Do What Moves You to Achieve Your Goals

You’ve set several goals for yourself, but now what?

It’s time to eat, sleep, and breathe the things that will get you there. Every step you take should be on the same pathway to success.

Changing our daily behavior can be hard. Sometimes turning a bad habit into something positive can take months or even years if it’s something that’s been ingrained in us for a long time.

The first step? Think about your habits and acknowledge the ones that don’t push you toward your goals. Without noticing your behavior, you’ll never be able to change it. Then, it’s time to create a plan for your daily life that supports your endgame and drives you to success.

1. Make sure your goals align with your life

It’s human nature to overestimate and overcommit, especially during our most motivated moments. Maybe one of the goals you set for yourself doesn’t really align with how you live your life. This also applies to the vision you have for your business or entrepreneurial career. What is your passion, really? It may look good on paper to make you a lot of money, but if your heart is in helping people first, maybe earning six figures by the end of the year isn’t a feasible goal.

While both things can exist – helping people and making six figures – you have to figure out where your true priorities lie and create goals that will support your real feelings and hopes.

2. Determine which daily habits aren’t doing anything for you

Start by creating a list of the things you do daily. This includes what you usually eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, snacks you have in between, the time you wake up and go to bed, the exercise you get or don’t get, the hobbies you pursue in your free time, the type of online content you read, etc.

Take a few days to pay attention to how you spend your free time and record your activities as necessary. Then, compare your routine to the goals you’ve set for yourself. What’s keeping you from getting more accomplished during the day? What activities do nothing to drive you toward achieving your goals?

It could be anything from sleeping a little too late to playing video games too much or eating an unhealthy diet. This is an important step in figuring out what you need to change.

But remember, we’re all allowed to have activities at the end of the day that don’t require much thought, so make sure you do keep ways to unwind in your schedule. Just make sure they’re not taking up too much of your valuable time that you should be spending on reaching your goals.

3. Set up a schedule

Next, figure out how much time you should be spending on each task that will lead to you achieving a specific goal. Should one day a week be spent on one task, like budgeting, and another on brainstorming and creativity? Should one hour per day be spent on these things?

Create a detailed, hour-by-hour schedule for the week, allowing for time to relax, too. And make sure you’re allotting time to spend with friends and family.

Running a business can easily comprise every moment of our lives, so you’ll have to plan your free time if you find that you’re not getting that outlet regularly.

4. Implement accountability checks

If you’re starting or running a business on your own, you’ll still need the support of others to get you through hard times. Find a friend or fellow professional who you feel comfortable asking to help you stay accountable. Show them your list of goals and the schedule you’ve made. Have regular check-in sessions with this person so they can remind you why you’re doing what you’re doing. And offer to do the same for them.

Just like the president has a system of checks and balances, you need people around you who will help keep you on track.

5. Remember you will make mistakes

Goal setting and goal reaching are never going to be seamless processes. You’re going to have moments of uncertainty or feeling like you can’t go on, that you’ll never reach the goal you set for yourself.

Remember that this is a natural part of the process. You’re going to do a few things wrong before you get them right. Instead of trying to be perfect, give yourself room to make mistakes and grow. Be flexible and willing to adapt your goals or tasks as you learn about yourself and your capabilities.

Most importantly, be kind to yourself. Don’t throw in the towel just because you made a mistake.

Paper Napkin Wisdom is committed to helping you, the entrepreneur or small business owner, take actions that will lead to you accomplishing your goals, however small those actions may be. Check out our podcasts or book to learn more about how we can help you build a path to long-term success.