Identifying Steps in Pursuit of Your Goals
Can you imagine if an architect tried to build a building without a detailed written plan? It would fall over! And yet that’s how almost all of us go through our lives. We don’t have a plan. We just wing it, play it by ear, go with the flow; and then we wonder why we haven’t achieved our goals. You’ve got to write it down. Make a plan. Make a detailed plan. Here’s how.
Once you have identified your goals, it’s time to work out the steps that you will need to take in order to accomplish those goals. If you want to achieve a specific goal, especially if your goal is complex or distant, try applying the principles of project management. We learned about project management in business school, and it was one of the most useful classes I took.
Key Principles of Project Management
Project management begins with categorizing our activities. Generally speaking, we undertake tasks to complete projects; and the projects that we work on are usually part of ongoing programs.
Tasks are the day-to-day activities we work on: our routines and interruptions. Tasks tend to be short-lived and finite, although we may perform some tasks over and over again.
Projects are the goals we’re trying to achieve through our work; they usually have some sort of end point or deadline.
And programs are the types of projects we generally undertake: the sorts of activities we participate in, our areas of expertise or personal preference, and our basic human and social needs.
Putting It Into Practice
So here’s what you’re going to do.
Break it down into tasks
Once you have identified a goal that you want to achieve, figure out what tasks you’ll have to complete in order to make that goal a reality. This process is commonly described as “chunking.”
When you divide a large project into small tasks, you’ll find that the tasks are much easier to address.
You’re probably familiar with the experience that in order to do A, first you have to do B; and in order to do B, first you have to do C, D, E, and F. If you haven’t planned for all of this, it can be frustrating! So sit down, write it all out, and map your project. That way, you can start with task F and work your way up to task A. You’ll find each task becomes more manageable, and the project as a whole becomes more pleasant and easy to accomplish.
Set a deadline
Identify a deadline for your goal. It might be a month, or sixty days, or four months, or three years. Now you work backwards from your deadline, and assign all your various tasks to specific time slots, to figure out exactly what you need to do each day from now until then, in order to make your goal a reality by the deadline you have chosen.
Get it done
And then you do it, adjusting as necessary. You complete your tasks according to the schedule until your goal has been achieved.
Example 1: Write a Novel
This process is familiar to anyone who has participated in the “National Novel Writing Month” challenge, popularly known as NaNoWriMo. In order to write fifty thousand words in 30 days, an aspiring author has to pen at least one thousand six hundred sixty-seven (1,667) words every day. If you write less than that on one particular day, then you have to write more than that on another day; and if you fall too far behind, then you miss your goal. The way to achieve the larger long-term goal is to stay on top of the daily short-term goals.
The same is true of major life goals.
Example 2: Get In Shape
For example, let’s say you’re trying to lose weight and get in shape. You want to achieve noticeable results before you attend your friend’s wedding in three months. That’s your deadline: you’ve got three months. In order to achieve your goal by the deadline, you’re going to write out a detailed project plan, with daily diet and exercise assignments that you will follow to achieve your goal. To begin the process, you might want to spend some time learning about different diet and exercise plans; but don’t spend too much time on the research, because it’s more important to get started. You may want to hire a fitness coach, to help you calculate a detailed plan for your weight loss project. A coach can also help you stay accountable to your plan.
Example 3: Increase Your Income
Let’s consider another common goal. You want to increase your income. How are you going to increase your income? There are several options to consider. You might:
- get a raise at your current job
- get a better job
- leave your job and start a business
- grow your revenues from your existing business
- or, if you have funds available, you might invest your funds in a way that starts bringing in residual income, such as stocks or real estate.
Of course, there is risk involved in any of those options; but any of them could offer you an opportunity to increase your income.
Example 3A: Starting a Business
For now, let’s say just for example that you want to start your own business. This process will follow the same basic 5-step plan structure as the life-change program that I have been describing in this series.
- Mindset. You’ll probably want to do some research at the beginning. For example, if you’re trying to start a business and you’ve never run a business before, it’s a good idea to spend a little time reading some books, watching some YouTube videos, and learning the basic principles of business. We all know that every business needs customers, a product, and revenue; and we all know that your revenue has to be greater than your expenses in order to make a profit. Those are the basics; but there’s a good chance that you’ll also want to learn something about marketing and business processes.
- Goal. Based on the intersection of your core competencies and your passions, decide what your offering is going to be.
- Identify steps. Figure out, briefly, what you’re going to need to do in order to sell your offering. Try not to get bogged down in the planning process; but don’t launch without a plan, either. This can be a difficult balance to achieve; but do the best you can, and don’t beat yourself up if you make mistakes along the way.
- Follow through. Then, take the necessary steps, and put it out there! And don’t forget that you’ll probably need to spend just as much time promoting your offering as you spent developing it.
- Review results and refocus. After your business has been running for a while, take some time to examine what’s working and what’s not. Are you getting the results you expected? Are your customers coming from the demographics you expected? Is your advertising performing as well as you expected? Are you generating a profit? How could you increase profits, and/or improve value for your customers? If you’re wildly successful, how can you give back to the community or the world at large? These are always questions worth asking periodically. Don’t wait until things look dire before you review results. And if you’ve made mistakes, don’t beat yourself up! You’re learning, and you’re doing something. That’s more than most people can say. Start the process over by revisiting your mindset; then focus on your goals, identify the steps you need to take, follow through, and a little ways down the road it will be time to review results once more.
I was recently talking with Scott McCarthy of the Moving Forward Leadership podcast, and he told me about a book called “The $100 Startup.” I checked it out, and he was right: if you are considering delving into your first business venture, I highly recommend you check this book out, it will give you plenty of inspiration and lots of ideas for starting a profitable venture on a shoestring budget.
Your Plan Should Be Flexible
Before I wrap this up, I want to add a word of caution. A flexible plan is more important than a detailed plan.
In the above example, as you plan the launch of your new business, you should also set yourself a limit on how long you will spend planning. It’s too easy to get lost in dreaming about starting a business. At some point, excessive planning becomes a retreat into fear. You might think that if you can just plan for everything, that will guarantee success; but the opposite is true.
I speak from experience. I wrote a lengthy business plan as my final project for my MBA program, and my professor who graded it was enthusiastic about my prospects. But when I tried to put that business plan into action, it simply didn’t work. Three and a half years later, my business utterly failed. In retrospect, it’s easy to see what I did wrong. My business plan was based in part on faulty assumptions, such as the amount of startup capital I would be able to raise. Despite those fundamental flaws, I continued trying to implement the other aspects of my original business plan, even long after it had become clear that it was not working.
So learn from my mistake. The key is to be flexible. You should be willing to adapt your plan to the situation, when the situation changes, as it inevitably will.
Focus On Your Goal
But to begin with, focus on your goal. You have a goal! It’s time for you to accomplish it.
In order to achieve your goal, apply the principles of project management. Define your project. Work backwards from the end goal, identifying all the interim tasks that must be accomplished in order to make your goal a reality. Then complete those tasks, and adjust the plan as needed. Soon you will have achieved your goal, and your entire life will be different. Are you ready? Get set. Go!
