Two Keys to Reaching Your Goals – ElPropósito4 min de lectura

Setting goals for the new year? Read this first

Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash

I’ve often set goals I wanted to hit by a certain date. I’ll admit I’ve made mistakes along the way, and over time I’ve learned to spot the lessons. They range from chasing ten goals at once to setting goals that made no sense and never really mattered to me. Beyond all that, two keys make sure a goal gets done. Read on to find out what they are.

Year-end is when most of us dream, talk or think about what we want to achieve in different areas of life: career, health, money, relationships and so on. We know that just writing those hopes down makes a difference, and there are plenty of techniques for doing it well.

Even so, the number one reason a goal is never reached, or never even started, is that it lacks meaning. It has no "why". Anyone who wants to achieve something, alone or as a team, needs to be clear on why that result matters. The key question should always be: how does this goal fit our Purpose?

Once we know the techniques for setting goals (what, when and so on) and we’re clear on how the goal fits our why (motivation), we’ve covered 20% of the plan. The other 80% is what really counts: knowing what’s in our hands (responsibility) and which small steps we can take (clarity). Knowing what’s in our hands makes us accountable for what we can do, and also for what we can’t.

The small steps bring clarity and set the milestones that make a goal achievable. Even when a goal depends on many people, everyone involved needs to know these two things, what’s in their hands and which small steps they can take, along with the techniques for setting goals well and the motivation to reach them.

I’ve seen firsthand how these two elements make goals happen. Now that you’re starting a new year and a new decade, how will you write your plans and goals, and your teams’? Happy New Year. May 2020 be the best year of your life and the start of many challenges you’ll meet.

Warm regards and all the best,

Rodrigo Baccaro

This week’s VELA:

• What I’ve been Viewing: How management teams can have a good fight. This year I’ve had the chance, and still do, to coach several teams inside companies. As they worked toward their goals, I noted what sets them apart when they hold a healthy, productive debate. This video has excellent tactics that sum up much of what good teams do (and that I’ve seen firsthand) to reach strong results on a road that’s sometimes rocky and sometimes smooth.
• What I’ve been Listening to: Reorganizing your life to read 600 books a year. Having read 52 books this year with a very clear goal, I stumbled on this wonderful podcast. I don’t plan to read 600 books in 2020, but I do want to keep the bar high with at least one book a week next year and, I hope, for the rest of my life. It’s packed with tips for reading more and more. As I wrote in an earlier post, reading is the leader’s forgotten habit.
• What I’ve been Reading: S=rQ. Success equals the potential of an idea times a person’s ability to execute it. This article caught my eye, especially its mathematical take on success, a concept debated endlessly. I’ll keep digging into it. Worth reading.
• What I’ve been Learning: How to make nacatamales. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love to cook. This time I tried Nicaraguan food, specifically nacatamales, an exquisite dish. As I write this, I’ve made thirteen of them for one purpose: to treat my beloved wife and any friend or relative who stops by our house these days. The YouTube recipe comes in two parts. Doña María Esther is a master of Nicaraguan cooking, and I followed her recipes to the letter.

A quick win for 2020: listen more, ask more

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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