Achieving your goals

In January, like many others, I like to set annual goals.  By Feb, most people are no longer making progress and give up.  It's because they are focused on the end goals when they should be focused on the process to achieve their goals. 

Well, first we need to identify a few most important key goals that add the most value.  Be sure each goal is SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.  Then, we can determine the process to achieve those goals.

For me, I needed to get into better physical shape to be more durable on the soccer field.  So I determined an annual work out goal by doing a break-down approach and a build-up approach and settled on an achievable number of weight and flexibility workouts.  Now, each month I set an achievable monthly number based on my schedule and then actually focus on a weekly number.  If I hit my weekly number, I hit my monthly number, and will hit my annual number.  It takes into account the potential unexpected, yet also has the opportunity to over-achieve.

The same goes for large projects, set your end-goal that meets scope, cost, and time requirements.  Then break the project down into smaller workstreams and sub-tasks.  From there, focus on completing each task on time, monitoring progress, and making adjustments as needed.  By completing each task on schedule, workstreams get finished as planned, and the project end-goal is achieved.  So remember, to achieve your goals, focus on the process to achieve that goal.

That's my 8020 framework.  What's yours?