The 3 Simple Steps to Hitting Your Goals (Every Time)

Monday, July 25, 2022

How many times have you taken on a goal, only to abandon it the following week? You know the feeling — that pang of guilt and disappointment after breaking a streak. A blunder as simple as failing to do a 5-minute exercise routine is enough to send a powerful blow to your self-esteem. Then you declare, “I’m never gonna get there.” And just like that, you’re back to sleeping until 2pm, procrastinating on your job, and hating yourself for being hopeless.

Believe it or not, if this is you, your story is very common. It's easily overcome but often doubted. A study of 800 million people found that most New Year’s Resolutions are abandoned within 3 weeks! January 19, to be exact!

Before you think “what’s the point?” Knowing this is a good thing; it tells us that these New Year’s resolutions are either simply ridiculously hard or maybe, just maybe most people don’t know how to effectively walk the talk.

Do you want to fail another goal this time around?

This article will break down the steps that helped that rare 8 percent of people keep their New Year’s resolutions (and other important goals) down the line. These simple steps, when followed correctly, will drive you to the goal finishing line.

Define YOUR Goal

Do you ever wonder why some clothes look great on a celebrity but look dismal when you wear them? There’s nothing wrong with your body. It’s just that celebrities mostly have their outfits tailored to fit them better.

It’s the same with goals! You can try to adopt a standardized method to lose weight but how much you lose would depend on what’s healthy and sustainable for you. Lose too much and you might risk your health; lose too little and you might feel like you didn’t get anywhere at all!

Goals should be SMART. That is,

Specific enough to be actionable
Measurable in a way that it allows you to see your progress over time
Attainable, as in you have the resources to execute them
Realistic. Reasonable. Relevant.
Time-bound with a target date, a deadline

Run your goal through this filter and you’ll have a brilliant, workable goal from which to set up your starting line.

Create the PRIORITIES for That Goal

Now that you have a big picture of what you want to achieve, the next step is to break that goal further down into smaller objectives. Doing so reduces an otherwise intimidating goal into doable, less daunting targets. It also allows you to realize which mini goals need to be accomplished.

For instance, suppose your goal is to be able to speak French at a 4th Grade level in a year. Your priorities would look something like:

Priority 1: Find a French teacher
Priority 2: Master phonetics
Priority 3: Learn basic vocabulary
Priority 4: Learn basic grammar and sentence structure
Priority 5: Be able to engage in basic conversation

Quick note: your priorities don't always have to be in order; that would depend on the goal.

If your goal is to organize your best friend's welcome home party, your list may include items like cake confirmed and ordered, friends attending confirmed (numbers and names), and create a cheesy welcome home video. These priorities don’t have to be achieved in order; they just have to be completed before the Welcome Home Party. But each require certain steps and/or tasks to be completed. Which is your next step:

Reverse Engineer the TASKS Needed to Knock Down Those Priorities

If the goal was a book, priorities would be the chapters and the tasks will be the topics in each chapter.

When tasks are created without fully addressing where you want them to go, often we end up running in circles, or zig-zags. Would you drive a car in a foreign country without a map or Google Maps? If the answer is no, would you begin your goal without thinking about the possible steps required to take?

For this reason, it’s important to look at your priorities and ask yourself:

What do I need to do to successfully complete or achieve this priority?

What timelines or deadlines are each tasks?
What could go wrong or come as a speed bump along the way?
How can I account for these possible speed bumps? (i.e. complete the tasks a week ahead of schedule because the project needs to be approved, and if it isn’t, I might have to re-write a section or two … and therefore need another day or two … to then be re-assessed for approval).

Let’s take the example of learning French above. What are the required steps to accomplish Priority 1: Find a French teacher?

If you live in a bigger city with plenty of cultural resources, you might be able to find a local who can teach you in person. Otherwise, your next best bet is finding one online.

Then, you will have to negotiate the professional fee. Next, you will have to see which time during the day or week you’ll be available to learn.

All things considered, you now have identified the following steps under your first priority:

Task 1: Ask friends if they know a local teacher
Task 2: Look for a local teacher online
Task 3: Negotiate the fee
Task 4: Sign the learning contract
Task 5: Find the most appropriate time in your calendar

Repeat this process with your subsequent priorities until finally, you have refined your goal down to the smallest detail!

The Next Step

Planning (and executing) will make your life easier. It will mean less time doing but more achieving, which will mean more time to do whatever you want … work more, or play more.

Having the right tool for planning is pivotal for your execution. The right tool will easily lay out your goal, the date, the priorities and tasks. But this tool will also show you the overview of your tasks. Do you have too many tasks in one month? Are you overloading yourself? Can you fit more in? This tool will allow you to actively plan so that you can effectively execute your goals … so that you can move forward to the next one. The next step towards your bigger, more extreme (and scary) goals.

The TaskSpur app has that tool. The Goal planning function built within the app will guide you through the process, step by step. Once you’re ready to begin, your TaskSpur Assistant, Ari, will follow up with you whenever a task has been planned to make sure that you’re on track. If millionaires have assistants keeping them on track, why can’t you?

Download the TaskSpur App for free to try it out for yourself now.