{"id":2728,"date":"2023-01-16T11:45:14","date_gmt":"2023-01-16T01:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/?p=2728"},"modified":"2023-01-16T11:45:15","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T01:45:15","slug":"how-to-achieve-your-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/2023\/01\/16\/how-to-achieve-your-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Achieve Your Goals<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The beginning of the year traditionally has been a time for setting new goals. However, recently I read that only 5% of people achieve their New Year resolutions by December and 80% of their goals don\u2019t even make it till end of February!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why? In this article I\u2019ll outline nine steps that will help you fulfil your desired goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. WRITE THEM DOWN<\/strong> \u2013 Goals that are not written are not really goals \u2013 they are little more than wishes, hopes or desires. Only written goals that are highly visible provide the \u2018in your face\u2019 accountability that helps you persist with achieving them.

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  2. ENSURE THEY ARE SMART GOALS –<\/strong> \u2018SMART\u2019 is a clever acronym that helps people remember what constitutes a good goal:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n

    S \u2013 Specific<\/strong> \u2013 Achievable goals are specific; they are clear, explicit and unambiguous. When a goal is specific you know exactly what you\u2019re aiming for. Specific goals also avoid words such as I: \u2018hope to\u2026\u2019 and \u2018would like to\u2026\u2019 Instead they are framed positively: \u2018I will\u2026\u2019 and \u2018my team will\u2026.\u2019<\/p>\n

    M \u2013 Measurable <\/strong>\u2013 In order for a goal to be specific it is, at least to some degree, able to be measured. Ideally objective measures are preferred (eg. numbers, weight, time, etc.) but sometimes more subjective measurements such as feelings are appropriate. (With subjective measures, I recommend making a percentage estimate of how you want to be compared with where you were before you started working on the goal.)<\/p>\n

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    A \u2013 Achievable<\/strong> \u2013 This aspect addresses the degree of influence or control you have on being able to reach the desired outcome. Obviously, you have greater influence over those goals that depend only on yourself, especially personal goals such as weight loss, fitness, or academic success. However you also have significant influence regarding those that involve your immediate family or your team. Also, setting an achievable goal is not simply a matter of operating on \u2018cruise control\u2019. If your goal is easily achievable you would be there already. Achievable goals need to stretch you beyond your comfort zone, but not to breaking point. Achievability includes how realistic, yet challenging, the goal is.<\/p>\n

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    R \u2013<\/strong> Relevant <\/strong>\u2013 Relevance concerns the extent to which your goal takes into consideration your situation and context. For example, is your goal relevant in light of your health, your personal or family circumstances or your team\u2019s current capacity? Can you change it in some way to make it more relevant?<\/p>\n

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    T \u2013 Time-Framed<\/strong> \u2013 Goals that are time-framed have a \u2018by when\u2019 date, i.e. a date by which the goal is to be achieved. Never-ending goals without a due date, such as \u201cI will lose 10 kgs some day\u2019 will never be realised. Believe me \u2013 I know from experience!<\/p>\n

