Still Time to Achieve Your Goals

man on a mountain looking at the next mountain
Still struggling to achieve your New Year’s Resolution. There is still time. Create a strategy for your gola to nest in.
-Photo by Josh Willink on Pexels.com

Author’s Note: So this was supposed to be a bonus edition. It seems fitting that life interfered with my intention to help those struggling to accomplish their New Year’s Resolutions with this extra February post which ended up later than planned. As advised below, I simply continued and accomplished the task. The result is now my regularly planned end of February post is behind. That will be up soon as well, but not until March.

It is the end of February. How’s your New Year’s Resolution going? Many people start the new year with wildly big goals for changing their lives. After a few weeks, the excitement for the change wanes, and they return to their old habits and ways. To successfully implement lasting change, people need three things to help. They need to understand how to change habits. They need written goals. Finally, they need a strategy for their life. Goals support the strategy and help change habits. Habits that support the goals need to be developed and implemented through consistent, disciplined action. Excitement over the potential for a new life wanes because change requires lots of work. When you have a strategy, you understand how your New Year’s Resolution supports that strategy so even on those days when there is little excitement, you can still muster the discipline required to follow through on your action steps and accomplish your goal.

Often people think strategy is only for nations or large businesses. Strategy is important for those organizations, and it is also important for individuals. In his book First Things First, Stephen R. Covey talks about the importance of having a vision for your life that transcends your entire life. He encourages readers to look beyond the Friday night ball game. What to you want people to remember about you on your deathbed? What do you want them to say about you at your funeral? Thinking about what the end of your life will look like helps your focus on the things you need to do today to achieve that vision!

I recently completed a new strategic plan for the organization I lead. I engaged a number of stakeholders over the course of nine months. We talked about our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, aspirations, and desired results. We clarified our guiding principles, often called values. I talked to lots of people and did lots of research and writing. In the end, we accepted a plan to run our organization for the next five years, only five years. Am I suggesting you spend almost a year figuring out your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, aspirations, and desired results and also clarifying your personal and family values? No, I am not suggesting that; I implore you to do these things if you really want to change your life.

The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, aspirations, results model (SWOTAR) focuses your attention. You identify those areas that move you forward, and those that will cause failure if not addressed. Always play to your strengths and work only on improving your fatal flaws. When you start looking forward, remember you really have no idea what the future holds.

People who graduated from school in the 1980s did not know they were at the end of the Cold War and that in the next decade, the Berlin Wall, and Iron Curtain would fall. Many of the jobs that exist today were not even a thing in 1980. None of us really have any idea what January 1st 2025 will look like let alone January 21st 2060. However, with clear personal values, and a vision of your aspirations and desired results, you find your true north.

For example, as a result of going through this process, you discover you really want to find ways to house more people who do not have homes. Based on history, I suspect homelessness will still be a problem in 2060 because it has been a problem for centuries. However, homelessness has been a bigger and smaller problem over time for a variety of reasons. You may not know exactly what will work right now, but using your strengths and skills, you can identify things you can begin today to improve the homeless situation now and for 2060.

man looking through binoculars
Your vision helps you foresee what you will do in the future with the understanding the view might be a little unfocused.
-Photo by Mike on Pexels.com

Now that you have your vision for your life, or your life in the next decade, you can pick goals to make your vision a reality. When you work in this way, your New Year’s Resolutions support your vision for your whole life. A lesson I frequently have to remember is that change takes time. You can only harvest apples from an orchard one time each year. It takes the tree a year of changes to create those apples. In many ways, people are the same. We need to grow to make change. As change begins to occur within and around us, we find those changes enable us to do more and different things. Your vision and values remain constant. Just because you failed to achieve your New Year’s goal does not mean it is unachievable; you may need more time to develop the education, skills, or acquire other resources. If that goal supports your life plan, you can find the motivation and discipline necessary to achieve it. You can always begin again.

So here we are at the end of February with a failed New Year’s Resolution. Instead of accepting failure, create a vision for your future. Identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, aspirations, desired results, and personal values during the rest of the year. Figure out what goals you need to accomplish to make your vision a reality. Setting and accomplishing goals is easier when you understand how they support your vision and when they are aligned with your values. I wrote a few posts on goal setting. You can find the links below. The rest is up to you. Create your vision. Set your goals. Achieve your New Year’s Resolution.

Woman climbing a mountain.
As with any goal, disciplined activity is required to accomplish it.
-Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Look for the closing article in my series on developing personal trust in the next two weeks. I look forward to being back on schedule by the end of March.

References

  • Covey, S, Merrill, A, & Merrill, R. (1995) First things first. Fireside. New York, NY
  • Warren, R. (2002) The purpose driven life. Zondervan. Grand Rapids, MI
  • Zenger, J, & Folkman, J. (2004) The handbook for leaders. McGraw-Hill. New York, NY

More on setting goals:

Accomplishing New Year’s Resolutions: https://christopherstcyr.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/time-to-reflect-plan-act/

Establishing Measurable Goals: https://saintcyrtraining.com/2021/12/

Creating a Personal Development Plan: https://saintcyrtraining.com/2018/01/24/road-map-for-your-life-creating-a-personal-development-plan/

Goal Setting Worksheet: https://www.slideshare.net/ChrisStCyr1/sample-goalsworksheet

(c) 2024 Christopher St. Cyr

Achieving Goals: Measuring Successful Processes and Outcomes

As the New Year approaches, people take time to reflect on past successes and failures. Learning to measure the difference between successful processes and effective outcomes helps you determine if you are achieving the success you envisioned.
-Photo from PXHere.com cropped and modified by author

At the end or beginning of the last several years, I posted ways people can effectively set goals and devise plans to achieve them. New Years is a time when people think about making changes in their lives. Goal setting is an effective method to achieve those changes. Learning to measure performance and effectiveness provides objective quantification of your progress and success. Measures of process and effectiveness also provides the data necessary, so you know when and how to adjust your plan.

