Getting Things Done
There is nothing worse than being involved in either personal or professional planning meetings and really think you have come up with some great ideas that really need to be done only to realize later nothing lasting changed.
The critical missing link between the planning and development process to actual execution is taking the time and energy to discipline yourself to set realistic but attainable goals. This process does take time but quite frankly if something is not important enough to invest in developing specific action steps that will help you accomplish your goals then it probably was not worth thinking about in the first place.
When I evaluate personally and professionally where the breakdown occurs it usually centers around these principles involved in effective goal setting.
These are the five critical things I have learned over the years:
1. Write It Down—if it is not important enough to write down in your personal planner, computer task manager or enter into your cell phone to do list then it will almost always never get done.
2. Check Your Resources—do you realistically have the time, energy, knowledge, skills and commitment to make this happen? It may be the right thing to do but this is the wrong time to do it.
3. Make It Clear—you must be very specific about what you want to accomplish and how you are going to do it. It cannot be I just want to lose weight; it needs to be twenty pounds over next six months by exercising an hour day five days a week from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.
4. Develop Your Plan—strategy is the realistic intersection of resources and commitment. There is a big difference in walking one hour five days a week and training for a marathon. The strategy must fit the goal so you will not come up short or burn out on the other extreme.
5. Evaluate Your Progress—this is where the rubber hits the road and you must start by building in short term wins to maintain momentum. When you fail or make some mistake know that it is a necessary cost to pay to reach anything in life that is worthwhile.
When we get to the end of our lives it really will not matter how many things we talked about doing but how many things we actually did.