5 steps to achieve your goals by Christmas

I’m writing this blog at the very end of September.  It is hands down my favourite month of the year.  It feels ripe for making plans and even sitting here towards the end of the month, I still have 3 clear months until the end of the year to make them happen!

In this blog I am going to share one of my favourite techniques to help you get focused on your goals, and more importantly to help you achieve them.

“The best way to predict the future is to create it” - Peter Drucker

You can only take steps towards something if you at least know part of what that something is. Start formulating a big picture of what your goal is. We will add more to this in a minute.

STEP 1: Start with a time frame

If like me your goals relate to the end of the year, you have a ready-made timeframe that divides neatly into 3 months (Oct/Nov/Dec), but you can pick absolutely any timeframe that is right for you – this technique works just as well on longer-term goals too, there will just be more steps or bigger leaps in time between each step.

Take a moment to think about you at this end point when you have achieved your goal. Where are you? What are you doing? Who is there with you? What does it look like? How do you feel? Try to capture as many details as you can to bring this future into focus.

Don’t worry if you don’t know all the details, focus on what you do know. You can always add to this later.

STEP 2: What actions did you take to get there?

Keeping that future vision front of mind, what was the step that you took immediately before achieving this end point? Focus on this, again taking note of all the details exactly as before.

Once you have fleshed this out, repeat the process to move another step back. Continue this until you have created a set of steps that take you from your future point back to the present.

STEP 3: Turning the vision into reality

So far, we have taken a theoretical approach to the future planning, so now it’s time to turn it into something tangible using the Zoom Out, Zoom In technique. Looking at the notes you have taken so far, what are the really big tasks and milestones you need to hit? What are the time frames that they need to align with to get to where you want to be?

Now Zoom In and identify the smaller actions and tasks that need to take place within this, again slotting them into the timeframe.

STEP 4: Make it happen

Now bring your focus right in to the small actions and tasks you have attributed to the first part of your plan. Which tasks can, or should, you tackle first? When will you do them? Can any of them be actioned today?

If it feels overwhelming still, just take 3 small tasks you can do now.  Once you have completed them you can move onto the next 3.

If you are able to take small actions on a regular basis, you will be surprised how quickly this accumulates into something much bigger.

STEP 5: Remember success is a journey not a destination

Whilst it is important to have an end point in mind to get started, don’t get caught up in the final outcome. Once you begin to take action towards your goal, your knowledge and understanding of what you want might change.

By being open to ideas, staying curious and willing to adapt you can continuously reshape the goal as you go, aligning it with your new aspirations.

Want to explore this further?

If you have enjoyed this process and would like to explore this further, get in touch to find out about the different ways we could work together.