing goals are:
- Be a better mother
- Be a better wife
- Be more patient
- Pray more
- Find a mentor
I believe these goals are lifelong goals but I’ve listed them every year because I want to make sure that I was holding myself accountable because I want to be a better person everyday.
Categorize your goals.
Organize your goals by putting them into different categories. These categories can represent the areas of your life. For instance I have the following categories:
- Family
- Health/wellness
- Spiritual
- Personal
- Professional/career/entrepreneurial
- Lifestyle
To demonstrate how this works, I will use the examples of my ongoing goals and categorize them like this:
- “Pray more” -Spiritual
- Be a better mother – Family
- Be a better wife – Family
- Be more patient – Personal
- Find a mentor – professional
Remember you decided how to categorize your goals.
Create Small Tasks from Big Goals
The next thing is to break down your goal into smaller or manageable tasks and set reminders. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with all that I have to do. I discovered that I can achieve small victories if I break up a big task into smaller ones.Once you’ve created the smaller and more manageable tasks, you need to create a tracking and reminder system for them or incorporate them into your existing apps/programs.
Tracking your Progress
Progress
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I use Remember the Milk (RTM) to keep track of my tasks and set reminders. It integrates well for iPhone and Siri and should work well for Android as well. The sense of accomplishment I feel when completing a task is the motivation that helps me to work toward achieving a goal.
You also need a method for tracking your progress towards accomplishing your goals and for that I use Lifetick. I check on my goals on a quarterly basis or at least get a reminder to.
I love gadgets and apps so true to form, I needed to find the technology that would also help me to maximize my efforts. You do not need to get apps and use fancy technology. Using the built in task and calendar feature of your mobile device is good enough.
Share your goals with others
You need support because you get more done. Therefore the most important aspect of writing your goals is to share them with people. Not just anyone but with people who you value their input and opinion and would serve as cheerleaders to encourage you to accomplish these goal.
The people you’ve chosen to share your goals with might be able to help you directly achieve the goal; or they might know of someone now or come across someone in the future that might help you accomplish your goals; or just be the loudest cheering section there is.
Celebrate your achievement
Celebrate Your Success
Photo courtesy WeJungo
Finally when you’ve achieved your goal – write the date when you’ve achieved it and celebrate it! You’ve worked hard for it.
Since I’ve started this BAG IT, I’ve completed 2001 tasks that has helped me achieve 22 goals!
So what are you waiting for BAG IT for 2014! “When we become intentional about the way we want to live our lives things happen”.
