The no-fail

goal checklist

By Stephen Roe

www.ThoughtfulGrowth.com
www.ThoughtfulGrowth.com
 how to win at goals in 2017

A fresh start awaited you in 2017, and you had big goals planned.

But then… life happened. And your New Year’s resolution didn't make it.

Trust me—I understand that feeling. I know what it's like to have goals that get
delayed. Goals that never happen. Goals that get pushed back again and again,
always demanding attention, but never quite completed.

I’ve always struggled with goals. Gradually (and painfully), I started to learn things
the hard way. I uncovered a few proven strategies that have helped me—and others
I’ve worked with—become more consistent.

I’ve compiled those steps into this handy checklist.

Let me know how it works for you!

Stephen Roe

stephen@thoughtfulgrowth.com
 1 choose an inspiring goal
To stick with a resolution in the long term, you must have a reason to continue.

When you’re feeling down, you'll need a detailed, inspiring goal to keep you going.
Achieving something (I want to save 10% of my income this year) is usually more
inspiring than avoiding or ending something (I want to stop being broke).

Write this goal down so you can reference it throughout 2017.

2 pick your one strategy

To make real progress, you must choose one strategy and ignore the rest.

If you want to lose 15 pounds, for example, you could cut one soda from your diet or
run for 15 minutes. Both will burn 15 pounds if done every day for a year.

But cutting a soda is probably far easier to do.

Do some research and find the single most effective strategy to reach your goal.

3 plan an everyday action

Everyday actions build momentum and excitement.

Let’s say you want to spend an extra three hours with your family each week. Eating
dinner together for 25 minutes each night will be more successful than planning a
lengthy picnic every Saturday afternoon.

Create an action you’re sure you can complete every day.

 4 track your progress
To improve something, you must track it.

Find a simple way to record your daily action (not your final goal). If you want to
build 20 pounds of muscle, don’t track your weight. Gaining 0.4 pounds of muscle a
week isn't motivating, but finishing every workout is.

The easier it is to track, the more likely you’ll keep going.

5 find a trigger
If you don’t have a reminder, you’ll forget your daily action.

To help with this, find an activity that you do every day. Immediately after this,
perform your daily action. If your action is to practice guitar 20 minutes each
morning, do it after eating breakfast or brushing your teeth.

After a few weeks, it will become a habit that sticks for the rest of the year.

6 Add some fun

Find a reward to give yourself after (and only after) your daily action. For example,
splurge on a fancy brew, but set your coffeemaker to finish at 6:00am—if you sleep
past your goal of waking up at 6:00am, the coffee will be cold.

Be sure to choose a reward you already enjoy (M&Ms), not one you hope to acquire a
taste for (dark chocolate squares).
 7 solve the barriers
Problems will inevitably challenge your goal. Instead of solving them when they
show up, plan for them in advance.

If your daily action is to read for 30 minutes each night, decide what to do when an
event goes late, when you're traveling, and when you’re feeling sick.

Creating a plan now will double your consistency later.

8 hold yourself accountable

If you’re truly serious about your goal, become accountable.

Tell as many people as possible about your action step and schedule frequent check-
ins. For example, send a text to five friends every Saturday. In that text, list which
room you spent 10 minutes organizing for each day of the week.

The more people you tell, the more likely you are to keep going.

9 get a head start

You must see progress to stay motivated.

To do so, get a head start before 2017 arrives. If your goal is to study three German
vocabulary words each day, start now—even if it’s just a few hours before January 1st.

The more progress you make in advance, the more you’ll want to keep going.

And that will make you unstoppable.

 Hey there! It’s Stephen. I hope you found this guide

helpful. If so, would you mind sharing with a friend? Go

ahead to send this document—copies are free. :)

And if you want more useful articles like this, you can read

them here.

All the best!

Stephen Roe

Icons created by Freepik from www.flaticon.com, licensed by CC BY 3.0.