How to Turn Goals into Achievements
Hapless Utkarsh set several New Year’s resolutions for 2024, including getting more exercise and enhancing his speaking skills. He discussed his goals with friends, but like many of his other ideas for personal and professional improvement, Utkarsh struggled to make any real progress.
Curious about his friend Go-Getter Sandip, who seemed to accomplish all his goals, Utkarsh asked for his secret. Sandip shared his strategy:
Write Down Your Goals
Committing your goals to paper makes them more specific and memorable. For example, “I want to be able to do 100 pushups in a row within 4 months.”
Formulate Action Commitments
Detail the actions you will take to reach your goals. For instance, “I will perform pushups to muscle failure every day, aiming for 50, 75, 90, and 100 by the end of months 1–4, respectively.”
Share Goals and Commitments with Supportive Friends
Telling one or more supportive friends about your goals and commitments increases your accountability. For example, share your pushup goal and action plan with a couple of friends.
Send Regular Progress Reports
Keeping your friends updated on your progress will encourage you to regularly assess how you’re doing and address any lack of progress. For example, in addition to sharing your goal and commitment, you can tell your Gym/Other buddies that you’ll send them monthly updates on your pushup progress. To help you remember, create a monthly calendar event for updates and set three weekly email reminders for one, two, and three weeks before the event.
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Utkarsh adopted this technique after reading research indicating that following these four additional steps, rather than simply talking about goals, led to a 77% increase in goal progress.
Although Utkarsh was initially skeptical, He decided to try this method for a goal he struggled with: improving his speaking skills by delivering more presentations. A few months later, he was pleasantly surprised to see a 200% increase in the number of presentations he was able to complete each month.
Are you finding it difficult to make progress on your personal or professional goals? Join Utkarsh and Sandip in implementing this simple four-step technique and start achieving your objectives!
