There’s nothing as satisfying in life as the achievement of a goal (Except perhaps a nice cold glass of rose on a summer’s day!). Seriously… making progress in life, regardless of what you are trying to achieve, is made all the more meaningful if you are achieving what you set out to achieve. But I can tell you from my own experience that having other people to hold you accountable to your goals and then being there to celebrate with you when you achieve them… this makes all the difference.
Towards the end of last year I met up with two close friends for a cocktail. We’ve been friends for a long time but hadn’t really seen much of each other in recent years. One cocktail led to another. And then cocktails led to dinner and a few wines. All three of us are business women. All self-employed and all with busy lives, sometimes struggling to fit everything in. We got to talking about the projects that were really important to us and bemoaned the lack of time we had to make headway with them. We agreed we needed to feel some sense of accountabilty to motivate us to get moving on these projects. We decided we would meet once a month over cocktails and dinner to review our milestones.
I told my friends about my book, The Liber8 Factor, which has been sitting inside my PC for a year now… all mapped out, the bones all in place just waiting to be given flesh. The gauntlet was laid down. I was challenged to commit an end date to finishing the first draft. I bravely said end April 2012. I had a milestone goal to have the first 12 chapters to them by end March.
As I write this blog… it is Saturday 31 March. I am today reviewing the first 12 chapters. They are all there… the flesh on the bones at last. Tomorrow I will email them to my friends. We will meet on Tuesday at our favourite restaurant and I’ll feel proud to have achieved my goal. I will challenge them on their goals too, and offer support and help of course.
I am so enjoying re-connecting with my old pals in this way. And LOVING the challenge, support and help we are giving each other. So my tip for you today is ‘find yourself a support group’. It could be old friends who share common interests and are also looking for motivation and encouragement in their goals. Work colleagues. Family. Anyone who you know will both challenge and support you in your goals. Agree your goals and timeframes then meet regularly. Have fun with it… I highly recommend the cocktails and dinner approach…. for 12 chapters down and 12 to go… thanks so much Trish and Em. We are on fire!
From the desk of liber8yourbusiness. Business mentors and experts in small business exit strategies. Based in Wellington, New Zealand.