5 Ways to Make Your Goals Happen
(Updated January 9, 2022)
There’s a strong collective energy around positive change at the New Year. We’re all eager to get healthy habits in place, set exciting goals, and make our dreams come true.
Anything seems possible.
But how do you stay accountable a few weeks later when that starry-eyed energy wears off, you’re faced with the day-to-day drudgery of making your goals happen, and distractions tempt you at every turn?
According to U.S. News, by the second week of February, 80% of us have failed on our resolutions.
For me, it’s not about impetuous resolutions made in response to holiday indulgences. I put considerable thought and energy into creating an annual strategy for my life and my writing. I’m dead serious when I set goals even if I’m simultaneously naive and overly enthusiastic.
Here’s the problem. It’s easy for me to be accountable to others. It’s a million times more difficult to be accountable to myself — to my own hopes, dreams and aspirations.
Fears and resistance run deep. If we want to make our goals happen, we need a mix of the right tools, the inside story on willpower, and the courage to look deeply within at the sources of our own self-defeating patterns.
Today, I’ll share some of the ways I plan to stay accountable this year. I’ll also offer a few questions to help you look at deeper issues that might be holding you back from changing bad habits or achieving your dreams.
Let’s start by looking at effective ways to manage your time and stay accountable. I won’t share every time management or accountability method under the sun, just my favorites.
1. Track Your Time & Remove Time Wasters
It’s impossible to accomplish your goals or have the space for new habits if you don’t allocate your time wisely.
“I didn’t have time,” is one of our most common excuses when we fall short of our goals. But is it really true? You can’t really know unless you track your time and activities for a designated period.
When you track your time, you’ll be able to clearly see if your activities align with your values, priorities, and goals, how much time you waste, and exactly how you squander it. Time tracking will also reveal where you fail to honor your boundaries and thus give your time away to others.
It’s simple to track time. Just make a commitment, pay attention, and consistently record your time and activities for a specified period, ideally seven days. But if that feels overwhelming to you, start with three days. Just be sure to track enough days to end up with a representative sample of your overall time usage.
There are many free time tracking apps online. Or download my free 7-day Time Tracking Log.
Time tracking can be an eye opening exercise, especially if you’ve never done it before. It’s also a good exercise to repeat periodically because bad habits can creep back in.
While it may be uncomfortable to face the truth of how you spend your time, the knowledge you acquire through time tracking will allow you to move forward in a positive way.
2. Use Time Blocks or Time Boxes
In 1980, Francesco Cirillo refashioned the use of time boxes into 25-minute intervals and called it the “Pomodoro Technique.” The creative entrepreneur, Lisa Jacobs, named her time boxes “power blocks” and set them for 90 minutes. Productivity expert Brian P. Morgan calls them “strategic blocks.”
Time boxes are an age-old time management technique in which you schedule a task or a batch of similar tasks into a designated block of time. Time boxes also serve as an accountability partner since you can clearly see whether or not you’ve completed the tasks ascribed to your boxes.
Time blocks have helped me get more done in less time.
At the start of the week, I pencil in time blocks in my analog planner along with their designated focus. I set a timer on my i-Phone when I start a time block.
This system gives me a pre-planned schedule for getting things done. It invites me to focus and helps me to avoid distraction. It also shows me how much I can really get done in a block of time.
I tend to over-estimate what I can accomplish on any given day, most of us do. This system keeps me realistic and working consistently toward accomplishing my goals.
Time boxes can help you to establish new habits too. Let’s say you want to run or meditate for 20 minutes, 5 days a week. Create a time box in your schedule for this new habit. Then check it off each time you accomplish it.
3. Write Your Goals Down
According to the Written Goals Study conducted by Gail Matthews at Dominican University, those who write their goals down achieve significantly more than those who don’t.
Here’s a simple framework for establishing effective goals:
Goals are general statements like I want to lose weight this year. Start with a list of goals.
Objectives are specific like I will lose 24 pounds this year. Goals are best when they’re SMART: Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. Add an objective for each goal.