There are two types of measurements to understand. The first is a measure of performance. The second in a measure of effectiveness. Often leaders confuse these measures and draw incorrect conclusions about the situation.

When setting a goal, identify task steps required to accomplish the goal. Task steps are the processes required to complete your state objective. For example, you set a New Year’s Resolution to become more physically fit. One of your task steps is to run two miles, four days per week. The acts of running, four days each week for two miles are three different processes that can be measures. The first process is the act of running. You can measure your run.

The next process is the distance you run. Your goal is two miles each run. It is possible to measure the distance with a variety of tools. Measuring a two mile distance means you are completing the distance requirement.

A process is a series of repeated steps. Like a waterwheel, it spins around as long as necessary to complete the task. You can use appropriate measurements to determine if your process is working correctly.
-Photo from PXHere.com. Cropped by author

The third process is frequency. In this case, the task is repeated four times over each week. At the end of any given week, the number of days in which you ran two miles can be measured. This measurement lets you know if you are meeting your frequency process.

Each of these processes can be measured against specific criteria established in the goal. Likewise, a leader in the work place can establish a goal or a requirement for each member of her sales team to contact four customers every hour and accumulate $2,000 worth of sales each week. There are processes for each of these tasks that can be enumerated, counted, and measured.

Often, process measurements are created as part of the M in developing a SMART Goal. Many people fail to understand the difference between measures of process and effectiveness. If we go back to the getting fitter goal, the goal is to be more fit. Running is a process of achieving that goal. There are other elements of fitness such as body mass, blood pressure, mental well-being, and similar measures. The big goal is not to be able to run eight miles per week. The goal is to become more fit. With that in mind, you have to decide how to measure the level of improved fitness desired. This measures effectiveness.

Measures of effectiveness are those things that determine if the processes are having the desired outcome. For example, you run two miles, four days a week for four weeks but find you added five pounds, your resting heart rate has increased by five beats for minute, and your blood pressure is up ten points, you are not being effective. Measures of effectiveness tell leaders if the right processes, performed correctly, are having the desired results.

If you find you are not having the desired results, you need to reevaluate your processes. Recently I heard Tim Ferriss quote Arthur Jones of Nautilus as having said, “If you cannot measure it, you do not understand it. Do you and your people really understand what you are trying to achieve? Are you or your people really doing the right things? Have those activities shown the ability to achieve the results you seek? Are those processes being done correctly as indicated in the measures of performance? Are there interactions between the processes canceling out each other? Correct your processes or your measures of performance and repeat.

Making quality measurements of processes and results improves your understanding of the situation. As you collect more data, refine your processes to determine the impact on your results. People frequently neglect to reflect on the meaning of measured results. No goal or project goes as planned. Circumstances change. Leaders need to understand the effects of those changes on goals. Measuring and monitoring both performance and effectiveness provides data enabling improved adjustments which enhance effectiveness of performance. As you tweak a process, you should be able to observe a change in effectiveness.

A police officer struggled to pass the annual fitness test. His weakest event was the run. After several months of trying different running plans, he found it did not matter how far he ran any given day. What mattered was running at least six miles each week for at least four days. He learned that if he was not able to run one day due to court appearances and shift work, it was not a big deal. He could schedule runs around that day, so he had four days. Some days he ran three miles. Other days he would only run ½ mile. By the end of the week, the total had to equal six miles. At the next fitness test, his run was his strongest event, and he easily passed the test.

With a ruler, you can measure distance. Learn to use different tools to measure other dimensions of success.
-Photo by author

A team I worked with struggled with a trust after two members clashed over how to handle a case. Morale declined over months. We do an annual survey of the team as a regular course of business. The year of this event, there were significant decreases on measures of trust and teamwork. We worked to bring in some trainers and coached the individuals over several weeks. We conducted the survey a few months after these interventions to determine if our efforts were effective. The measures of trust and sense of teamwork improved. The end of year survey showed even more improvement as we continued processes determined to be the most effective for improving trust and teamwork.

As you plan your resolutions for the New Year, keep in mind the importance of measures of success. If you do not understand how to measure your processes and effectiveness, you lack complete understanding of the goal. Learn to measure both performance and effectiveness. Collect good data so you and your people know they are doing the right things, the right way, for the right reason. Measures of performance and effectiveness allow you to see how different processes interact. As you make changes in processes, you should observe changes in effectiveness. Take time to carefully consider measures of performance and effectiveness as you prepare your goals and resolutions for the New Year.

References

Ferriss, Tim (Sep 15, 2021) The Tim Ferriss show; # 532. Overcast Podcast App

National Resource Council (2013) Making the soldier decisive on the future battlefield. The National Academies Press. Washington, DC

St. Cyr, Christopher (Dec 2014) Time to reflect, plan, & act. Saint Cyr Training & Consulting. Lancaster, NH. Retrieved from https://saintcyrtraining.com/2014/01/01/time-to-reflect-plan-act/ on 12/27/2021

(c) 2021. Christopher St. Cyr