Gears For Careers

Craft ‘Game plan 2011’

Last week, we evaluated our 2010 performance. Let’s now turn our attention to developing a Game plan for 2011’. I am calling it Game plan, an acronym to help us focus on the process of accomplishing them rather than on crafting the goals themselves.

Goal: Set ambitious goals that will make a difference when achieved. Don’t settle for a particular goal because that’s what your friends are setting for themselves or because it’s the time of year when you are expected to do so. Choose goals that are important, that you are passionate about and that will stretch you to do more than you feel you are capable of.

Accountability: A goal without ‘ownership’ will go nowhere. You must be willing to be 100% responsible for your goals and develop an action plan with specific activities and success measures to keep you firmly on track. Make sure there’s a ‘rescue plan’ should a major unforeseen occurrence throw things off track.

Momentum : This is critical to ensuring consistency and keeping your goals alive. We’ve all experienced a ‘fizzling out’ of enthusiasm for our resolutions especially when we have a lot to handle. Besides, real powerful and worthy goals need energy to keep them alive. Establish a predictable routine around your goals to ensure that you are doing something daily to keep you steadfast and moving you forward.

Enthusiasm: Enthusiasm is the ‘float’ that keeps your vision buoyant. Also when you are excited about what you are seeking to accomplish, it says ‘I believe in this’ and that makes others more willing to support you. So make sure your goals excite you so that you care enough about them to draw on all your inner resources to bring them to pass.

Progress : Know in advance how you will measure progress. Having benchmarks from the start helps you set the bar right.  When you have targets to meet, it stops you from doing only the minimum in the hope that ‘somehow’ things will come together. 

Leverage :  Draw on all the assets you have, your skills and knowledge, guidance from mentors, emotional support from friends, influential contacts, goodwill from colleagues, tenacity, integrity. Align these assets with your action plan in order to deploy them where they will be most effective.  

Achieve : What do you want to have achieved in 12 months time? What support do you need to increase your chances of succeeding? What is likely to undermine success? How will you prevent that from happening? What risks will you be prepared to take?

Nurture: Goals are not an end in themselves but are part of a bigger picture of our lives.  Nurture what you achieve so that it grows bigger and better. Regularly check whether your original goals are self-limiting in any way; after all goal-setting is rarely a ‘one time’ show.

Now take action: Write your GAMEPLAN for 2011 by 31 December.

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