10 Things Not to Do the Achieve Your Goals – The Overview

Accomplishing your goals can sometimes feel like climbing a Mount Everest – your confident you can start the journey strong but are less sure of your ability to finish.  Paying attention to the following list of things not to do can greatly increase your chances of reaching the summit.

1. Don’t include “shoulds” – do things because you have an appreciation for the benefit to be gained or the pain to be avoided that is associated with the goal
2. Don’t obsess over the bull’s eye – give yourself a range to shoot for instead of a single point.  In addition to the target, identify a lesser amount that you would be pleased with.  At the same time establish what you would consider a stretch goal.
3. Don’t “try” anything -  write your goals in a way that identifies the actions you will take, not what you will try to do.  In the words of the wise Jedi master, Yoda, “Do or do not … there is no try.”
4. Don’t focus on other people – if your goal is dependent upon others, re-write it to only include the action you can directly control.
5. Don’t ignore your past performance – if you haven’t been able to accomplish something in the past, it’s not reasonable to expect high performance.  Take baby steps if you need to and giant leaps when that is appropriate.
6. Don’t forget who you are – take your likes, preference, life purpose, etc. in to account when crafting your goals.
7. Don’t be vague – be specific enough in your wording so that you can clearly determine whether or not the goal has actually been met.
8. Don’t be negative – write you goals with the desired accomplishment in mind, not the behavior you want to stop.  For example, target the weight you would like to be instead of the number of pounds you want to loose.
9. Don’t forget about the long-term – keep your long-term vision and goals in mind when crafting the short term ones.  Break longer-term goals down, if need be, to ensure you make progress against those.
10. Don’t forget about the tactics – be clear about what you need to do to accomplish the goals.  Increasing revenue is a good goal but how are you going to do it – more sales calls, higher prices, more marketing.  Map out the tactics and set targets for those as well.

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Tags: achieving your goals, goals