Goals are essential for achievement, which is why we’ve looked at setting SMART goals. The SMART goal setting framework is one of the most effective and most widely understood frameworks for goals, whether personal or professional. This provides us a clear “finish line” to reach. For our largest goals, we should break them down into shorter milestones to keep us focused. But even those milestones can seem out of reach sometimes.
Achieving a goal is a lagging indicator. You see the completed goal when you sit back to reflect on your progress. All this happens after all the work has gone into your success. Therein lies the issue many of us face, we only see a positive result after we have worked tirelessly for an extended period of time. While it sounds easy to sit here and spout motivation for the grander vision, or talk of the success we feel when we accomplish something, real life doesn’t work that way. In real life, we could lose our drive from one day to the next, and have it back again just as fast. Real life is unpredictable.
To face that unpredictability, we can’t look only at the finish line, that marathon distance away. If we look too far into the future we will stumble. We need to know where we are going, looking down the road, but also be aware of what is happening right in front of us each day. That is why we need to focus on leading behaviors.
Leading behaviors are the steps that we take each day in the direction of our goals. These steps are few and small enough that we can count. And we need to, count that is. Keep track of the steps or behaviors we take each day, each week, as these will carry us across the finish line of our goals.
What does this look like? This is the salesman who makes 50 calls a day (insert a realistic number for your profession). These 50 calls, made with as much enthusiasm and energy as the first, will eventually lead to sales. This is the husband who shows his appreciation each day, leading to a long and loving marriage. This is the athlete hitting the gym each day (except for rest days, those are also important), striving to become better, faster, stronger with each rep. This is the monk, absorbing scriptures or meditating, or expressing gratitude. This is the banker, making her own lunches to have money to spend on what is truly important. This is the parent, carving out time each evening for their child’s development. This is the dreamer, putting in the unappreciated work after the sun goes down, or before the sun comes up, striving to build a better tomorrow.
This is you, making the small daily choices that carry you across your finish lines, and beyond.