If you’re a planner like me, you sit down once a month, quarter, or year and iron out a handful of important goals that you would like to reach by the end of the given time period. Sometimes your list can be as long as a dozen or more goals that spread across a department, an organization, or throughout your personal life. I don’t know about you, but I’ve come to experience that the more I take on at a time, the less productive I feel. Like I’m spreading myself thin across a wide-open Texas field.
The book, The 4 Disciplines of Execution, encourages us to identify the most important – the WILDLY important – goal. When I identify what’s MOST important, above everything else, I can send all of my energy toward that one goal.
I gain a kind of clarity that is powerfully effective when I narrow my focus to a single measure. See, when I try to focus on three or four things at a time that all seem equally important, I can get to the end of the week, the month, and even the year without feeling like I’m getting any real traction. But when I focus on that one thing, it becomes a focal point that all my other goals are rooted in.
Identifying my Wildly Important Goal is the first step to accomplishing it. Here are three other tips I’ve found to set myself up for success.
- When faced with a decision, always ask, “How does this affect my Wildly Important Goal?” Whether it be choosing to take on a client, hiring a new employee, or even choosing an entree at lunch, every decision you make should push you further along.
- Identify one or two daily tasks that, if done consistently, will put your closer to your goal. Could you make thirty outbound calls a day to prospective clients? Or you could establish a morning routine that sets your mind up for the day. Find
something you can check off every day that lets you know you’re making progress.
- Read your Wildly Important Goal out loud every day. You will not lose when you consistently recommit to what you have decided really is important.
(I’d also recommend picking up a copy of The 4 Disciplines of Execution, or 4DX for short. Authors Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling deliver a far more in-depth discovery of what you can do to accomplish your Wildly Important Goal.)
Truth: Every Wildly Important Goal I have ever committed to I have accomplished. The first time, I made the Dean’s list in college. The second time, I grew customer satisfaction by over 30% in less than three months. And the list goes on. Imagine what you could accomplish if you would channel all your energy toward one goal. The possibilities are endless. All you have to do is start today!
What is your Wildly Important Goal? Are your daily decisions pushing you closer to your goal, or holding you back?