Even SMART Goals Need Smart Action Steps to Succeed

Goals are fundamental to turning a business dream into business success, and SMART goals are the standard in business planning.

Most of my clients have heard of SMART goals, and I suspect you have too. But just as a refresher, let me remind you that SMART goals are:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Tangible

Even SMART goals can fail you unless they’re accompanied by smart action strategies, and that’s what I want to talk about today: Smart Action Steps to Achieving Goals.

Put Your Business Goals on Your Calendar

The easiest and one of the most effective action steps you can take is to put your goal on your calendar. In other words: Give yourself a deadline. When should this goal be attained?
Until you move action steps and your goals onto your calendar, you have great ideas but no real means of achieving them.

Make Time to Succeed

Set aside the time to reach your goal. Too often, we ‘add’ goals to our business days, somehow hoping our days will expand to meet them. (Wishful thinking!) As long as goals have no time allotted to them, we have no plan to achieve them.

How to Plan Your Steps and Checkpoints

For most business goals – whether it’s sales, productivity, or other business-related goals – you’ll increase your chance of success exponentially if you have prioritized action steps and checkpoints to keep you on track. So, block out the time for the action steps you need to take to reach your goal.
Creating successful action steps:

• Think through the steps you need to take to reach your goals; make them specific.
• Prioritize your action steps and set target dates.
• Identify checkpoints along the way to your ultimate goal.
• Move your action steps and checkpoints onto your calendar, allowing sufficient time for completion.

Get started today!