10 Minutes to Find Meaningful Traction on Your Goals

We all have goals and objectives that we find particularly challenging. These are the goals that we can’t quite seem to find traction on. It’s worth the time to consider the things that you need to start making some progress on these types of goals. Let’s look at how we can view these goals, and discuss strategies for understanding them and make some progress.

Write Down Your Goal

Take a moment and consider a goal that you’re finding particularly challenging. It can be a part of any of the themes. Write down that goal. Remember, goals are a navigational direction, not a measurable objective. Write down your goal, in broad terms. Maybe your goal is to lose weight, be healthier, increase your savings account, make more money, have a healthy relationship, or have a job that you love. Write down your goal.

Identify Your Goal’s Theme

Your goal will fall into one of the themes of your journal. The theme it falls into will depend on the version of the journal that you’re using:

Discovery Edition

• Spirituality
• Intellectual
• Physical
• Social

Journey Edition

• Spirituality
• Physical & Emotional Health
• Love & Relationships
• Professional Significance
• Finances
• Environment
• Play

Identify Related Values

Once you’ve identified your goal’s theme, write down your personal values related to that theme. To continue with our example of being healthy, this would fall into either the Discovery Edition’s Physical theme, or the Journey Edition’s Physical & Emotional Health theme. You would then write down the theme, and then write down values related to that theme. These are the things that are important to you related to the theme that your goal falls into. If your goal is to be healthy, write down values related to the Physical theme or the Physical & Emotional Health theme.

You may have previously identified some values for this theme. That’s okay. You can write those down. Take a moment to consider other values that you may have related to this theme. Take some time to uncover the real personal meaning behind this goal.

Ask Why

Now that you’ve identified your values, ask yourself why you’ve chosen these values. What about them resonates with you so deeply? Take some time to write down the thoughts that come to your mind. Why are these values so important to you?

Now, take a moment and see if these reasons still match up with your goal. Write this down. Now ask yourself if this goal is in alignment with these values, and all of the things that are important to you. If it is, write that down. If not, perhaps it’s worth exploring another goal.

Identify and Review Your Objectives

Now identify and review your objectives. To do this, make a chart with two columns. At the top of one column, write “Outcome”, and at the top of the other, write, “Process”. Now write down a few objectives that are in alignment with your goal. Remember, objectives are specific things you’ll achieve on your way to living into your goal. These are measurable, and may be outcome-based or process-based. You can think of outcomes as milestones, moments of achievement. They’re not the final destination, they’re places that you’ll pass through on your way to living your goal.

Let’s continue our example. If you goal is to be healthy, how will you know that you’re living into that goal? What are some objectives that you can set and achieve that will help you to know that you’re being healthy?

Here are a few examples.

Note: Please don’t feel like you need to have this goal or set these objectives. This example is common enough that most people will understand it, but this example isn’t intended to pressure you into setting this goal or these objectives.

Review your list of outcomes. Can you find reason to celebrate them when you achieve them? Are they inspiring? Do they help you to live into your goal? Do they keep you focused on your goal? Are they big enough? Are they too big? Do you need to break them down into smaller objectives?

Are your objectives achievable? If they are, write that down to remind yourself that your objectives are achievable. If they’re not, break them down until they are.

Take some time to review your objectives.

How Will You Achieve Your Objectives?

Now, ask yourself how you’ll achieve your objectives. What ideas come to mind?

These are your strategies.

These aren’t the actual things you’ll do, these are just the ideas. To revisit our example of being healthy, maybe you’ll go the gym 4 times a week. Maybe you’ll drink more water. These are the ideas that will enable you to achieve your objectives. Write these down. This is the time to identify the strategies that will help you to achieve your objectives and experience success. As you consider your strategies, ask yourself if they’re in alignment with your core values that you’ve identified for this area. If a strategy doesn’t align with your values, move onto the next idea. If it does, write it down.

This is where you’ll have an opportunity to do some research and experiment as well. You can research new strategies and alter current ones to help you achieve your objectives. You can also experiment with strategies to see how they work. Ideally, you’ll want to stick with just a few or even less. Some objectives may require a few strategies, while some will only require a single strategy.

Once you’ve written down your strategies, look at them and ask yourself if they’ll help you achieve your objectives. If they do, they’ll be in alignment with your goal. If they’re in alignment with your values, you now have ideas that are going to help you live into your goal that you’ve identified.

To continue with our example, you might choose getting more sleep at night as your strategy that will help you to feel less irritable:

• Goal: Be more healthy
• Objective: Feel less irritable
• Strategy: Sleep more hours per night

Take some time to identify some strategies that you feel like will work to achieve your own objectives.

