Do Goals

Give your goal a place on your calendar, one specific action at a time.

A goal can live in your head for years without changing your daily life. You think about it, want it, and tell yourself you will get serious when you have more time.

Do goals bring that intention into your calendar. They are the specific actions you plan to take toward a result.

Instead of asking only what you want to accomplish, ask what you will actually do.

Begin with what you want to do

Take a blank piece of paper and spend ten minutes listing what you want to do, create, and accomplish. Do not edit while you brainstorm.

Include large goals and smaller tasks. If two ideas overlap, that is fine. Give yourself room to think before you organize.

If you have stopped believing that you can accomplish much, ask what you would dream about doing if you were still allowing yourself to dream. That question can help you move around the thinking that has closed off your options.

Choose your priorities

Review the list and identify your top three priorities. Group related items underneath them.

A project such as writing a book may sit under a larger business goal. Some tasks may become unnecessary if you achieve a more important outcome. Cross those off.

Then choose one priority to focus on. Keeping every possible project active can dilute the attention needed to move one forward.

Define a measurable ninety-day outcome

Take your chosen priority and ask what progress you want to make in the next ninety days. Be specific enough to know whether it happened.

If your long-term goal is to build a business, choose a measurable outcome that fits your current stage. If your goal involves meeting people, define the actions or experiences you will complete rather than waiting for a particular person to appear.

A clear outcome helps you work backward into an action plan. A vague wish makes it much harder to know what belongs on your calendar.

Write the do goals in detail

List everything needed to pursue the outcome. Include what you need to learn, arrange, delegate, and create.

For example, launch a website is too broad to schedule comfortably. Break it into decisions about the pages, writing the text, speaking with the person building it, and reviewing the finished work.

If you do not know a step, include finding out. Not knowing is part of the planning process, not a reason to postpone the whole goal.

Put the actions in the order they need to happen. Make the plan substantial enough to support the result, rather than hoping that one small attempt will be sufficient.

Schedule the work, then honor it

In this episode, I describe scheduling in two-week increments while mapping the full ninety days. Work through the actions and assign them time in the calendar.

Then notice what happens when the appointment arrives. Your mind may suddenly produce reasons to delay work that you deliberately chose.

Thoughts create feelings, which drive actions and results. Thinking that you can postpone this again may create relief and lead to avoidance. Thinking that this appointment serves a goal you chose may create commitment and support action.

You do not need to feel enthusiastic about every task to follow through.

Recalibrate as you learn

Monitor progress. Some steps will take longer than expected. Others may become simpler. Update the plan with what you learn.

Distinguish a practical delay from repeatedly breaking your own commitments. One calls for rescheduling. The other deserves curiosity about your thoughts and your relationship with yourself.

Your goal becomes more workable when you stop leaving it as an idea. Choose the outcome, identify the actions, and give those actions a time to happen.