4 Critical Steps to Accomplishing Any Goal in 2015

Last year, for better or worse, is gone. 2015 is officially here (yay!) What’s next for your business? Where do you go now? How do you avoid the same mistakes that you made last year?  How do you get better at whatever you do?  The most important step is resolving to create change by having a plan of action.

By crafting business resolutions, you create a plan of action. In order to create change, you break down the biggest hurdles into smaller parts. From this, you can easily build a plan to quickly accomplish any goal.

1. List out your business goals.

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Go deep and write everything that comes to mind. Don’t worry about how ridiculous or lofty they may seem. If it’s important enough to be on your mind, it needs to be written down.  Just. Write.

2. Review your list and prioritize what is most important for the growth of your business.

Start to narrow down the “must dos” from the “nice to have” goals.  What do you absolutely need to tackle now in order for your business to stabilize?  What will prevent you from moving forward? What will cause your business to stall if it isn’t handled immediately? These are your priorities and should be first on your list.

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3. Cut the list in half.

Based on what you’ve prioritized; cut the list in half. Your goals just got a lot more manageable. It was just that simple.  Accept that you can NOT do everything. Tackling half of your challenges is 100% further along than you were last year. You can reevaluate your list and circle back after the most important goals have been resolved.

4. Break the list down further by writing ONE goal at a time.

Underneath each goal, write down all of the steps that are necessary to accomplish them. This critical step is where most people get stuck.

Adding major goals to a to-do list for quick resolution is unrealistic. It causes you to avoid tackling them because goals become unmanageable and not easily completed. Over time, nothing gets done and you eventually give up. This is “no bueno” for the growth of your business. By listing out each tedious step that is involved, you set clear parameters for tackling the goal. This step is CRITICAL for resolution.

5. Be realistic.

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Rather than listing your goal as “Start a Blog,” list out the specific steps that are necessary for you to complete the goal. i.e.

  1. Decide on a topic for the first blog post
  2. Write about the topic
  3. Create a catchy title
  4. Format the layout for the blog
  5. Find appropriate pictures to use
  6. Compile images and verbiage onto the website
  7. Post the blog
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This approach to accomplishing your business goals allows you to track progress and realistically manage tasks while sustaining an actionable growth strategy. Through the practice of breaking down each goal into smaller manageable parts, you begin to realize that no goal is unattainable. And once that happens, there are no limits to how far you can grow your business. Go, you!

If you liked this post, you might also like:

Pushing Your Business to the Next Level
Lessons Learned: 3 Insights from My First Year in Business
5 Ways to Help You Get Focused in Your Business
Real Advice All Apparel Startups Should Read
Running a Small Business 

All Images from @CyndieSpiegel