Ten weeks in. How are you doing on your goals?

Statistics suggest that only 25% of people are still working on the resolutions they made at the start of the year after 30 days. Only 8% measure actual progress through the year. I’m convinced that this is largely because we get so busy with “regular life”. We don’t make time to think about those goals and make intentional steps toward them.

A few years back, I participated in a Franklin Covey training seminar called the Four Disciplines of Execution. The seminar highlighted two categories of activity in our lives. They referred to what most of us log way too many hours on as the Whirlwind. This is the stuff that expands to fill every space available. Email, paperwork processing, etc. The other category which we rarely have time for is what they call the WIGs or Wildly Important Goals.

goals on the calendar
Put your goals on the calendar.

Formula for success or failure; your choice.

We need to make time to look at our WIGs consistently and plan intentional steps toward them. Otherwise, it should be no surprise that 12 months pass and we still find ourselves in the same position. If I don’t exercise or make different food choices, I’m not going to lose weight. If I don’t call more customers than I called last year, I won’t initiate more sales. Whatever your goals are, the “big rock” idea applies: you have to put them in the schedule first and in a priority position.

“A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, ‘If you want to be My disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be My disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow Me, you cannot be My disciple. But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say, “There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!”’”
Luke 14:25-30, NLT

In the passage above, Jesus challenged His disciples to “count the cost” before committing to the massive life-change that it would take to follow Him. But this “count the cost” principle applies to everything we do in life. If we are going to make the difference God has called us to, we must be diligent. If the goals we set for the year are really important to us, we need to make time for pursuing them intentionally.

CRASH the statistics; make progress toward your goals.

goals can be achieved in a team
You can do this! And bring others with you! It will be great to celebrate the wins together.

Here are a few suggestions to CRASH the statistic and be one of the few who makes real progress toward goals in 2019:

  • Cut your goal for the year into fractional milestones. Identify steps that you can measure as the year goes along. If you can check off a 10th of the goal every month, you will be done with two months to spare.
  • Recognize dependencies in your goals. If you need input from others or certain things have to be done first to make progress in other areas, initiate there first. If you wait until the end of the goal period to request important direction, you will be at the mercy of someone else.
  • Allocate an hour per week or month to review your goals. Look at how you’re doing on the trajectory to achieving them.
  • Summarize your goals on a one-page document or even an index card. You can refer to them quickly to evaluate progress.
  • Help yourself by inviting others to hold you accountable. A supervisor, work peer or friend could be a great encouragement when you lose sight of your goals along the way. You can also return the favor for them!

Leave a Reply