Welcome to 2016! If you are anything like me your inbox is being bombarded with blogs about the value of goal setting and great tips and advice on how to set your goals for 2016. The New Year seems to be the one time in the year when everyone is putting in place their goals for the year ahead. There is fresh hope, positivity and renewed focus on achieving the goals we create for ourselves for the year ahead.
I’m all for goals. I set goals at the start of each year (as well as at the start of the new financial year) and I make sure they are SMART goals. I follow all the great advice when setting my goals. But in reviewing my goals for 2015 and ticking off what I achieved and what I didn’t, I’ve realised I could be a lot more successful at achieving my goals.
If you read my last blog for 2015, you’ll know I had completely overlooked sharing with my team what we had achieved in 2015 and where we hadn’t done as well as we had hoped. It wasn’t until one of my team asked for this feedback session that I had one of those light bulb moments and thought what a monumental opportunity I had missed. It was this review session that was in the back of my mind when I sat down and reviewed my goals for 2015 and set my goals for 2016. It got me thinking and reflecting about the goals I hadn’t achieved and where I had lost my way.
It made me realise that I’m not sharing my goals. Sharing the goals for business and work is a given and my team know exactly what we want to achieve, we have a goals whiteboard that we look at every day. However the other goals that I set for myself; my health and wellbeing, financial and personal goals are always goals I have kept to myself and not shared with anyone. Typically I’ve written them in a little book and revisited them from time to time. I’ve realised for me that is my first mistake. I’m a visual person so all my goals need to be in front of me, like the goals are on the whiteboard at work. I walk past them every day, I glance at them multiple times a day; I look at them when I have a win and its reinforcement that we are heading in the right direction and when things don’t fall in to place I look at them and use them as motivation and direction to channel my energy.
The other thing I’ve identified and would encourage you to do if you are setting goals for 2016 is to share your goals; not just your work goals but your personal goals. When setting your goals and putting in the detail to make sure they are SMART goals, add another step. Write down the names of a couple of people who can help you and support you to achieve that goal. By help I mean, keep you on track, hold you accountable and support you to break the habit if you do get off track. You don’t have to share all your goals with the same person, use the networks of people around you and pick the best people to support you for each goal.
Here’s an example: This year one of my goals is to improve my health and fitness. I had previously been involved with a running group about 18 months ago however when I got busy with the business I stopped going to running club. It was easy to justify staying back at the office to get work done instead of going running. Hence the habit was broken and it wasn’t until late last year that I started back at running. I’d been thinking about going back but it seemed every time I told myself tonight I was going to running group there was something that came up at work or I convinced myself that I’d be out of shape and not able to keep up so what would the point be. In the end I actually ran in to another lady from the running group who encouraged me to come back and she held me accountable, she told me they’d wait until I got their on this particular Monday night. Now I couldn’t back out. And that’s how I started back, I just needed someone to hold me accountable. My team have also been supportive in my return to running group, they know the days when I need to get out of the office on time and support me to be able to do that. If I didn’t have these key people supporting me I’m pretty sure running would drop off again.
Some people would say that the goal doesn’t mean enough to me if I can’t hold myself accountable. However, I know how important this goal is to me; it’s just that sometimes other goals that I have set for myself, like business orientated goals and delivering a service to a client are more important goals at times as I establish my business. I think, and for me, by having people around you to support you in achieving your goals it helps to keep you on track as well as maintaining balance between the goals you have set.
In setting my goals this year, for every goal I’ve made, I’ve written down the names of the key people who can help keep me on track in achieving that goal. I’ve drawn on my team at work, family and friends and my business mentors. If you regularly read my blog you’ll know how strongly I feel about mentors and how valuable they are, so if you don’t have someone in your existing network to help you with your goals, seek out a mentor to work with you. I’m in the process of tapping each of these people on the shoulder and asking them to help keep me on track. I’m feeling pretty confident that this support network that I am creating will help ensure that 2016 is my best year yet. Who can help you make sure 2016 is your best year yet?
