How to Strategically Plan & Accomplish Your Goals
Robert W.H. Price, founder of Elite Minds, is a Sport Psychologist and Therapist with 15 years experience who specializes in counseling and sport psychology consulting. Robert has been hired to consult with families, armed servicemen, corporations, professional athletes and several NFL/NBA teams. Robert’s goal with each and every one of his clients is to allow them to reach their potential both on and off the field. Robert believes that turning potential into reality is a lifelong pursuit and this is what he is passionate about.
Robert has received Master’s degrees from both University of Maryland in Kinesiology with a focus in Sport Psychology, and Johns Hopkins University with a degree in Clinical Community Counseling. He was a student-athlete at University of Pittsburgh and Hampton University, where he graduated with a degree in Psychology and Learning Behavior Disorders.
As we learned in the previous post, we’ve all fallen short of accomplishing goals that we have set for ourselves. However, when this occurs we rarely take the time to evaluate what happened and we may never return to trying to accomplish it again.
So how do we go about being successful when we want to accomplish the goals that we have set for ourselves? The first thing to do is to write them down!
Goals are used to direct and activate our behavior towards accomplishing tasks that are of some importance to us
After we have written down our goals then we go through the process of creating the path for attainment. But there’s still something missing, something essential to following through and achieving our goals:
Linking our values with our goals
This is absolutely essential, here’s why: Why is it that so many seem to fail their New Years resolutions after only a few weeks? Well, more often than not, it’s because the goals that we set for ourselves do not align with our values. If we value eating ice cream or fast food more than we value getting healthy and losing weight, the former will win out, every time. Another common example is a resolution to “save money”. However, if we value going out to eat with friends more than staying in and cooking for ourselves or buying drinks at the bar as opposed to drinks at home, we won’t save money at the rate we should, we will get discouraged, and then our resolution will also fail.
Once our values are linked, then we are more motivated to actually achieve them. Once we recognize what we value, then we are able to align those values to the types of goals that we set for ourselves. If we value the end state with our core values then our internal motivation to accomplish our goals is much higher. We are exponentially more likely to persevere even when obstacles occur.
Those obstacles also need to be planned for in the beginning as well, as you mentally contrast where you are and where you want to go. The things that have historically gotten in the way of your goal achievement will get in the way again. First, but you must acknowledge them, and and then create some action plans to push those goal-stoppers to the side.
One thing that science has shared with us is that when we need to change there four distinct steps that we must tackle:
- Recognize that there is a need for change
- Prepare ourselves and set our goal (this is when we need to write our goals out)
- Strategize/plan to implement the change and achieve the goal
- Maintain change by making sure our goal aligns with our values
Motivation is the key to your ultimate success and recognizing that the only difference between good and great is the desire in your heart to accomplish the goals that you have effectively set.
You must first determine what your values are.
More on this soon. Stay tuned! Thanks for reading and a big thanks to Robert Price for his invaluable knowledge & insights!
