When is the last time you “gunned” it at work? You know what gunning is, right? While driving, gunning is a quick acceleration or burst of speed.
Too often we are on auto-pilot and drive through our days at the same pace; achieving the same results. Then something happens that gets us excited: maybe it’s a new product, a new idea, or an old client resurfaces and needs us again. It’s then that we gun it and add the time and energy to get something done.
How can you then access that excitement and willingness to accelerate your efforts and activities? By focusing on what’s most important to you which begins with having clear goals. Yet over time those goals get pushed back and daily stuff fills our time.
Keeping your goals visible and tracking progress is key to spending your energy and effort in the right places. That’s why regularly reviewing your goals is so important. Refocusing on your targets and the rewards will get you excited and ready to hit the accelerator.
Review. Pause and look at your goals. What is the target, actions, and your progress to date.
Maybe you’ll find that you are on track and can adjust your goals upward (wouldn’t that be great?)
Or you find that some things that were important in January are no longer and need to be replaced or revised.
Renew. Determine if the goals are still relevant and renew your commitment to the actions.
Revise. Make any adjustments to the goal or actions to get back on track, if needed. What have you recently learned that will help you? Is your reward for achieving the goal motivating enough? If not, identify the reward that gets you excited.
Replace. Swap your goal for a new one if it is no longer relevant. It’s okay to stop working toward something that isn’t important.
The bottom line is that you won’t know unless you pause today to know where to accelerate your time and energies for these next few months.
You can find the entire Goal Achievement Process in Chapter 13 of the Conversations that Sell book. The actionable tips and Goal Planner will help you “gun it” to achieve your goals for 2013. Or you can access the Goal Planner FREE under Free Tools here.