Tasks are the steps you’ll take to achieve your objectives and goals. In this case, tasks could include removing specific items from your diet like sugar or bread, increasing your physical activity, counting calories, and so on. Create a list of tasks for each objective.
If you haven’t already, write down your goals, make an objective for each one, and list out the step-by step tasks you need to complete to achieve your goal. Take however much time you need, whether it’s a few hours, a day or a few weeks.
4. Track Your Habits
There’s been an explosion of interest in habit tracking since the advent of the Bullet Journal and books like James Clear’s Atomic Habits. Many popular planners even include habit trackers now.
But not everyone knows about this fantastic tool.
A habit tracker consists of a grid with the days of the week or month on one side and a list of your habits on the other. Or you can make a grid for a single day to track water consumption, your vitamin intake, and the like. Some people go to town and make their habit trackers colorful and artistic. Others, like me, opt for a simple, functional style.
Here are some cool habit trackers you can download for free:
Start by tracking just a few habits so you don’t feel overwhelmed and give up. I habit track on the weekly page in my planner, but others prefer to use a monthly tracker.
What can you track on a habit tracker? Almost anything! For example:
Exercise
Meditation
Sleep
Morning routine
Paying bills
Making your bed
Medications or vitamins
Water consumption
Household chores
Watering plants
5. Evaluate Your Progress
You’ll be more likely to achieve your goals if you regularly review your progress and address any obstacles that hinder your forward movement.
If you’re serious about accomplishing your goals, do this on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis.
You can craft your own review questions, the best ones for your life. Here are some simple ones to get you started.
What did I achieve this week (month or quarter)?
What fell through the cracks?
What challenged me?
What lessons did I learn?
Am I happy with how I spent my time this week? If not, what can I adjust for the next week?
Be sure to consider your review questions in the context of your goals, objectives, and tasks.
At the same time, you may accomplish something different from what you expected because you felt called in a different way. That’s not always a distraction.
Perhaps you’ve had a change of heart and need to adjust your goals. It can be beneficial to have a system, but you don’t want the system to damper your creativity or silence the callings of your heart.
Remember, the system serves you, not the other way around.
What Holds You Back from Reaching Your Goals?
If you consistently fail to accomplish your goals, you may need to put helpful systems in place like the ones above.
Or it might be time to look within.
It’s been suggested to me that I’m an “obliger” according to Gretchen Rubin’s framework related to habit formation called “The Four Tendencies.” Rubin says Obligers meet outer expectations, but struggle to meet expectations they impose on themselves.
It’s been suggested to me that I’m an “obliger” according to Gretchen Rubin’s framework related to habit formation called The Four Tendencies. Rubin says Obligers meet outer expectations, but struggle to meet expectations they impose on themselves.
You can take Rubin’s quiz to find out where you sit within her framework: Are you an Upholder, Questioner, Rebel, or Obliger? It might tell you a lot about your relationship to habit formation.
You could also consider and journal about whether fear or attachment is holding you back. Some common fears and attachments that can keep you from achieving your goals include:
Fear of uncertainty
Fear of silence
Fear of solitude
Fear of being alone
Fear of growing old and not having enough
Attachment to receiving validation
Attachment to helping
Attachment to a specific identify
Attachment to the comforts of life
If you have trouble reaching your goals, perhaps making a commitment to look within would be the most important step you can take right now.
Closing Thoughts
These are the five ways I plan to fight distraction and make my goals happen this year:
Time Tracking
Time Blocks
Written Goals
Habit Tracking
Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly Reviews
And, I’d like to do this with ease. Staying productive and tuned into your goals doesn’t have to feel like you’re in a pressure cooker. Bring a curious attitude and adventurous spirit to the process.
Thank you for your presence, I know your time is precious! Don’t forget to sign up for Wild Arisings, my twice monthly letters from the heart filled with insights, inspiration, and ideas to help you connect with and live from your truest self.
You might also like to check out my Living with Ease course or visit my Self-Care Shop. May you be happy, well, and safe – always. With love, Sandra