Have you every had a big idea, a goal you were considering going after, and were thinking, wow wouldn’t it be great if I … ? After a few days go by, taking little action on your idea, you start to think about how much time, money or effort it will take to turn your idea into reality. Fear and self doubt start to set in, you start questioning if you have what it takes, it starts to feel overwhelming, too big of a feat to take on, and you pretty much leave it at that.
Our body and brain’s defaults are set to play it safe and avoid danger, not to make us happy. Considering going after your big idea is most likely not dangerous, but it involves taking on some risk and uncertainty, which our gut instinct dislikes. This is why going through a process for goal setting is so important. Creating a framework to operate within can provide the clarity necessary to foresee what steps can be taken to make your idea real.
To effectively pursue your big idea, you need to understand the different types of goals to set, how to set them and then start taking action to build your momentum. I’d like to share with you 4-steps you can follow to establish and track your goals to ensure you stay on the right trajectory and can succeed.
- Clarify your vision – Establish clarity around what it is you hope to achieve. I find this to be the fun part, digging in deeper, not only to what it is you want to achieve but why you want it. By clarifying the reason behind why you want to achieve it, beyond the surface level reasons, you can strengthen an emotional connection that adds fuel to your efforts and increases the likelihood you will see it through. Using mindfulness techniques such as journaling, mind mapping, or closing your eyes and visualizing, experiencing in advance what it would be like to achieve your goal are all techniques to help provide clarity.
- Recognize your current reality – Now that you have a better idea of what the end game looks like, take some time and flesh out where you’re starting from. What knowledge, experience or resources do you have or can you tap into to help you achieve your vision? Any known obstacles you can foresee that may get in your way? Who do you know that can help you?
- Set SMART Goals – After recognizing where you’re at now, and where you want to be, it’s time to set goals that will bring you closer to turning your vision into a reality. Smart goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant & Time bound. Pursuing big ideas can consume a lot of your time and can definitely feel overwhelming at points especially when your main focus is always on the final destination. It’s easier to pursue and achieve process based shorter term targets that are the smaller stepping stones towards achieving your performance goals. Building on smaller process wins on a daily, weekly, monthly basis will add up towards attaining performance goals, ultimately leading to desired outcomes.
- Tracking your progress – Write down your goals and reflect on your progress regularly. By building a habit of establishing targets and reflecting on your progress on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly & yearly basis, you will be able to celebrate your progress and recalibrate as necessary. Keeping a scorecard helps track progress on process related goals, the impact your activity is having on intermediate performance measures and ultimately a check for alignment with your long-term vision, ensuring your efforts are focused where they count.
Big ideas are worth pursuing if you can establish clarity around what it is you want to accomplish, why it’s important to you and the SMART goals that can get you there. It’s the small wins that add up to big accomplishments so don’t let your body’s default to safety control your destiny. Start with that first small step, then another and you’ll be surprised by how far you can go!