How To Turn Goals Into An Action Plan

We are nearly 2 weeks into 2020 now and you have probably all seen many posts about setting goals for the year.

How's that working out for you?

As Twack reminded us earlier today - January 12th is the day when 92% of people who set new years resolutions and goals for the year give up and revert back to the same old, same old.

Why do you think that is? People are always telling you to set goals because goal setting can and does work. Perhaps the problem is in the way you are setting goals.

Let's look at a few examples. What about a goal for your business. Perhaps this year you have set a goal that you are going to earn $1000 per month in your business before the end of the year.

So far so good, right? Actually, no, because this is what's known as a “static” goal rather an action goal. Static goals sap your motivation because they're focused on outcomes that are, for the most part, outside of your control.

Bottom line – they seldom work.

Here's another example. Imagine it's the morning after you've had all your friends round to your house for a party. The house is a mess with stuff lying everywhere. You set a goal to have a clean tidy house within the next 2 hours.

2 hours later you have done a bit of tidying but the place is still a mess. Why?

The goal of "have a clean tidy house" is another static goal which doesn't have any actions attached to it.

What if you had reworded the goal to something like, "I will tidy away all the glasses and plates and put them in the dishwasher, I will vacuum the living room and kitchen, I will put all the dirty clothes and linen into the washing machine, and I will clean down all the counter tops and tables in the next 2 hours"

Do you see how you are now firmly in control of whether or not this goal is achieved? And now you've got a goal with ACTION in it. You could even break this goal down into smaller action steps if necessary.

Goals V Action Plan

Let's take another look at that goal to make $1000 per month from your WA business. How can we turn that static goal into an action goal with an action plan?

Here's a few ideas just off the top of my head

• I will write 2 new blog posts for my website every week - one on Tuesday and one on Friday.
• I will spend 1 hour every Monday evening on Jaaxy researching keywords for my blog post
• I will spend 30 minutes every day in social media sharing my blog posts
• I will spend 30 minutes every day studying the WA training and learning more about how to build my business.
• I will add 1 new product review to my site every week to increase my affiliate income.
• I will spend 30 minutes daily on boosting my website traffic with various free traffic strategies.
• I will start building my email list to build up a customer database.

And so on...

The important thing is to work out what tasks you need to do to build your business and then get them written down so that you can see them.

There is no point in thinking "I'm going to work on my business today" and then sitting down at your computer and wondering, "Hmm, what will I do now?"

Spend time on creating an action plan for your business rather than procrastinating and wondering what the next move is.

Having it written down is a very important step too. I have mine written down in front of my on my desk and I take great pleasure and get great motivation from running my pen through every task I get completed!

If you're using static goals you're going to get frustrated. It will take much longer to make progress with it and if you don't see results then you will probably get frustrated and quit.

By turning your goals into an action plan which takes you step-by-step to what you want to achieve, you are always making progress and constantly being revitalised by the achievement of each goal. It also helps to avoid that feeling of overwhelm that comes from looking too far ahead, rather than focusing solely on the next step.

If you haven't already done so then start turning your goals for 2020 into an action plan for 2020. It's a surefire way to make sure you achieve your goals.

All the best

Dave