Approach Your "To Do" Lists with Goal Setting

What goals are you going to accomplish this week?

This question may seem daunting on top of an already full To Do list, but are we being strategic with these action items on our list?? Have we put some thought into how these tasks are achieving our goals??With a little preparation, the actual action items involved may?not be as overwhelming as we think.?I would like to offer you a few concepts to consider as you approach the goal-setting process.

One of the first steps in establishing your goals is understanding your Why.?This is about your overall desire, your mission.?Why do you want to accomplish your goal??More often than not, it is about how you think you will feel in the achieving of it.?It is your reason for accomplishing all your individual goals that are aligned to it.?The Why helps you prioritize your goals in keeping with how it identifies with your mission the most. Your goals point you to where you want to go, what you want to accomplish towards your mission.?It provides you with a target, with focus.?It includes a timeline of when you want to reach the goal, as well as, measurement criteria.?It allows you to set the bar from which you measure your success against.?Without measures, how will your know if you have achieved your goal, or not???

In the exercise of goal setting, it is important to have a system.?A system is your plan to get you to the finish line.?With a system, you can see exactly, step by step, how you're going to reach your objective.?The system includes the actionable steps that need to take place.?Without a plan or a system, one could be meandering from one task to the next without any direction.?Left up to our own devices, we tend to give into our primal selves to seek pleasure, avoid pain and conserve energy.?A system makes it easier for you to follow steps that you have pre-planned to fulfill your goals.

The next step in planning for our goals is establishing a structure.?Structure is the discipline.?The actual getting down to work.?The period of time that you will allocate to each activity.?The repetitive tasks that need to take place within the system to make it work.??To quote Aristotle, "We are the sum of our actions, and therefore our habits make all the difference." When you have structure, you're actually doing the things necessary to achieve your goals.??

The final piece worth mentioning in the journey towards achieving our goals is the review process.??The review is the assessment of what worked, what didn't work and how you can make it better.?There is always room for improvement.?Do you need to get clearer on your mission, your goal, your system or your structure??All of these elements work together to create your results.?If you adjust one of them, you can see how it affects your results.?Then, you get to decide if it is the results you want.

These five concepts working in harmony provides you with a few considerations for achievement.?They allow you to clearly define the what (goal), the why (mission), the how (system), the work (structure) and the improvement (review).?This framework brings clarity regarding what you want to accomplish versus what everyone else wants you accomplish.?You can identify the goals that are important to you and work at achieving these goals first.

When approaching our goals, most of us are raring to get started with actions, but make sure that you allocate time for all of the considerations in the goal setting process.?Give each concept the attention it deserves.?It saves time, effort and energy down the road.???

As Abraham Lincoln once said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Be strategic about how you spend your time and what you want to accomplish.?You may see the fruits of your labour sooner than you think.

?About me

My name is Shawna Lettroy.?I am a LinkedIn Management Coach.?I help overwhelmed women managers on the verge of burnout bring work-life harmony back into their lives.???

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