Achieving Your Goals: Four Steps to Keep You on the Path to Success

In my last Article: “Sprint Your Way to Success” we talked about how to use sprints to set and achieve your goals. Now, here are a few key tips from the Sprint methodology to help keep you focused:

1. Hold a Daily Check In with Yourself
This needs to be done the first thing in the morning, every morning. Doing it any other time of day is not nearly as effective since you are most motivated to work on a goal right after you have looked at it, thought about it and logged it.

Now, before you roll your eyes and tell me that you have absolutely no time for this, I want to tell you that this should be a very short review. If you are following my Success Sprint method, you’ve already listed everything on your Sprint or “To Do” checklist. I typically spend about 3 minutes while I’m having a bowl of cereal or a cup of coffee.

The three things you should focus on during your Check In are:

• What you did yesterday
Go over your checklist from yesterday and check off everything you did. Then look at what you didn’t get done and ask yourself: “Does this still need to be done?” If so, add it to your list for today or later in the week. If not, get rid of it.

• What you will do today
Take a look at today’s list and add anything you need to do and remove anything you no longer need to do in order to reach your goal on time. Be quick and be brutal.

• What are my roadblocks?
Take a close look at what’s holding you back. Is there anything that you can do to work around them? Maybe you need to ask a friend to support you. Maybe you need to purge your living space of any detractors from your goal. Or, maybe you need to just need to keep your daily checklist in front of you all day. Sometimes it helps to have your electronic calendar send you reminders or have a friend call you. Whatever it is, don’t be shy about asking for help.

2. Update Your Sprint Checklist Weekly
This step is critical in order to keep yourself on track to achieve your goal by the end of the month.

Select one day a week to take about 20 minutes to review your monthly checklist. Make sure that you check off all the accomplishments you’ve made for the past week and then look at what lies ahead for the coming month. Ask yourself:

• Will I be able to reach my goal if I continue at this pace?
• Am I ahead of schedule; and can I move things up a bit?
• Is there anything I can do to move things along more quickly?
• What trouble areas have I run into and how can I navigate around them?

Once you’ve answered these questions, go ahead and revise your Sprint Checklist as needed. Don’t be afraid to remove items that no longer serve you in reaching your goal.

3. Moving On
Once you have completed all the items on your Sprint Checklist, now is the time to look at that “future list” you put away. If you have achieved your goal, you are ready for a new Sprint. Go ahead and pull an item from the future list and make a new Sprint Checklist – just make sure to always complete your current goals first. Do not, I repeat, do not let new goals get in the way of accomplishing what you have set out to achieve.

Just stay focused. You should be well on your way to reaching your goals.

4. Small Steps Are All You Need
Small steps always seem inadequate when compared to a big dream. This is to be expected. According to inspirational author Mike Dooley: “If the dream wasn't so far "out there" and dazzling, it wouldn't be worth dreaming! Just don't be led to think that the physical ground you cover with your baby steps is all that they accomplish. Because for every mortal step you take, another cog in a giant wheel behind the curtains of time and space advances, and with it, 10,000 new possibilities.”

Keep in mind, by taking small steps today, you are well on your way to achieving your dreams.