Do you ever feel like the goal you set before you a while ago will never come to fruition? Do you feel like you are lost in a quagmire of busy work and details? Have you lost sight of that goal?
Losing sight of the end goal is problematic because that will zap your motivation in nothing flat!
From my time in the corporate world I discovered some tips that will help keep your eye on the target and focus on getting it done!
Write down the overall goal. Sounds simplistic, but stay with me… there’s more.
Then write down the bigger picture moments of steps to get to the goal. These we will refer to as milestones. All they are is larger pieces of the roadmap leading to the end goal.
Then take a milestone and break that down into actionable steps.
For example:
- Big Goal: Create Product A
- Milestone: Develop Content
- Action Step: Develop outline
- Action Step: Test outline and get feedback
- Action Step: Revise outline if needed
- Action Step: …
- Big Goal: Create Product A
- Milestone: Create a sales plan for Product A
- Action Step: Create list for online ad venues
- Action Step: Write headline for online ad
- Action Step: Define 3-5 major benefits of product
- Action Step: Write copy for ad
- Action Step: Tweak copy for each online venue as needed
- Action Step: …
Repeat this process for each milestone needed to complete your goal.
In Project Management this is known as decomposition. It is the process if breaking work down into manageable chunks.
It is important to bring along the big goal and the milestone as you develop and work on action steps. You should refer back to these often. The reason is that when your head is down working on the action steps it is easy to get off track. It’s like when you are walking down the sidewalk texting. You THINK you are walking in a straight line, but soon you fall off the curb. It’s natural to get lost in the weeds. By referring back to the big goal and milestone DURING the work on the action steps that will make sure you stay on track.
These milestones and action steps are also a logical way to manage work, especially if you have a team performing the work. You can hand of the big goal, milestone and action steps section and then check back on those exact items with your team. If they are making progress on something that is not on your list then they are working on things that are not driving toward accomplishing your big goal.
These groupings also allow for celebration of progress. And that is a huge motivating factor. Once a milestone is accomplished, celebrate it! That means you are really getting closer to your big goal! It is imperative to celebrate progress otherwise you can get discouraged easily.
If you can only see the huge mountain of work ahead, it can be paralyzing and then in turn NO work gets done. I’ve said it before (and yep – I’ll say it again!) goals are not met through huge leaping gestures. They are met through baby steps. One step at a time.
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Just include this complete statement with the content: A. Lynn Jesus, CEO and Purpose Expert with Thriveology, is dedicated to helping people discover their purpose and live life on their terms. Are you ready to get started? Get her FREE guidebook 5 Steps to Begin Defining Your Journey.