How to Acheive Your Goals - Steps 6 and 7 of 7

I've been posting a series based on Marcia Francois' wonderful seminar "7 Things You Must do to Achieve Your Goals." If you haven't subscribed to my blog yet, then please go check out my first three posts - Step 1, Steps 2 and 3, and Steps 4 and 5. And then, go subscribe!

Step one was to know your mission. Step two was to set big, juicy goals that stretch you a bit. Step three was to write down your goals, and follow that up with sharing it with someone to more fully commit yourself. Step four was to evaluate your lifestyle. Step five was to realize that you always have a choice (and therefore can say no to things that hinder your goals). Let's see the final two steps.

Step 6 - Plan your goals. In project management, you spend three hours planning and one hour doing. Why? Planning saves you time. Take a look at your big, juicy goals you've written, and formulate small action steps. This will help you not be overwhelmed. Write down eight to 10 action steps. This puts thing in perspective. You can realize that these small steps take just a few moments, but which contribute to the large goal, the big picture.

Step 7 - Prioritize your actions. Now that you've written out your action steps, you need to prioritize those actions. When you write your to do list, you know that some things are more important than others. Most people spend their time on low value tasks and never get around to do high level tasks that support their goals. She suggests using a four-quadrant system of "Do It Now," "Got a Minute," "I Really Should," and "I Really Shouldn't." This will help you make sure that the most important, urgent things always get done. The box, "I Really Should," is the box that always gets annoyed. We know we should write that post, join the gym, buy healthier food, etc. These are things that are going to contribute to our goals. We have to focus on these items to make sure you attend to them.

Whew! Marcia has really put together a great system here. To recap: 1. Know your mission. 2. Set big, juicy goals. 3. Write down your goals. 4. Evaluate your lifestyle. 5. Realize that you always have a choice. 6. Plan your goals (action steps). 7. Prioritize your actions.

Now that I've listened to all seven audios, it's time for me to put these things into practice. On Monday I will post about the major goals I set and how I plan to accomplish them. You guys are going to be my involuntary support group. ;-) I promise not to dwell on my goals, but do stay tuned to see how things work out.

What goals are you planning to work on?

If you would like to receive a free copy of Marcia Francois' series on 7 Things You Must Do to Achieve Your Goals, please click here. To learn more about Marcia, her qualifications, and how she can help you, please visit her website by clicking here.

Can't wait for Rachel's next post? Of course not! Click here to find out how you can subscribe!

How to Achieve Your Goals - Steps 4 and 5

I've been posting a series based on Marcia Francois' wonderful seminar "7 Things You Must do to Achieve Your Goals." If you haven't subscribed to my blog yet, then please go check out my first two posts - Step 1 and Steps 2 and 3.

Step one was to know your mission. Step two was to set big, juicy goals that stretch you a bit. And step three was to write down your goals, and follow that up with sharing it with someone to more fully commit yourself. These next two goals really go hand-in-hand. Let's see how.

Step 4 - Evaluate your lifestyle. If you are so busy that you cannot find time for things that are important to you, you have to learn to say yes to yourself. Look at your goals that you've written down, and see if you actually have time to accomplish the steps that lead to accomplishing your goals. If you don't you realize that some things need to change. Look at your daily and weekly schedule and find areas you can cut back on so that you will have time to work towards your goals. Often the things we do, we do only to please others and not to support our goals.

Step 5 - Realize that you always have a choice. You always have a choice as to how you respond to things that happen to you. If you want to be a person who achieves their goals, you must make wise decisions about how you spend your time. You cannot spend time doing things that are at odds with your goals. When you say yes to one thing, you are saying no to other things. Learn to say yes to the correct things. Start saying no to things that are not in line with your goals.

So we've already determined our mission, set our goals, and written them down. Now we need to take some time to evaluate our lifestyle to make time for reaching our goals and acknowledge that we always make a choice. It's up to us to make the right choices to work towards our goals.

Stay tuned for the end of this series with steps 6 and 7.

If you would like to receive a free copy of Marcia Francois' series on 7 Things You Must Do to Achieve Your Goals, please click here. To learn more about Marcia, her qualifications, and how she can help you, please visit her website by clicking here.

Can't wait for Rachel's next post? Of course not! Click here to find out how you can subscribe!

How to Acheive Your Goals - Steps 2 and 3 of 7

This Tuesday, for Talk About Tuesday, I made a post about the wonderful series Marcia Francois has called 7 Things You Must Do to Achieve Your Goals. I have since continued with the series and am delighted to share steps 2 and 3 with you.

Remember that step 1 was to know your mission. Any goal you set must relate to your mission in life.

So for step 2 - Step specific, juicy goals. Why? Specific goals give you a sense of direction. Marcia quotes the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland when she says, "If you don't know where you're going, how will you know when you get there?" Setting a juicy goal means that it is big and bold. It's going to stretch you a little bit. For instance, take a goal you think you want to accomplish within six months. Now, give yourself three months to do it. You will be more focused, you will work that much harder, and in the end you will accomplish your goal.

Step 3 - Write them down. This seems simple, doesn't it? But I think a lot of people (myself included) forget to do this. You know in your head that you want to accomplish something, but it is much more real when you write it down. You make more of a commitment to yourself to accomplish it. Take this a step further and share these goals with a friend, an accountability group, or your coach (if you have one). A great example is this post by Leo at ZenHabits. He let all of his readers know of his goal and now he has that entire support group to help him accomplish it.

So now we have a great basis to get started. Know your mission, set specific, juicy goals with your mission in mind, and finally write down your goals and share them with a support group. Be sure to check back next week for steps 4 through 7!

If you would like to receive a free copy of Marcia Francois' series on 7 Things You Must Do to Achieve Your Goals, please click here. To learn more about Marcia, her qualifications, and how she can help you, please visit her website by clicking here.

Talk About Tuesday - Goals

I'm so excited to participate in Talk About Tuesday again. I've been so busy lately that I've been letting my blogging slip. But now I have something really great to blog about, so here I am! This is actually going to be the first in a series of posts about how to achieve goals. Stay tuned to learn all of the steps!!

In the last several months, I have been focusing on the future and on improving myself and figuring out what I want to do. I was going through various blogs recommended by my Google Reader and I came across Marcia Francois over at http://www.takechargesolutions.org. Marcia is a time management and organizing coach who helps people organize their time, space, business and life. Among her repertoire is a session she has regarding 7 Things You Must Do To Achieve Your Goals. I was lucky enough to sign up to receive the audio of those seven things, and you can too by visiting http://tinyurl.com/2etlkp. You will receive the seven things in seven separate clips, each about 3 to 4 minutes. They are well worth your time.

The first thing she covers is that you must know your mission. She points out that many people choose goals that other people suggest, that other people are doing, or things that they think they should be doing. I completely agree. I'm often swayed by the opinions of those I'm around, not just in what they think I should do, but also how they think I should do it. Yet, if you don't have a clear concept of your mission in life, you cannot set appropriate goals.

Since listening to this audio, I've been thinking about my mission. I truly believe that everyone should have a mission statement for their life. At times it may change, but it's important to know where you want your life to go. I'm currently mulling over different thoughts relating to my marriage and my career. How fun!!

Be sure to check back for number 2 in the series of 7 things you must do to achieve your goals.

Special thanks to Marcia for letting me blog about this series. I can't wait to go through them all!