This featured article by Dixie Sanner, Dorothy’s co-author of 16 Professional Organizers Tell All.
A timeline and consequences.
I think of a goal as a dream with feet. A young couple recently told me they wanted to have a house within the next year. “Great!” I said. “What’s your plan? How are you going to do it?” The reply was all too common, “We don’t know, but we’ll find a way.”
Really??? It’s like getting in the car to drive to a foreign destination without a map! If we don’t know where we’re going, how will we know when we get there?
Setting goals is one thing – meeting them is another. Unless we take that first step of clarifying what we intend to accomplish in a given time frame, we only have a dream, not a goal.
may be to determine how much money they’re going to put aside for this goal and how often they’ll do it. They could also plan to visit all the neighborhoods in the Maple Grove school district, maybe one each weekend, then do research on each to narrow their target.
Now that all of the pieces are written down, it’s time to develop a plan. This is where you put feet to your dream, making it a goal. Write down each task that needs to be done.
Prioritize them and affix a deadline date to each one. Put the list in date order. Now you can schedule each task on your calendar. Why put it on your calendar? Because things that don’t get scheduled, don’t get done.
Choices have consequences.
My family is used to hearing me say, “Choices have consequences.” People who set realistic, measurable goals with achievable deadlines usually reap the benefits of making good choices. Those who just wing it and wait for fate to guide them often go through life with many unfulfilled dreams.
So if you decide to keep your dreams and not turn them into goals, you can. Just be prepared to accept the consequence of probably never having your dreams come true. But, if you choose to put feet on those dreams, be prepared to reap the benefits!
Dixie Sanner is a professional speaker, seminar leader, organizer and coach helping people organize their lives at work. She has run a successful organizing business, SOS (Sanner Organizing Solutions) for five years in the greater Washington, DC metro area. Dixie can be reached through her website at http://sos4order.com/
Need help with time management? Has it been to long since your last vacation? Do you want to declutter and create more space? Does your home feel chaotic? Are you spiraling out of control with overwhelm? Does your company CEO or its staff need to regroup?
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Love your Blog on Goal setting – great ideas and very practical!
I’m in the process of writing a book on goal setting and achievement myself – would appreciate you having a look and giving me any feedback…
All the best for achieving your goals in 2012!!!!