Since it is the beginning new year and everyone has their coveted resolution that they want to stick to for the upcoming year,  I thought I would right a little bit about accomplishing goals.  I am sure that you thought long and hard about what you want to accomplish this year and you picked out the perfect resolution.  Whether it is to quit smoking, lose weight, become more productive, or anything else in the world, it is important that you know what you want to accomplish.  It is even more important that you know how to accomplish those goals.  You need to have a defined set of steps or you can easily lose track of your goals and what you are doing – and you don’t want all of your hard work to go to waste, do you?

“I don’t care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don’t harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there you’re never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants.”  - Zig Ziglar

Here is a few simple things that will help you in your journey to accomplishing whatever goals you have set for yourself.  Remember, your goals need to be something you truly desire and you have to be willing to make sacrifices to reach those goals.  But you are still reading this, so I know you must be truly committed!

Define your goals and the steps you need to take

This is pretty self explanatory and I have already discussed it a little bit above.  Your goals need to be something you believe in, but you have to know how to get there.  You can’t say you want to do something and just expect to be able to do it.  You have to take the proper steps and you have to learn what those steps are, if you don’t already know them.  Your goals also have to be measurable!  You can’t say “I want to lose a lot of weight!”  because you will never do it.  Sure you may start out great, but your results and will power will slowly decline.  What is a lot of weight and how far have you come in this amount of time?

Have what you need to accomplish the goals

This runs hand in hand with defining your goals and the steps need.  As you learn what you need to do to accomplish your goal, you will come across things that you may need in order to do those things.  If you want to earn more money, you need a new source of income.  If you want to lose weight, you may need exercise equipment.  If you want to learn how to play music,  you may need to find a teacher.  Once you have your goals down, the steps you need to take, and the things you need to take you from step to step, you are well on your way to accomplishing your goals!

Make time to complete steps

Each step will require certain task and things to be done and you shouldn’t lean on the crutch of “there isn’t enough time” and the fact that you are “too busy.”  We are all busy, well, most of us, and still many people find the time to get things done.  This really comes down to time management which is another huge chapter in a book somewhere that has been written thousands of times and I will be sure to get to it later.  But, you need to find time to complete your task and your steps or you can never complete your goals, obviously.  Maybe this means you need to watch a half hour less TV or sleep a half hour less, but if you really want to meet your goals you will make time.  Write down your activities for a week and keep a log.  You might be surprised at how much time you waste and how much time you actually have!

Review and Reassess

Remember to review and measure your accomplishments.  The steps are in place so you can keep track on how close you are getting to your goal.  Point A is a long way from Point Z and it doesn’t make sense if you don’t the other 24 “points” in between.  And you may find yourself going in the wrong direction – which is okay because once you catch it you can correct it and save yourself a lot of time.  If you weren’t reviewing your goal progress, you would never know you were off track.

Also, it is very important to reward yourself for your progress – just don’t go over board.  If you work hard working out every week to get the new sleek, sexy you, it might be okay to have a little dessert on Sunday to end your week/get it started off right.  It probably, however, is not acceptable to have a dessert everyday of the week.  So, reward yourself for your hard work and keep yourself motivated, just make sure it is reinforcing your hard work and not steering you off track!