Build Your Actions

Now, it’s time to put your strategies to work. You do that by taking action.

The actions that you take should be in alignment with your strategies. Choose a single strategy and identify specific actions that you can take that will help you to accomplish your strategy.

Let’s continue with our example:

• Goal: Be more healthy
• Objective: Feel less irritable
• Strategy: Sleep more hours per night
• Actions:
  • Get ready for bed at 9:30pm
  • Go to sleep by 10pm
  • Get up by 6am
  • Spray pillow with lavender oil spray

Your actions will support achieving your objectives. They should be specific. Ideally, they can added to your calendar or schedule. These are actual actions that you will do, and if possible, on specific days and specific times.

Look at your strategies. What actions can you schedule and complete that will allow you to accomplish your strategies? Write them down. Once you’ve written them down, ask yourself if they’ll help you accomplish your strategies. If they will, then they’ll be in alignment with your objectives and goal. Now ask yourself if they’re in alignment with your values. If they are, then you’ve identified specific actions that you can take to achieve your goal.

If your review passes both of your tests, congratulations! You’ve identified specific actions that you can integrate into your life that will help to take you closer to your goal.

Identify Challenges You May Face

This might be the most important part of this entire process.

It’s time to identify potential challenges. In order to do what you’re setting out to do, you’ll need to be consistent. Motivation to work on a goal only lasts for so long. Once it’s gone, you’re going to need the right mindset. You can increase your likelihood to succeed by finding potential challenges ahead of time, and developing strategies for dealing with them.

Are You Missing Anything?

Did you list a strategy and identify actions that will take you closer to your goal that you don’t have the equipment or time to do? If so, you may be setting yourself up for failure. You may be able to purchase, borrow, or find the equipment that you need. You may need to reschedule things in order to make your actions practical.

Take some time to identify things that you might be missing and write them down. Now, come up with a plan to get what you’ll need, and write those down too. Find the action that you can take to take care of anything that you might be missing.

Let’s revisit our example:

• Goal: Be more healthy
• Objective: Feel less irritable
• Strategy: Sleep more hours per night
• Actions:
  • Get ready for bed at 9:30pm
  • Go to sleep by 10pm
  • Get up by 6am
  • Spray pillow with lavender oil spray

In this example, if you don’t have lavender oil spray, then you’re setting yourself up for failure. You’re creating a situation where you can’t get more sleep because you can’t spray lavender spray on your pillow that you don’t have.

When you identify an action that requires something that you don’t have, you need to ask yourself if you really need this action, if this action can be altered, or if you need something. It’s important to not list actions that have a high likelihood of not being done. You’re creating obstacles for yourself when you do this.

However, if you identify an action that MUST be done in order to accomplish a strategy, and you don’t have what you need to do that action, you’ll need a plan to find the things that you need.

In our example, we’d probably just do without the lavender oil action, since the other actions will still help achieve our strategy.

What’s Going to Get in the Way?

Challenges and distractions are a part of life. Something will always come up to either challenge or distract you from taking action. It’s best to identify those early so that you already have a plan for how you’ll deal with these – emotionally and physically.

Let’s revisit our example one last time…

• Goal: Be more healthy
• Objective: Feel less irritable
• Strategy: Sleep more hours per night
• Actions:
  • Get ready for bed at 9:30pm
  • Go to sleep by 10pm
  • Get up by 6am
  • Spray pillow with lavender oil spray

You may list scrolling on your phone as a potential distraction that will get in the way of getting ready for bed by 9:30pm. In this case, you’d list an additional action:

• Goal: Be more healthy
• Objective: Feel less irritable
• Strategy: Sleep more hours per night
• Actions:
  • Charge phone in other room at 9:15pm
  • Get ready for bed at 9:30pm
  • Go to sleep by 10pm
  • Get up by 6am
  • Spray pillow with lavender oil spray

When you identify distractions, you can come up with actions that will help you to achieve your strategies.

Take some time to write down some potential challenges and distractions. Be honest with yourself. Once you’ve written them down, come up with a plan for how you’ll deal them with them when they come up.

Wrap-Up

With practice, this process becomes easier and more natural. You’ll find your thought processes naturally use this framework as you use it. You’ll personalize this framework for yourself, and make it even more useful as you practice it and put it to use.

It’s worth exploring your goals using this framework. It makes living into them more practical and achievable. You’ll find that you’ll gain insight into your personal life.

Header photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash