A quick Google search of the effectiveness of New Year’s Resolutions will tell you that 80% of people will fail by the time the calendar flips over to February.

Why?  

Because people get so focused on the result they don’t take the time to consider how and why they are setting the goal in the first place. 

Goals are often set from a place of lack and potentially are not aligned with what the person truly wants.  They are more linked to what they want others to think see or feel about them.

This has repercussions - if you’re chasing an external goal to fill an internal void the mismatch will either lead to you failing to reach that goal or you not feeling satisfied when you reach it.

The secret to making continual progress with your goals is to make sure your goals are aligned in the first place by thinking about the following 7 steps most people miss:

• Identify WHY you want to achieve the goal. Is it for you or for someone else? How will it change you or your situation for the better? If you don’t really know why you;re working towards it, you will fail as soon as the going gets tough.
• Think about HOW realistic your goal is and how you’re going to achieve it. If you’re expecting to make rapid progress but check your commitments and realise you have no time available to actually work on your goal then you’re setting yourself up for failure.

• Know your STARTING POINT.  If your goal is to run a marathon by the end of the month and you’ve never even put on a pair of running shoes before then this seems an impossible goal to strive for.  

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  What IMPACT will reaching the goal have? As the saying goes “Wherever I go, there I am”. If you’re fundamentally not happy with an area of your life, will reaching this goal really address the change you want to make or will it be a sticking plaster? 

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  Track your PROGRESS and CELEBRATE the small wins. Seeing how far you’ve come makes a huge difference to motivation and momentum. Taking before and after shots, journaling how you’re feeling or making a tally chart can all help you to keep going on the tough days.

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  Regular REVIEW sessions are the single best way to make sure you stay on track with meeting your goals.  If you check in regularly to check your progress, you can course correct much quicker than if you wait until the end of the year before realising something was off course.

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  Set up an ACCOUNTABILITY system.  This could be a buddy, calendar reminders or even a coach who will help keep you on track and hold you to account for reaching your goals.  It can be hard to go it alone and if you don’t have anyone cheering you on from the side lines and keeping you focussed when it gets tough then it makes reaching your goals doubly hard.

I love setting goals and my 20 years of leading high-performing teams means I’m pretty good at helping others achieve theirs too.

If you want to deep dive into how to set effective goals, download my free Freedom Framework where I take you through the whole process of setting and maintaining progress when setting goals.