Remember last December when you were setting your goals? Go ahead, take a minute and think about it. Where were you sitting? Who was with you or nearby? Now, do you recall how confident you were in achieving your goals? There was nothing that was going to get in your way! If you’re like most of us, you have tried hard but fallen short. So, what happened? And what can you do to make sure you achieve your 2016 goals? Here is one idea that will help you greatly increase your chances…
Mike Tyson famously said “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Although I’m not a Tyson fan, I love this quote. If you want your plan to work, and if you really want to achieve your 2016 goals, you need to have a contingency plan for getting punched in the mouth … because you will be punched in the mouth sometime during 2016.
Idea Step 1: After writing down your goals, list five to eight potential obstacles that can get in the way of achieving those goals. Don’t perform this exercise for every goal, but wait until you have all of your goals written down, and do it for the list as a whole.
Idea Step 2: For each potential obstacle, develop a list of bullets summarizing how you’ll overcome it. Don’t make this a long exercise. Simply write out three to six bullet points.
You won’t identify every obstacle that will happen, and you won’t have a comprehensive plan in place to fully attack each obstacle. However, this exercise will get your creative thoughts flowing and you will think about most of the obstacles. For the ones not considered, you’ll have the concept in mind and can easily rebound when something happens. Even though your plans to overcome the obstacles won’t be comprehensive, you’ll have a start and you’ll be able to develop a more complete plan if and when the obstacle arises. You don’t want to be in a position to have to start thinking about a solution when you’re in the heat of the moment. Simply go back to your list of bullet points that you developed “in December”, when you were calm and thinking creatively.
