By now I expect that you have reviewed your 2020 goals and set your goals for 2021. If you are anything like me you have probably found that you have repeated some goals and that you are once again trying to accomplish a number of goals that you didn’t get done last time around. 2020 was of course an especially challenging year. So not accomplishing them is perfectly okay. However, here are some things that you can do to make sure that they do actually happen in 2021.
01: Write down your Goals
Let’s start with the basics. The main reason that people don’t achieve goals is that they don’t write it down. They come up with an idea, or choose a goal but don’t commit it to paper. So use one of our many goal planners and write down your goals.
02: Write SMART Goals
Another reason you may not have met your goals in 2020 is that you didn’t make them SMART. By using the SMART framework, you are more likely to accomplish your goals. Here is a quick reminder:
- Specific: Well-defined with specific goals, so that both you and your boss can easily measure progress toward goal completion.
- Measurable: Provide milestones to track progress and motivate yourself.
- Attainable: Success needs to be achievable with the effort not too high or too low.
- Relevant: It should be relevant to the companies objectives (not just your own).
- Time-bound: Establish enough time to achieve the goal, but not too much time to undermine performance.
The SMART acronym is designed to be a framework that will enable you to write goals that have an impact. When writing your goals keep each of these aspects in mind. This will mean that you will have a clear goal and be able to quantify how far you have come and how far you have left to go.
03: Create a Plan
The third reason you did not achieve your goal was that you didn’t break the goals down into steps and create a plan. Once you have written your SMART goal, you should then break your goal into an action list for your project or objective.
This way you know where you are and what you need to do next. Our Goals planner is specifically designed to include an action list for each goal as well as a progress tracker and check-ins.
04: Pick a Strategy that Works for You
Reason number four is that you perhaps didn’t choose the correct method or strategy. There are lots of different methods and strategies out that and you need to pick one that works for you. Our goals planner uses one of these methods if it didn’t work for you that’s fine you can move on and try something new. If you haven’t tried it yet, why not give it a go – it might be what you are looking for.
05: Have a space for working on your Goals and schedule time for working on them.
The fifth reason you may not have achieved your goals may be because you weren’t organised, you didn’t have a space or time for your goals. Have a dedicated space – such as a project planner, goals notebook, planner or a system that works for you. You should also schedule a time for working on your goals. For example, I might book into my diary a recurring appointment for working on a particular goal.
06: Check-In.
The sixth reason you may not have achieved your goal is that you weren’t checking in with your goal often enough. It is important to regularly check-in on your progress. Our goals planner is designed to have monthly check-ins. If you forget to do your monthly check-ins, schedule reminders or write in your check-in into your daily planner to remind you.
07: Have a plan for overcoming roadblocks
Covid was probably one big roadblock. Reason number seven as to why you may not have achieved your goals is that you hit a roadblock or other obstacle that you were not expecting. Often when we hit a roadblock or things are not going our way we give up or we procrastinate. Don’t. Have a plan for how you will overcome these roadblocks and other obstacles that you encounter.
08: Take Action
Sometimes you don’t get a goal done simply because you didn’t take any action, didn’t do anything, put it off, procrastinate etc. Maybe it was too big, in which case you need to break it down more! Identify what is holding you back and how you can overcome it and simply make sure you push yourself forward – one step at a time.
09: Don’t be a Perfectionist
The ninth reason you didn’t achieve your goal is that you were being a perfectionist. This is a common problem. It often takes one of two forms the first that you believe that you have to do everything yourself to get it perfect and therefore don’t delegate and therefore don’t have the time, OR you continue to work and work on a project to get it perfect and you are never satisfied with the result and therefore you don’t progress.
If you have this type of issues you need to change your mindset. Learn that there is no such thing as perfect and train yourself to understand that sometimes it is better to just to get things good enough and done and not perfect so that you never get things done.
10: Get an Accountability Partner
The final reason you didn’t achieve your goal is that you had no accountability. If you struggle with self-accountability one good way to solve this problem is to find an accountability partner (ask a friend or colleague or family member) and you can both help each other with your goals. Simply put you and another person (or persons) hold each other accountable for what each individual needs to do to help motivate you and push you to get things done and help you achieve your goals.
