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February is a season of love and romance, when we reaffirm our hearts to the ones we love. It's also one of the best times of year to put your heart into your goals and objectives, and make them personal. The spill-over activities to close off last year have been dealt with. The rah rah, and motivational speeches from on high to kick off the new year are done. Business forecasts are taking shape, and you've got a small window of breathing room before the first quarter numbers are due. No doubt you are still busy, but there will never be a better time to isolate yourself for a few hours or a few days and reaffirm your goals and objectives. Drive or be driven, the saying goes. As the demands on our time start to build in the new year it's important that you have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish. There are two schools of thought on the matter, and one is much more productive than the other. One set of reasoning says that the best approach is to remain flexible and adaptive to each day. See what comes, and deal with each situation as efficiently as you can. This can work for a while if you are in an environment that never has carry over from the previous day. Most of us don’t have that luxury, and what ultimately ends up happening is that we take on too many things to do any more than the minimum requirements for each. The best case end result is that a lot of people will think you are generally reliable, in a mediocre kind of way. You can be counted on get things done, but no one will ever expect anything particularly special from you. The other, far more effective approach is to sit down just after the beginning of the year, and map out the things you want to accomplish most this year. The general approach is to brainstorm everything you'd like to accomplish this year first, and then prioritize and choose your top 5 or 10. Some people like to call the accomplishments wish list a dream board. I like that name. The important thing is that you make this list personal. It must relate to the problems or opportunities of the business, but the things you choose must also be things that you believe in. You need to care enough about your chosen goals enough to put your heart and mind into them for the next 11 months. A lot of people have great goal setting sessions, but then fall down on the prioritization and follow through. The first time I seriously did this exercise I spend a full week brainstorming, prioritizing and organizing my team and roles on paper. I came out of the exercise with 10 great things I wanted to accomplish with my team that year. I had renewed energy. I had enthusiasm. I had made it very personal and I knew in my heart that these were the right things to do. At the end of the year, guess how many of those 10 things I had accomplished? If you guessed 8 or 9 you are incorrect. I got none of them done; zero. They had all made progress, but none of them were making a significant difference to the organization. I learned a simple and powerful lesson that year: 10 is too many. The next year I did the same exercise and came up with the top 3. By the end of that year I had 2 done, 1 a good way along, and across the organization people were seeing the positive impact of what I had done. If you truly want to make a difference in your business, if you truly want to do something that makes your boss go "Wow, nice job", then sit down. Write out your goals. Pick 2 or 3 of them. Make them your personal mission for the year. Mine were printed and tacked to the wall, written in the corner of my whiteboard, and placed at the top of every to do list I made all year. I saw them every day. I put them where my boss and my peers saw them every day. I started every day with that short list of goals. I made it personal and I got them done. So figure out what it is you want to accomplish this year? There will never be a better time to personalize it and start the process of getting it done.
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About the Article Author
Daryl Cowie has shared management tips with 1000s of people in over 30 countries around the world. His mission is to help you and your company turn business opportunities into business realities. Sign up for his free business management home study course at FreeManagementTips.com
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