‘Dreaming is wonderful, goal setting is crucial, but action is supreme. To make something happen you must get busy and make it happen. Take that step today that will put you on your path to achievement’.
GREG WERNER.
Millions of people started this year on a wonderful note. They started the year with high hope, new determination, excellent resolutions, big dreams, inspiring goals and impactful visions. The reality of all these New Year enthusiasms is that people are not always ready to go to work to bring them to reality and this explains why only about 5 % of people with high hope at the beginning of the year actually achieve their goals by the end of the year.
To make a difference and actualize all your goals, visions and aspirations this year, you must go to work. Go to work means to get busy and make it happen.
Achieving any worthwhile goal requires a step by step action plan. This step by step action plan is what I call ‘go to work action plan’.
The first step in this endeavor is to re-appraise your goals, visions and aspirations. Go over them to be sure that they are actually what you need to achieve in order to excel in life. Some goals could be as a result of envy or just to impress people. Delist such goals from your list. An example of such a goal is to plan to buy a car just because all your colleagues at work are mobile, while you’re still living with an uncle. Your goal should be an apartment of your own, not a car.
After you’ve re-appraised your goal and prune them to size, prioritize them and focus on the major ones. Prioritization must be done on need and importance basis, with emphasis on financial consideration, timing, and urgency. Please always keep your goal for a particular year as few as possible, to prevent confusion and distraction.
The step two above is expected to guide you on which goal should take a larger percentage of your time, finance and dedication. The third stage is a brainstorming stage. A stage dedicated to idea generation on how best to achieve your set goals, visions and aspirations. To be profitable in this venture, you must open up your mind and be sensitive to your mind and reasoning, as well as people around you. You must cultivate the habit of writing down all good ideas that cross your mind; your mobile phone could be used in achieving this. Ideas do crop up when we least expected, so document any positive ideas that cross your mind at work, in the toilet and bathroom, on your bed, in the church, at social gatherings and everywhere you go. All these ideas must be harnessed and compiled for analysis.
Stage four is solely for selecting the best ideas. Ideas that can best bring about the actualization of your goals, dreams and aspirations. If you have a goal of raising a certain sum of money to commence a small scale retail business in twelve months period. Some of the ideas that could readily come to your mind could be to raise the money through loan from friends and relatives, another option could be to save like 40% of your current monthly salary for the next few months, to achieve the same purpose. This stage focuses on coming up with the best option for achieving your goal after detailed consideration of the associated risk and return.
It’s not enough to come up with a workable idea or strategy without putting it to action. This stage is all about implementing your lead strategy. If saving a 40% of your current salary will provide the amount needed to commence your dream part-time retail business in the next twelve months, then start to save, now, now and now. Until you go to work by putting your lead strategy to action, you’re yet to start.
You can achieve what you have set for yourself as a goal, a resolution, a vision and aspiration this year, if you remain committed to its actualization. It’s not enough to dream dreams, set goals and have visions. You must be extremely committed to its
actualization by doing everything possible to make it happen. Best of luck!
Writer’s Profile
Ajiboro Ayodeji is a Chartered HR Practitioner based in Lagos, Nigeria. Tel: 2348027807452. Email: jibdej@gmail.com.
