Do You Plan To Be Successful?
It is very likely that anyone who is asked this question would say that they plan to be successful. But I wonder how many really do plan for success. Real success in business, or in life, takes planning. Spontaneity has its place in life, and even in business, but only proper planning will guarantee success.
Below are some tips that will help you plan for success:
Set Goals In Varying Terms
Start with longer term goals, then work your way to the short term goals. Write them down. Long term goals are those that, obviously, will take more time to reach. These could be educational goals, career goals, etc. Write these goals as headers, then identify the steps that will be necessary for accomplishing them. These steps become shorter term “benchmark” goals, and should be listed, chronologically, below your larger, long-term goal.
Identify Your Needed Resources Early
You will need resources to accomplish your goals. As you think of your goals, identify those resources so you can begin to gather and collect them. You may need a network of people. Start networking. You may need books or educational materials on the subject of your goal. Check the library, or check for the availability of continuing education classes at your local college. Whatever your goals are, you will need resources. You need to identify those resources early on so you can begin to collect them. The last thing you want is to get close to your goal, only to find that you are missing resources that you didn’t plan for.
Use Smart Goals
Last week I discussed SMART goals to some degree. It is very important that your goals be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. Think of it like this: If you don’t write down your goal as specifically as possible, have a way to measure success or failure, make sure your goal is achievable and realistic, and if you don’t have a time frame in which to reach your goal, then do you really have a goal? Or, do you just have an idea? There is a difference. I can say to myself that I’d like to make more money. But, until I put that desire, or idea to paper and give it substance, it is just an idea, and nothing more.
You MUST Want To
I used smokeless tobacco for about 30 years before quitting last year. In fact, the 23rd of this month makes one year that I’ve been 100% tobacco free. I tried many, many times to quit, but always ended up going right back to the habit. I made plenty of excuses. It was too hard, or it helped me handle stressful days. Sound familiar? What I found out when I really did quit was that I had the ability to quit all along. What I didn’t have was the desire to quit. You can write goals and plan for a wonderful future, but if you don’t have the “Want To”, you won’t follow through. Having the “Want To” will make you do what it takes to reach the goal. It will give you the drive and ability to get over, through, or around any obstacle because you WANT TO achieve the goal. Your plan is important because you want the goal. You follow the plan and make adjustments as necessary because you WANT the prize.
I honestly believe that the #1 cause of failure when it comes to our success and goals is the lack of “Want To”. I had to want to quit tobacco more than I wanted to use tobacco before I could accomplish the goal. No matter how specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely your goal is, if you don’t WANT TO, you won’t reach it. If you DO want to, then you will, and it’s as simple as that.
We’ve discussed how to prioritize our goals, identify our needed resources, setting SMART goals, and Wanting To. Next time we’ll discuss the possible obstacles that we may have to face, how to either avoid or solve those problems, and some examples of SMART Goals, how to measure, and waypoints. Be sure to stay tuned.
In the mean time, please leave a comment below and let me know what you think of this series.
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