How to Follow Through on Goals

Smart, measurable…well, you know the drill. We’ve all heard the acronym (S.M.A.R.T.) and we all know the best way to set goals, but where things tend to fall apart is in the week to week execution.

The truth is many of us continue to seek out the newest article on 5 ways to lose belly fat or 6 tricks to improve your speed, but we already know what we need to do to make changes...put in the work.

We find a new plan and think yes this one will finally work! Logically we know that it actually would work if we do it. But there’s the catch, the knowing and the doing have somehow gotten disconnected.

In order to achieve goals, we often need to go all the way back to the beginning and focus on the smallest details. Have you been telling yourself all year that you will start working out? You know it won't happen after work, so maybe your goal is to become a morning workout person.

In the past you've succeed for a day or two, but after a bit late nights consistently derail you? Now is the time to decide if your goal is truly to workout in the morning what does that look like? 5AM wake up call? Saying no to happy hour on Wednesdays? Is it 3 days a week? Is it a spin class?

Try to think through the entire scenario and set out your plan. If you can work through the specific details of your goal, you are more likely to succeed and create a long term habit that makes waking up for a morning workout part of your natural routine. Little successes are what lead us to major changes.

After selecting your goal, try getting focused each day with the Sacred Six. he Sacred Six was introduced to me by MorningCoach.com. It involves creating a list for each day of the 6 most important things that you need to accomplish, the list is NON-NEGOTIABLE so don't put scrub toilet if it's less important than send birthday card. Ideally you will write the list out the night before so that you know where to start your day.

Not 7 things, not 8…ONLY 6. This is to ensure you don't simply create another mile long to do list, which creates stress. Choosing the 6 things which are most critical to complete requires you to focus and decide what are your true priorities. My six can include “Eat Clean” or “Meditate” because I think those are a higher priority than dusting. This doesn’t mean you won’t get to other things, but it helps you to truly focus all day long on where you will see the most benefit.

I love knowledge and I consistently seek out new information, but if I don’t put it to practice what is the point at the end of the day? Using this system ensured that I accomplished tasks I had been putting off for weeks and with far less effort because I wasn’t worried about a mounting to do list.