Achieving Objectives Happens When You Commit
Are you good at achieving objectives? Do you have goals or metrics used to measure progress?
When you say you want to take a trip to visit another country, read a book that has been sitting on your shelf, or complete the degree you started right after high school, do you start your sentence with, “Someday.”
Someday I…
want plant a vegetable garden.
want to start exercising again.
hope to get a new car.
There is a problem with someday. It doesn’t lock you in. You haven’t really committed, and as a result, there is a good chance, you’ll never achieve it.
Something else will always get in your way. Something that seems urgent, more important at the moment, or maybe your budget just doesn’t seem to allow it.
Career minded people often find themselves vaguely committing. They vaguely commit to more education, vaguely commit to a book, or vaguely commit to pursuing a posted job opportunity.
Time slips by and perhaps none of it happens.
Achieving Objectives
The truth for everyone is that three years from now, or ten years from now you are going to arrive someplace? A place in time, a milestone, a point on your journey. The question to ask yourself is, Where?
Where will you arrive, what will that look like, how will things be different.
Achieving your objectives starts with commitment. You need to set a date. You may even need to pick a place, a venue, or a destination.
Sometimes when there is a deadline, things seem to stick. The commitment is there, there isn’t any more room for procrastination, delays, or waiting.
The bigger the objective, the more checkpoints that may be required. Have you budgeted appropriately? Have you studied as you should have? Will you take that first big leap that starts the process?
Never starting is one of the first places people stop.
The clock is ticking. Without commitment you won’t get very far.
-DEG
Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.
