Make your goals come true - by planning for them
Each year, in preparation for the new year, I indulge in creating my Personal Balanced Scorecard. A what?? I have borrowed this approach from my corporate training and simply put it means that I write down my goals. Really it is that simple. For me, the key aspect is the timing. I wait until after the festivities of the holiday season are in the rear view mirror and routine is actually desired! My mind is rested thanks to the change in pace. Excellent time for good goal planning.
Now some may say that having a Balanced Scorecard is overkill. Billion dollar companies with thousands of employees do this kind of stuff. How could someone like me benefit from this? My experience both at work and personally is that whatever gets written down, gets done. And the more clear you are with The Universe, the more The Universe can deliver exactly what you desire! I'm living proof!
Ok, so how exactly do you create a Personal Balanced Scorecard? First you need to decide what key areas of your life are most important to you. Pick the top 4 - we'll call these the quadrants and they provide the "Balance" in Personal Balanced Scorecard. They could be anything but should really capture the topics you care most passionately about. In the past, I have selected Health, Finances, Personal Growth/ Spirituality and Love. Other topics could be Career, Education, Relationships, Hobbies, Travel, Sports, etc. Whatever you choose, the topics and specifically what you call them should resonate with you (and may be different than everyone else).
Once you pick the 4 quadrants, next specify your goals within each one. So for example if you prioritized Health as one quadrant what do you want to accomplish as far as Health is concerned? It is weight loss? How much weight? Is it to be more fit? How will you do this? Walking the dog more often or going to the gym X times a week? For me, I specified the following goals within Health: 1) maintain current weight by continuing to work out 2-3 times a week and maintain current caloric intake, 2) learn and implement best practices to minimize the impact of menopause on my body, 3) proactively address the health/ vision issues I am having with my eyes, 4) participate in more outdoor activities and 5) check in with my naturopath for an annual review. Some goals are more defined in terms of action items whereas other still require research. That's okay - it’s an evolving work in progress. Please don’t forget the Golden Rule - be kind to yourself!
Write/ type out in full the goals you have in each quadrant trying to be as specific as possible (you can draw four boxes in your journal for this exercise or use Word/ Excel/ your favourite online tool). The more specific you are the more likely you are to accomplish what you really want. Your goals may be for the coming year or multi-year goals - try and put timelines down next to each one. What happens from here is true magic! Just the act of thinking through your specific goals AND writing them down will increase the likelihood of achieving them by a significant magnitude. Even if you don't go back and revisit your goals you now have cemented them in your mind. As you go about your day to day life, your brain will return to the mental image created by going through this process. Want to increase the rate of success even further? Share your goals with someone that you trust. It's like The Universe has ears!
Another way I use my Scorecard is in decision making of what to do/ not to do. Do the options I am contemplating further any of the quadrants on my Scorecard? If not, chances are I should walk away from whatever may take up my valuable resources. However, if 1 or more quadrants are addressed I should give it serious thought. This thinking is how years ago I accepted the position of Board Member and ultimately Board Chair for my daughters' school even though time was the scarce resource. It allowed me to further my goals at that time of increasing the charitable work that I was involved in, allowed me greater involvement in my children's lives, and also supported my career which encouraged executives to sit on boards. Balance is never perfect but planning definitely helps to get there - eventually!