You Can Do More
In the past few weeks, I have met with several of my clients struggling with a feeling of stagnation. They want to move forward in their career. They want to find more time for the hobbies they enjoy or the family they love. They want to write that book, run that marathon or help those around them. Dreams abound. The problem is… they are just dreams. The human spirit is driven to climb mountains and leave a mark. We put a flag on the moon, not so we could see it from earth, but so that anyone following would know, we were there. Our natural tendency is to want challenges. The difference between vanquishing those challenges and watching the opportunities pass by or falling short of accomplishment, is usually a well thought out plan.
Life is constantly giving us opportunities to prove ourselves. Think about your last week. Were there any times you stopped short of a goal? Did you say to yourself, “I wish I could do …” or, “If only I had…” or, my all time favorite: simply, “I can’t…” Defeatist thoughts will kill your future. In order to achieve anything beyond where you are today, you have to first change your thoughts to believe it is possible. Self-fulfilling prophecies can be a good thing. You can accomplish the thoughts in your head. You can do more than you ever thought possible. You just have to decide you can and plan for it to happen.
A plan should meet typical goal setting standards of the SMART system.
Specific: No fluffy words. What do you really want to
accomplish?
Measurable: How will you or anyone helping you know you have reached the goal?
Action oriented: You make things happen, not wait for others to.
Realistic: Is it possible based to achieve? Many times your own self-doubt will enter here.
Timed: This is accountability. When will it be done by?
Your plan should start with the long-term goal such as growing a company. Shorter-term goals such as identifying revenue sources and changes to the company needed to accommodate the growth, should have their own individual dates leading to the big date. The hardest part is the accountability. Your plan needs to be written out (not in pencil) and shared with people that can help hold you to it. Most people struggle to stick to the plan when things get hard if no one is there to help push over the hump. It is too easy to say that it was too hard or you should have set your sights lower. Unless it is truly impossible, a word overused by most of us, sometimes we just need someone standing beside us to help us through.
