Planned Goal-Mindedness

Achieving goals takes some serious contemplation . . . some wrapping your mind around what TO DO FIRST and then what TO DO NEXT when it comes to moving closer to that goalpost.

Shall we say there’s some planning involved in goaling before the goaling gets going? Yes, we shall, because we can’t execute on something that doesn’t even exist . . . that hasn’t even formulated in the old noggin’ yet.

In fact, the execution of a plan can only take place if there’s a plan to execute. And, I mean “execute” as in working on closing the gap from the starting line where you’re at and extending all the way to where your goal destination resides.

Let’s stop here and take a moment to look at the goal-achievement formula once more.

Mindset + Actions = Goal Achievement

Where:

• “Mindset” represents the thought processes or ideas, leading to the plan.
• “Actions” represent the execution of the plan.
• “Goal Achievement” represents the successful execution of the plan, leading to the desired outcome.

If you haven’t caught it yet, THE PLAN seems to be an important component of goal achievement. So, let’s begin with the end in mind. We’ll simply reverse engineer to plan how we’ll achieve our end goal. I say “end goal” because we’ll, inevitably, encounter some mini goals along the way that will need to be accomplished before we arrive at our final end goal.

Here’s our reverse-engineered, three-step process for goal planning:

1. Identify what the dream goal looks like by descriptively writing it out or visually drawing it out, even.  Written words and visual representations remind you of what you’re working toward and aiming for. They’re powerful; because once you read something or see something, these depictions leave impressions upon the mindset that aren’t easily erased. And then, display your dream goal in whatever creative way you’ve deemed best. Front and center, Baby! Don’t let it get tucked away somewhere in oblivion. Out of sight, out of mind.
2. Next, get your dream goal framework established, by answering the following who, what, where, when, why, and how questions (in written form). Yes, write it out!
   • Who benefits from your dream goal? (You obviously, but who else?)
   • What results from your dream goal coming to fruition? (Think . . . once the dream is a reality, what’s the ultimate outcome from its achievement?)
   • Where does your dream goal take place? (Location, location, location . . . )
   • When does your dream goal come to fruition? (You’re thinking of timelines and deadlines here.)
   • Why do you want this dream goal to come true? (The answer to this question is your BIG WHY. It needs to be meaningful to you. A heart thing. Tie the dream goal to the heart and you’ll be less likely to lose sight of it when challenges come.)
   • How do you make this dream goal come true? (This question leads me to the third step below.)
3. Lastly, start writing out everything you need to get to your goalpost. A MUST-NEED list of ingredients for your end goal. In fact, this ingredients list is what I call the “mini goals planning phase.” Mini goals are, simply, the smaller tasks needed to get the BIG task (dream goal) accomplished.

Okay, so we’re going deeper with the “How do you make this dream goal come true?” in the next installment of “The Goal Mindset” series. So, I’ll stop here and just remind you that . . .

Our planned goal-mindedness requires us to reverse engineer our end goal. We’re beginning with the end goal in mind by creating our written and/or visual depiction of our goal. Followed up by creating our dream goal framework. And then, we’ll finish the process off by figuring out all the things we need to close the gap from being goalless to goalful.