New Year, New Goals

The Key to Reaching Your Goals in the New Year: Accountability

How many times have you tossed your New Year resolutions aside, convinced you couldn't see your commitment through? No doubt we've all done that a time or two, but you don't have to! Make this New Year different by creating a system of accountability that keeps you on track toward your goals.

Here's how:

Accountability Step One: Get clear about what you want, and don’t want, for yourself and your business. You’d be surprised by the number of people who don’t know what they do and do not want! The problem with that is if we don’t know what we want and don’t want, how do we know what to ask for? How do we know what we are going to ask to be held accountable for doing or not doing?

Accountability Step Two: Articulate your goals for your future and move on to writing the plan for what you REALLY want to have and by-when you want to have it! Remember: If you can’t put in writing what you want, you can’t language what you want, and if you can’t write down and then language what you want, you can’t ask anybody to hold you accountable for getting it! No one can read your mind and therefore you cannot be held accountable for a plan that is in your head!

Accountability Step Three: Once you are clear about what you want, you have to write down the various steps for getting there. “I am going to start here... I end there... and this is what I have to do in between to get from where I am to where I want to be!” It is called a plan, and in your plan, you should include not only the tasks and actions you are going to take on in order to get what you want but by-when you are going to do them!

Accountability Step Four: Ask for help! If any of us could get to where we are going by ourselves, we would be there already. So ask for the help you need... give your team permission to hold you accountable for doing what you say you are going to do, and then do it!

Accountability Step Five: Keep your plan visible! By keeping in front of you what you wrote down, the plan of how to get there, and the folks that you are going to ask to hold you accountable, it makes it much easier to not be stopped by your circumstances! Every one of us needs accountability to keep ourselves on track for getting what we say we want. So write your plan, ask for help, have fun, and enjoy a fantastic New Year!