As we round the corner and will soon be coming to the end of the first quarter of the year, ask yourself…”Have I began the journey of accomplishing what I set out to do in 2023?”
Most of you had a great start but have stagnated or even struggling to get started. Research (The Journal of Psychology) tells us that those who made New Year’s Resolutions were more likely to succeed than those who did not. But, in the same study, they said that although 46% of those who made resolutions succeed, more than half of them will fail.
The saddest part of this scenario is that repeating the same resolution each year – “This year, I promise to quit X,Y, and Z and start L, M, N, and O”, will more or less end with the same result.
Why do others fail?
Businesses and individuals in their personal and professional life are not immune to this syndrome. Businesses, including nonprofit organizations, fail to meet there goals predominantly because of the lack of vision, goal-setting, plan creation, execution, measurement, monitoring, adjustments.
Most organizations and people just get caught in a timing issue and a mindset of “I’ll get to that later”, and later never comes.
Have you ever heard the advice on “how to eat an elephant?” The answer is “one bite at a time”, only no one told you how to plan those bites so that you can accomplish your goals.
The approach
This is where my six-step plan comes in, aligned after experiences I have had in the personal and professional field. It’s a 30/60/90 day approach modeled after the workout routines we used when training athletes and was easily adapted to the school and classroom environment, when I was a principal.
In fact, schools use this curriculum concept as most of the school year is broken down into six or nine week grading periods and semesters. It’s basically the same concept.
I have used this approach in business settings when I was a business development director of a hospital and when setting community health improvement goals with the county health department. We had short-term, intermediate, and long-term goals which we could measure.
As a consultant, I think you will find this process adaptable to your circumstances and will feel rewarded in the end. Working in 90-day segments will allow you to set and achieve 30-, 60-, and 90-day goals and strategies that will give you the progress to reach your overall goal.
This will keep you from the 12 month lag that occurs with momentum in the beginning, then summer hits and stagnation, only to attempt to power through in the last two months, when you are thinking about the holidays.
What are the steps to success?
The 30/60/90 Day Process for achieving your goals.
- Step One – set a goal (no more than three) that can be achieved in 90 days.
- Step Two – brainstorm all the steps necessary to achieve this goal
- Step Three – Visualize your success by writing down your critical success factors and measurements (KPI’s)
- Step Four – Create a 30/60/90 day plan that will help you organized the steps, created by brainstorming, in a logical order, where one steps helps you achieve the next one. (This will allow you to achieve some quick wins which will help encourage you to continue while maintaining momentum)
- Step Five – Hold yourself accountable, from the beginning, by finding an accountability partner or by presenting your plan to your co-workers, supervisors, and constituents. Always take actions that hold yourself accountable to yourself. You will be your biggest cheerleader, if you succeed. Besides, you don’t need to take days off from doing the plan because it is only for 90 days. Create a task scoresheet which will help you monitor your progress and keep you more accountable. Strive to achieve most of your tasks – daily, weekly, and monthly.
- Step Six – After 90 days, reflect and celebrate your accomplishments. Then, set a new goal, repeat steps 1-5 and achieve again.
In one year, you may find yourself accomplishing 4-8 goals that you never thought that you would be able to do.
I always say, “if it was easy, everyone could do it.” But what you will find in today’s competitive world, many will give up way to soon. They will become easily distracted by being unfocused and undisciplined. This could give you the edge you need.
How do you get started?
Let’s think about your goal that you want to achieve. Is it personal, like weight management or eating healthy and exercising more? Is it professional, like going back to school, getting a better job, or making an impact on the world? Could it as simple as being more mindful and empathetic towards other?
No matter what your goal is, you can be successful in reaching it by using this plan.
There are many others who are suggesting similar plans and frankly, this one is not overly original. It’s just the one that have come to rely on, after almost forty years’ experience, and have found some success with.