Goals are Just a Dream without a Plan

Last week I shared my goals for this year. Then on Sunday, I shared my goals for this week. You might think, that just a little too much goal sharing. Why if I set up my goals for the year, do I need to have goals for the week? Or why if I have weekly goals, do I even need yearly goals? The yearly goals and weekly goals serve different purposes.

Each of My Goals serve a Different Purpose

The yearly goals give me bigger goals to accomplish throughout the year. They help me keep my eye on the big goals I have and not just settle for what I can get done this day, week or month. Without big goals you might never achieve your dreams and they will just remain dreams.

The weekly goals are to help me concentrate on the little things, I do each week to meet those big goals, by the end of the year. I would like to say, I use this technique very well but if you read my 2104 goals update, you know I didn’t look at them for about 10 months. But because my weekly goals reflected them, I did get many of them accomplished. The one form of goal setting supports the other.

If you have been reading my blog for any time now, you know I’m a planner. I have lists, planner, schedules and the like to keep me focused. Because if I didn’t, you might only hear from me once or twice a month. Not good at all. I’m an easily distracted person, but my goals, planners, lists and schedule helps to focus my energy where it needs to be.

What if Your Not a Planner or Schedule Type Person

Now you might be thinking that’s great, but I’m not a planner or schedule type person. That’s alright too. For a long time I would try to make a plan, get it all written up and then put it aside not to be looked at again for a long time. Then finally recycled it. But I changed into a planning person by starting small and striving for my goals.

Having goals has changed my days and what I can accomplish. But I had to start small. To help keep myself on track I started really small, like sticky note small.

Start Small and Build Up

I would write down things I wanted to accomplish on a sticky note and work at them throughout the day. I loved checking off things off my list. It was really motivating and I had less days where I wondered at the end of the day, what did I even do all day. I had a little note to remind me.

This worked well for a long time. Then I started to read blogs and how people were sharing their goals for each week. It was fun to see what others could get done and it made me think, that I should start to set goals. That’s when I started to work on weekly goals along with my daily ones. From there I build up to yearly goals. It was a process for me.

Setting Goals Helps You to Realize Those Dreams and Make them Realities

I’m so glad I started to make goals and strive to reach them. You see without goals, I would have never tried blogging. I had thought about starting a blog for 7 years. Yes, 7 years of wasted time, deferred ambition. My husband used to say, just start one. I would think about it and then get distracted by the everyday things right in front of me. I didn’t have a goal, I didn’t have a plan, so guess what didn’t happen, the blog.

Once I made a plan for getting the blog started, worked towards my goal each day, my dream was finally realized.

This Year is Your Year, Make Your Plan

I want this year to be your year to realize a dream you have wanted for a while. Something you have been thinking about but have never accomplished. I want you to make a goal to get it done.

Once you have your goal. Think about things you can do each month to get you closer to that goal. Write them down. So far you should have your big goal written down. Then you should have a task to do for each month that will bring you closer to your goal.

Next you will want to plan even smaller tasks for each week of the month. Then finally break your goal for each week down into 5-7 steps, one for each day that will get that task done.

By breaking down your goals into small easy daily tasks, you can take your goals from just a dream to a reality.

Tough at the Start

All new habits are hard at first. But each new day you succeed or make even a little progress will help to encourage you along the way to keep going. If you have a bad day, shake it off and start again. Even if you have to start again, day after day. Anything worth accomplishing is going to take effort and lots of effort at first. But I promise you it will get easier if you just stick with it.

Take the plunge. Dream your dream and then make it a reality by making your plan. You can do it!

Do you need help getting your goals set for the new year?

Take a peek at the our planner, it has goal pages to help you track your goal and a lot more.