Learn From My Failures: How To Hit Your Targets This Year - Goal Setting Part 3 of 4

By Theron Glenny

Here at Joshua House, we are passionate about helping people find purpose and live their purpose out. Your life is like an arrow. It’s got a flight and it’s meant to hit targets. In the last two articles, we have helped you take your dreams and goals for the new year and create a manageable list you can realistically pursue and accomplish. We did this by…

helping you identify the areas of your life (AOLs) in the season you are in, and…
encouraging you to only choose one or two goals to put under each of your AOLs

Many make the mistake of having too many goals, which can become overwhelming very fast. Now that you have a solid list of AOLs and goals to target, your focus is pointed.

This next tip I’m about to give you is crucial. For me, it was a missing ingredient in helping me accomplish my goals. For years, I've identified my AOLs and been selective with goals by only choosing one or two goals for each area of my life. I learned this next tip from my job selling sales engagement software to sales and marketing leaders in mid-market to enterprise level companies. Every sales person has a quota they are trying to hit. They have a revenue number they are going after. It’s their goal. Their yearly goal is broken down into monthly goals. Every sales person knows their number very well. Why? Because they are responsible to hit it in order for the company to grow and because every week, they meet with their leaders to discuss where they are in relation to their goal.

My point in telling you this is that a sales person’s goals and where they stand in relation to their goals are viewed by more than just themselves. Their colleagues, manager and senior leaders know. Everyone has visibility. Because there is visibility, there is accountability. Without visibility and accountability, you run the risk of not focusing on goals you spent a ton of time identifying.

Here’s what works for me, put your list of goals in a place where you see them every day. For you, maybe it’s on your refrigerator, on your bathroom mirror, or on your desk at work. If you can, put them in multiple places. Put them where you have to look at them. The point is for your goals not to get lost or forgotten causing you not to remember the inspiration you had at the beginning of the year.

The second recommendation is to schedule re-occuring times with others to review your goals. Whether it’s with your spouse, a couple of friends, or mentors, it should be people you trust and that you can receive feedback from without getting offended. Proverbs 15:22 says, "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed." Remember, you have goals you feel passionate about accomplishing. If you don’t look at them or talk about your progress regularly, then you risk not remembering ‘why’ you set them and you’ll get burnout and frustrated and end up not accomplishing them. Author Jon Gordon says, “ people don’t experience burnout because of what they do, but because they forget why they do it.”

Pro tip: If your goals are important to you and your family, utilize your calendar to block time off to regularly work towards your goals. My philosophy is, if it’s not on the calendar, it doesn’t get done. Block time off. Schedule it. In your brain, blocking time off on your calendar gives you permission to work on your goals. It will help you prioritize your schedule to work on what matters most to you.