4 Steps To Create A Plan That Helps You Stay Focused On Achieving Your Goals
In times of uncertainty and change, it’s normal to feel overwhelmed by the things we can’t control and just have to accept. At Building Champions, we know you want things to be different—you want to live and lead with purpose, bringing your best to every day. In order to do that, you need to focus on what matters most and the things you can control and influence.
That’s why we created a simple process and plan to help you stay focused on achieving your goals. It allows you to capture the goals, disciplines, and projects you want to focus on over the next 90 days so that you can bring your best to those you love, lead, and serve. Working with thousands of leaders we developed the following four step process to help create, what we call, a Focused Plan. Let’s take a look at each of the steps in this process.
Step 1: Identify Your Goals
The first question you must answer is, “What does success look like for me over the next 90 days?” Once you know what you want to achieve, you can start creating measurable goals around that definition of success. When you create these goals, you want to make sure they are SMART goals:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time Sensitive
When you read these goals they should inspire you, challenge you, and give you hope that if you achieve success your life and leadership will improve. Remember these are 90-day goals, not yearly or long-term. These goals are short-term and ones that will help achieve your overall vision for your life or career.
Step 2: Commit To Your Disciplines
Once you’ve got your goals set, it’s time to answer the question, “How will you behave in order to achieve your goals?”
We refer to these behaviors as “disciplines”. They are high-payoff, non-negotiable activities that increase the likelihood of achieving your goals. These are not one-time tasks you complete but rather consistent behaviors you must do over time.
For example, if you had a goal of increasing engagement with the people you lead, you might commit to a discipline of conducting bi-weekly one-on-one meetings for 30-minutes with each of your direct reports. Or if you had a goal of losing 10 pounds over the next 90-days your discipline might be to commit to an exercise discipline of taking a 30-minute aerobics class at your gym, four days a week. A poorly written discipline for this type of goal would be, “work out more each week”. In order to be effective your disciplines must also follow the SMART acronym you used for setting your goals with a slight adjustment:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant - they must tie to one of the goals you set for yourself
Timely - you must state how long and how often you engage in the behavior to achieve your goals, and they should be done consistently at the same time each day or week.
Step 3: Plan Your Projects
With your goals set and disciplines identified, it’s now time to ask yourself, “What improvement projects must I complete to achieve my goals?”
These improvement projects are NOT DISCIPLINES; instead they are your current high-priority projects with a specific due date. By completing these projects they will help you do your disciplines better and achieve your goals.
Let’s continue the example from above. You have a goal of improving your overall engagement with your direct reports and you have committed to a discipline of meeting consistently with each of them for 30-minute twice a month.
In order for you to do this effectively you need to create calendar appointments for each of these one-on-one sessions. This becomes a one-time project with a due date for you or your assistant to complete within the next two weeks so that you can start working toward achieving your goals as soon as possible. Another project related to this goal might be to develop three standard questions for each of your direct reports to answer prior to every meeting so that you have clarity around what is most important for them to discuss in your meeting.
To get started, list out the most important projects you need to complete to accomplish your goals and set due dates for each one. Next, organize this list by priority so you know what to focus on first. This will help you stay on track when life gets hectic or when you feel overwhelmed. It also steers you to the next project each time you finish one.
Step 4: Identify Your Theme
Finally, in this last step you will review your goals, disciplines, and projects and come up with a theme for the next 90 days. Your theme should be short and specific, between one to five words, that sum up what you’re ultimately trying to achieve. A few examples are:
Improve Self-Leadership
Rest - Reflect - Renew
Better Decisions, Increased Influence
Deeper Relationships, Increased Engagement
Your theme will be a rallying cry for you when challenges arise or when you just need a little encouragement to remember the purpose behind what you are doing each day to achieve your ultimate definition of success.
Download Your Focus Plan
Get clear on what matters most and create a plan to help you start living and leading with greater purpose and focus.
Now What?
Creating a Focus Plan is a huge step forward in reaching your goals. Our experience from coaching leaders around the world has shown us there are three best practices to help you effectively live and lead from your plan:
Own it—having a plan is not the same as executing on a plan. All of the goals and disciplines mean nothing if you don’t wake up every day and commit to taking action to make it a reality. This is entirely up to you and you must own it to be successful. You can’t delegate it to an assistant, coach, or family member.
Leverage it—Once your plan is complete, don’t just set it aside and move on. Keep it in a prominent place on your desk so you can keep it top of mind. Set aside time to review it each day. Use it to help you make decisions as to how you spend your time—what you say “yes” and “no” to each week. Leverage the clarity and focus your plan brings to your life and leadership to live and lead with purpose.
Share it—Run your plan by people you trust, and give them permission to ask you about progress made toward achieving your goals and executing on your disciplines. Be open to the accountability and setup regular meetings with them to review your plan and share progress.
Take It A Step Further
Feel like you might need more accountability? At Building Champions, we create customized coaching engagements that focus on both the beliefs and behaviors of great leadership. We guide leaders, teams, and organizations to be healthy and high-performing so they can have a greater impact on everyone they serve. Please contact us if you would like to learn more about how we can help you or the leaders in your organization.
