GPS is a normal part of your life and you may use it several times a day.
If you’ve ever ‘check-in’ on Facebook, looked for a restaurant or other business on Yelp, or use a retail store app that sends you a welcome text when you enter the door…you’re being monitored by GPS – the satellite based Global Positioning System.
Most people use it when they open Google Maps to find an address: put in the destination and it offers multiple paths to choose from and when you choose one it gives you the detail turn-by-turn directions. If you get off course, it will recalculate how to get to your destination from your new path.
If only life were that easy.
It can be, if you have your own GPS – Goal Planning System.
Goals are finite. They are the end, or at least that’s how we usually think about them. Sometimes goals are intimidating or daunting and we become paralyzed by the magnitude of the goal. The thought of achieving the goal then becomes the reward instead of actually achieving the goal.
The way to overcome the fear or intimidation, focus on developing a system to help you progress toward your goal.
Just like the GPS in your phone gives you all the intermediate turns you need to take to reach your destination, your Goal Planning System will guide you with intermediate steps and markers to reach your goal.
You won’t have an app to help you determine the steps. You’ll need to do the work yourself. You need to identify where you want to go and how you want to get there. Create your map with your system.
Goal
I have found a lot of people don’t like to talk about goals. Why? Because they have set them in the past, didn’t keep or meet them, quit and now feel like a failure. Well, get over it. Your not a failure you just didn’t do it right.
A Goal is WHERE you want to be.
Let’s do a for instance: Thanksgiving is a little over 2 months away. Yikes! The holiday’s and food and sweets and more food and you’re already stressed over the weight you should have lost this summer. So, you set a goal to lose 10 pounds by Thanksgiving (totally doable by the way).
Okay, that’s a good goal by not one that meets the definition of a Goal…WHERE you want to be.
Instead, using me as an example weighing 225 this morning (no commentary please!), my goal would be: “I will weigh 215 pounds by Thanksgiving”. That’s a definite target of WHERE I want to be.
Plan (strategies)
Now I can plan WHAT it is I need to do in order to get to 215 pounds. Obviously lose 10 pounds.
So the strategies I need to build into my plan will include changing my diet and getting more exercise. So I write the plan like “Reduce my carb intake” and “Increase my exercise to every day”.
The Plan (strategies) help you figure out the path you are going to take to reach the goal.
System (tactics)
I can now identify the HOW, the systematic actions or tactics I need to take in order to reach my goal of weighing 215 by Thanksgiving.
“Reduce my carb intake” I might list:
- Limit bread to three meals a week
- Limit pasta to one meal a week
- Eat grilled instead of breaded
- Eat eggs for breakfast instead of cereal
- Eliminate sugar-based drinks
“Increase my exercise to every day”
- Always take the stairs
- Walk for 30 minutes a day
- Schedule a daily walk break
- Do 10 pushups every day
- Add 10 pushups every week
Now I have my GPS – Goal Planning System in place I can follow on a daily basis to track my progress toward my goal. It’s the same with any goal. Some will be more difficult to create the GPS but the process is the same.
It’s important to have a system in place in order to reach your goals. Goals help you plan your progress and the system will help you make progress.
Take the time to develop your GPS – Goal Planning System. It will make all the difference.
Commit to the system.
Get a free copy of my workbook that will help you work through the 8 Down to Earth Elements for Achieving Your Goals which will help you create your GPS – Goal Planning System.
To get some clarity and help on your own GPS, schedule a FREE 30 minute consultation call with me. Or send me an email with your request and I’ll get you headed in the right direction.