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    3)\u00a0 FOLLOW THE \u20185 W\u2019 PROCESS<\/strong> – I encourage my clients to write out their goals according to the \u20185 W\u2019 model \u2013 WHEN (i.e. \u2018by when\u2019, a specific achievement date): WHO (the person or group responsible to achieve the goal \u2013 eg. \u2018I\u2019, \u2018my family\u2019, \u2018my team\u2019); WHAT (I call this the \u2018guts of the goal\u2019, i.e. the particular outcome you want to achieve); WHERE (the context in which the goal will be fulfilled, eg. \u2018our home\u2019, \u2018my church\u2019, \u2018the XYZ department\u2019 \u2013 sometimes the actual context is implicit in the rest of the goal and isn\u2019t therefore needed); WHY (the reason for having this particular goal \u2013 usually it\u2019s best expressed as \u2018so that\u2026.\u2019 I believe it\u2019s helpful to include in your goal your reason for it, to serve as a motivational reminder).\u00a0 Each goal should be no longer than 1-2 sentences (but may include dot points if appropriate).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    4) CHECK YOUR MOTIVATION LEVEL <\/strong>\u2013 Research has found that unless people are strongly committed to achieving their goals they probably won\u2019t. Ideally 100% or 90% motivation is preferred. Motivation levels of less than at least 80% are likely to result in their goals never being achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    5)\u00a0 PERIODICAL ACTION STEPS<\/strong> \u2013 Obviously no goal will be achieved unless the person takes the necessary actions to do so. Actions need to be sequential but in a world of rapid and discontinuous change it is unwise to establish them too far in advance. With my clients I use the metaphor of a river. Imagine you are on one bank of the river and your goal is on the opposite bank. There\u2019s no boat or bridge available to get you across but there are several stepping stones you can use. But because a river is dynamic and subject to sudden change (eg. some stones could be washed away in a flood, or inaccessible due to a log jam, or become too slippery to use) I advise my clients to identify 1-2 action steps they can take between now and our next monthly session. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In choosing appropriate action steps I encourage people to act on lead measures and not lag measures. Lag measures are those measurements that indicate success or failure afterwards. (A good example is the read-out on your scales for a weight loss goal \u2013 you only know whether you\u2019ve been successful afterwards.) Lead measures are those 1-2 actions you can take in advance that you know have a high probability of making a positive contribution to achieving your goal. (Again with the weight loss example, regular aerobic exercises and reducing your calorie intake would be good examples of lead measures.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    6)  PRIORITISE <\/strong>\u2013 One of the main reasons people don\u2019t achieve their goals is because they fail to prioritise their action steps in their calendars. Therefore schedule your actions into your calendar between each review session (see step 7 below) and mark them as a priority. If for some reason you consider to be significant (such as a crisis, emergency or your boss has called  a meeting) be sure to reschedule with sufficient time to undertake them before step 7. When you receive a request for an appointment that clashes with when you\u2019ve scheduled an action step and you don\u2019t consider the request to be significant simply respond, \u2018I\u2019m sorry I have another commitment at that time. However I could be available\u2026 (suggest a time that suits you).\u2019 Yes, you do have another commitment \u2013 it\u2019s with yourself!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    7)  REGULARLY REVIEW PROGRESS<\/strong> \u2013 It\u2019s always appropriate to take a regular pulse reading of how you\u2019re progressing with achieving your goals. This is where lag measures can be helpful. Are your action steps around your lead measures proving successful or are changes needed? My monthly sessions with my coachees provide a natural process for doing that. When people can see that they are making progress it\u2019s a great motivator for them. (Usually, when there\u2019s no progress, or even a backwards move, people can generally identify the reason and are able to take appropriate action to move forward again.) The frequency of one\u2019s reviews will depend on the \u2018by when\u2019 date of the goal, the nature of the goal itself plus developments re its context. For example, if unhealthy conflict erupts among certain team members for a goal around developing a high performance team, progress reviews may need to become more frequent and even the goal itself may need to reframed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    8)  ESTABLISH AN ACCOUNTABILITY \u2018SYSTEM\u2019<\/strong> \u2013 While strong motivation and commitment are essential for achieving any goal, it\u2019s also helpful to have someone whom you choose as your accountability person. In a work context that person is usually your line manager. Part of a manager\u2019s role is to hold their direct reports accountable for delivering on their key results areas. However for personal goals such as getting fit, eating healthy food, developing an investment strategy it can be helpful to ask a person who knows you well and whom you can trust to be that accountability person for you. Their role is not to criticise or praise you regarding your goal progress but to ask how you\u2019re going with achieving your goals, what\u2019s working, what isn\u2019t and what, if anything, you need to do differently. (One of my clients has his adult daughter as his accountability partner for a particular personal goal.) I explain to my clients that they are not accountable to me for achieving their goals. They are accountable to themselves (and their employer where relevant). I\u2019m simply a mirror that helps them be accountable to themselves for achieving what they\u2019ve stated. Invariably they often say one of the best things about having a coach is it helps them be accountable to themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    9)  CELEBRATE<\/strong> \u2013 Taking time to celebrate progress on the journey at significant points, as well of course once the goal has been achieved, is a great way to affirm a person\u2019s ability and reinforce commitment. It\u2019s important for people to celebrate in ways that are helpful for them. For example, extraverts may like to celebrate by having some kind of party. Introverts, however would probably prefer doing something by themselves or just with 1-2 friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A Final Few Words \u2026<\/strong> Because as humans our reactions to events and experiences are processed via the limbic system in the brain before reaching the frontal cortex, the centre of logical decision-making, we are designed initially to react emotionally, before responding rationally. \u00a0Hence, many people do not realize that issues such as, procrastination are essentially an emotional problem, which also makes emotional intelligence critical for achieving our goals. For further information on emotional intelligence I invite you to check out the two articles on our Australian Coaching Collective blog page (Emotional Intelligence: The Foundational Leadership Ability<\/a> & Emotional Intelligence: Critical Leadership Development \u2013 yet watch the trap here!<\/a>). Also I recommend Travis Bradberry and Jeanne Greaves\u2019 book \u2018EQ 2.0\u2019 as a practical resource to discover more about emotional intelligence and how to develop their own EQ skills. The hard copy of the book includes a \u2018scratchie\u2019 that gives owners a code to an online assessment for identifying their own EQ scores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Graham Beattie<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It is that time of year where we need to have our goals in place to direct us effectively and efficiently into the year ahead.<\/p>\n

    Graham Beattie shares some practical elements that are needed to ensure our goals aren’t just dreams but are a support mechanism to actually achieve the vision we have for our desired future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-goal-setting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2728"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2739,"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2728\/revisions\/2739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.australiancoachingcollective.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}